Archive
COMMAS COUNT
18/12/2017

They do, and those who know me are only too aware of my views when they are omitted or incorrectly used. For once, though, I am not banging on about punctuation, but referring to the lepidopteran kind. The comma is one of the twenty species of butterflies and moths in the Big Butterfly Count – 22,436 of them were recorded in 2017 in this nationwide project, an increase of 90% on 2016.
I know some of our residents keep an eye out for butterflies and may even be contributing to the annual survey. Click on this link to see all the results and background information, but below is the summary: Those of you in Worcestershire may like to know that the Worcestershire Naturalists’ Club also keeps annual records of butterflies. For more information, you can email editor@wnc.org.uk.
Lepidopteran species recorded (common names) |
Number of records (2017) |
Gatekeeper |
93171 |
Red admiral |
73161 |
Meadow brown |
69528 |
Small white |
61812 |
Large white |
61064 |
Peacock |
29454 |
Comma |
22436 |
Small tortoiseshell |
20267 |
Common blue |
19567 |
Speckled wood |
18639 |
Ringlet |
18381 |
Green-veined white |
16456 |
Six-spot burnet |
9517 |
Painted lady |
8737 |
Large skipper |
6579 |
Holly blue |
5929 |
Small copper |
5814 |
Brimstone |
5281 |
Marbled white |
4894 |
Silver-Y |
1923 |