I don't want to clog up Guy's personal diary with talk about the weather in the UK, but the recent flooding and the general saturation of the ground must be having a big impact on the insect populations.I have, of course, seen the scenes of flooding on the news and wondered about the butterflies.
Walking the dog yesterday, with every footstep water squirted out from under our wellies. The ground has been saturated for months now, and any rain just runs straight off the fields onto the roads and into the rivers. So much of the local river banks are slumping into the water because of the weight of water in the ground, rather than through erosion.
During the July flooding I noted the loss of so many Orange Tip caterpillars. We had further flooding in September which would surely have impacted on any eggs, caterpillars or chrysalis in its path, not to mention any adult butterflies that had settled there.
I'm now thinking about species that over-winter as caterpillars or chrysalises low down in the grass. I am sure this weather will have an impact on those species. I suppose only time will tell.
