Make you Fink on Friday

Butterflies!

We often see them, but do we ever think about them?

They’re crazy creatures, they don’t fly, they flutter; they flutter seemingly aimlessly and happen upon a flower more by chance than design.

Leaf Butterfly extinct in Singapore

Generally they are beautiful in their resplendent colours, like this Leaf butterfly (Kallima limborgii amplifura) from Singapore. In nature this one is extinct, but lucky to be bred still in local butterfly farms.

But…

.At a recent International conference of butterfly experts, it was confirmed that many butterfly species around the world are either endangered or extinct. – R.I.P. Maderian Large White

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No one really thinks that even butterflies can succumb to extinction. Extinction is not the exclusive domain of dinosaurs and white tigers. All species are subject to this indignity.

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Why do butterflies become extinct?

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The usual reason… man!

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Insecticides, agricultural practices, deforestation, loss of habitat, global warming. Many reasons, but generally they boil down to ‘man’.

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Then sometimes there is good news:

Rare UK butterflies ‘bounce back’

The grizzled skipper was one species that benefited from the weather conditions

Record-breaking temperatures and dry weather in spring has led to an increase in the numbers of many species of rare butterfly, a study suggests

The UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and charity Butterfly Conservation said the weather had provided “perfect conditions” for “spring specialists”.

Their study was based on assessments of over 1,000 UK butterfly habitat sites.

Duke of Burgundy

Species that did particularly well included the Duke of Burgundy butterfly – listed as threatened in the UK.

Long-term, this species has declined by more than 40% in the last 30 years.

It found that the species bucked that declining trend between 2010 and 2011, increasing in numbers by 65%.

Spring butterflies fared particularly well: numbers of grizzled skipper rose by 96% and the pearl-bordered fritillary population leapt by 103%.

The much colder weather in the summer was, however, very bad news for more familiar garden species, including the peacock, small tortoiseshell and common blue.

The populations of all three of these species fell significantly.

Source: BBC News Read more