BBC Wildlife - UK 2020-07)

BEN HOARE

Editorial consultant

LAURIE JACKSON

Wildlife tour leader

ED DREWITT

Naturalist

E L L E N H U S A I N

Film-maker

This month’s panel

We solve your

wildlife mysteries.

Email your questions to

[email protected]

More amazing facts at

discoverwildlife.com

RICHARD JONES

Entomologist

HELEN SCALES

Marine biologist

LEOMA WILLIAMS

Science writer

Hare: Andy Rouse/NPL; butterfly: Silvia Reiche/Minden/FLPA

A

bout 70 species of butterfly

have been seen in Britain.

That total is frustratingly low

compared to other northern

European countries – Sweden,

say, has around 120 species. All

our butterflies colonised after

the retreat of the last great ice

sheet, about 15,000 years ago.

When the ice melted, rising sea

levels flooded the Doggerland

land bridge to the continent and

created the English Channel,

and for most butterflies the

43km-wide Dover-Calais strait

is too big a barrier. Only a few

strong-flying, adventurous

species, such as the painted

lady and clouded yellow, can

manage it. The map butterfly

and the European swallowtail are

potential colonists in the near

future, but most butterflies move

only a few hundred metres from

their hatching grounds. Butterfly

colonisation is more likely to be

through the horticultural trade

• the South African geranium
  bronze was a near miss in 1997.
  Richard Jones

How come Britain doesn’t have more butteries?

LEPIDOPTERA

Could the map

butterfly chart

a course to the

UK one day?