UK experiencing ‘once in a decade phenomenon’ with butterfly explosion | UK | News

Warm weather has led to an “explosion” of exotic butterflies in the UK this summer, a “once-in-a-decade event”.

Clouds of butterflies are seen flying across the country due to the warm spring, leading to the Summer of the Painted Woman.

The Butterfly Conservation Foundation called it a “once-in-a-decade event.”

Professor Richard Fox, Butterfly Conservation’s head of science, said: “The intercontinental migration of Painted Lady butterflies is a marvel of nature and one of the longest insect journeys on the planet.

“The numbers we are seeing here now have dwarfed the number of Painted Women we saw last year and we are absolutely delighted.

“It’s one of our most popular species, with its beautiful pinkish-orange, black-and-white patterned wings. A new generation of Painted Ladies are appearing in the UK just before they fly off on the next leg of the species’ epic journey, and helping count them is a great excuse to take part in this year’s Great Butterfly Count.”

The wildlife charity asked people to report how many they had seen as part of its annual survey.

People in the UK reported a total of 15,856 Painted Women last year.

When the Painted Lady Summer event was last held in the UK in 2019, the total number was more than 420,000.

The Painted Lady is a long-distance migrant that visits England every year and feeds on flowers such as buddleia.

Kate Merry, chief executive of Butterfly Conservation, said: “This is such an exciting and unexpected twist to this year’s Great Butterfly Count: it’s amazing that a seemingly delicate insect can manage this incredible long-distance journey.

“We’ve definitely seen a lot of these in the UK, so we’re very excited to see how many people are reporting them and where.”

This year’s Great Butterfly Count runs from July 17 to August 9.