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Developing and launching a wider countryside butterfly survey across the United Kingdom

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Abstract

Many butterfly species that were historically common throughout the UK are thought to have declined due to land use intensification, whilst others have increased regionally due to climate change. Population trends in these species are inadequately assessed by current monitoring programmes: the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS) mainly samples semi-natural habitats; coarse-scale distribution recording under-estimates declines in population abundance. We designed a scheme (the wider countryside butterfly survey—WCBS) to provide unbiased abundance trends for widespread butterfly species across the whole countryside. The WCBS has been developed over a 3 year pilot study, culminating in a UK-wide roll out in 2009. After testing a range of survey methods, the scheme involves visiting randomly selected 1-km squares at least twice during July–August and walking a linear transect route, counting the number of individual butterflies seen within 5 m. A method for volunteer recorders to collect abundance data on non-lepidopteran insects was also tested. The results of the first year of the WCBS and future plans for the scheme will be described.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided to develop the WCBS through the UKBMS project (WCO2014 and BD1453) by a consortium of government agencies including Defra, the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, Natural England, Countryside Council for Wales, Natural Environment Research Council, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department, Northern Ireland Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission. We are grateful to the continued support from BC and BTO/JNCC/RSPB Breeding Bird Survey recorders and co-ordinators. We are grateful to many for helpful discussions of field and analytical methods including Valerie Brown, Nick Greatorex-Davies, Roger Dennis, Keith Porter, Richard Pywell, Peter Rothery, Helen Roy, David Sheppard, Tim Shreeve, Mark Stevenson, Chris Thomas, Lawrence Way and Rob Wolton. Help with fieldwork in the pilot studies was given by Julian Hughes, Poppy Lakeman-Fraser, Ian Middlebrook, Thomas Mills, Helena Romo, Silvia Ruggieri, and Duncan Stewart and Sarah Walley, with permission from the Lulworth Estate and the tenant farmer, Paul Simpson. Finally, thanks to Martin Warren for commenting on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, Dorset, BH20 5QP, UK

    T. M. Brereton & K. L. Cruickshanks

  2. British Trust for Ornithology, The Nunnery, Thetford, Norfolk, IP24 2PU, UK

    K. Risely & D. G. Noble

  3. NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Maclean Building, Benson Lane, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, Oxfordshire, OX10 8BB, UK

    D. B. Roy

Authors
  1. T. M. Brereton
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  2. K. L. Cruickshanks
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  3. K. Risely
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  4. D. G. Noble
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  5. D. B. Roy
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Correspondence to T. M. Brereton.

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Brereton, T.M., Cruickshanks, K.L., Risely, K. et al. Developing and launching a wider countryside butterfly survey across the United Kingdom. J Insect Conserv 15, 279–290 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-010-9345-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-010-9345-8

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