25-year butterfly transect trends. I thought people might like to know that the latest 25-year trend graphs (2000-2024) for all Hampshire & Isle of Wight butterfly species are now available (including a downloadable .pdf) via the 'Transects' tab of this website. Production of such graphs is only possible thanks to the recording effort over many years of all those involved in the 200+ Hampshire & Isle of Wight transects that are currently active. Such data is vital for objective assessment of conservation priorities, so many thanks to all involved!
As you might anticipate, the picture for 2024 is very disappointing for most species, but there are still a few positive stories in there as well. I'll leave to each of you to draw your own conclusions and see whether the graphs agree with your own observations. I've included the Brimstone graph below so that you can see how well this butterfly is doing at Magdalen Hill Down. Also notice how closely the average Hampshire trend mirrors that of the national (England) trend. [Posted by Andy Barker]
 |
| 2000-2024 transect trend (Brimstone) Photo © Andy Barker |
Caterpillar at Alice Holt. After a good few hours searching, and quite a few false prophets, I finally tracked down a Purple Emperor caterpillar at Alice Holt Forest. It was nicely curled up against a scar but looked like it was eager to move even in these low temperatures. I found it by looking for the dangling Sallow leaves that it had carefully silked onto the spray to stop it loosing its home before it was ready to hibernate for the winter. Their silk must be pretty strong stuff to have survived storm Bert! Let’s see if it survives - they are very susceptible to predators at this time, particularly hungry birds. [Posted by Mark Tutton]
 |  |
| Dangling leaves Photo © Mark Tutton | Waiting for spring Photo © Mark Tutton |