Yellow Butterfly

Turtletagger · #1 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 07:50 AM

I've just seen a yellow butterfly that I'm sure must be a clouded yellow Butterfly here in the Wirral, not having seen it before. I wonder if this is another sign of Global Warming or is it a natural cycle for this species. Do they arrive in great numbers in, lets say, a seven year cycle. Could we see a great number of them next year when they reach the peak in that cycle. They are a very fast Butterfly and taking a picture can be very frustrating as their eyesight seems to be acute.
I have put a picture in the Butterfly Gallery and would like it to be posted in this thread also, but as I am a confused kind of slow learner I cannot get the hang of it.

DL · #2 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 10:39 AM

You can get some info on numbers on the ukbms site. Try the following link and select the heading Abundance. This should allow you to see annual recordings for a number of years.

http://www.ukbms.org/species34/description.htm

aeshna5 · #3 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 12:43 PM

Numbers vary from year to year + like the Painted Lady is continually brooded without a diapause phase so is normally unable to survive our winters. Always an exception to the rule, but Clouded Yellow larvae have survived for a few seasons on a couple of undercliff (frost-free) sites in Dorset + there's at least 1 marked individual PL that survived a Cornish winter couple of years back.

The normal non-survival of these species thus depends on fresh immigration each year +numbers arriving in UK will depend on favourable breeding conditions in S.Europe/N. Africa as well as suitable winds to reach our shores.

This year has been a good year for migrant Lepidoptera /Odonata.

ianj · #4 (**permalink**) 12-08-2006, 03:31 PM

Hi Turtletagger,

I think you can forget any myths such as "seven year cycles", it just doesn't work that way. I think a lot depends on the weather conditions and prevailing winds as to whether we get a "Clouded Yellow Summer" or not. The very hot year we had a few years ago (2004?) was a very good year. We had no end of them in Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire. I thought we may be on course for another good year this Summer, having spotted my first one of the year in my home town of Milton Keynes last weekend, although if the current protracted spell of cool wet windy weather persists throughout August, that may not be the case. Also, I do believe the Clouded Yellow can appear in three waves, the latest being Sep-Oct, if the conditions are right.

best wishes IanJ