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