Ragwort Hysteria

[Lance Morgan]

Interestingly last summer I found larvae of Cinnabar on a solitary Ragwort plant growing from between a wall and the pavement in a large built up area.

[tristanba]

Originally Posted by Neil Jones

Just to illustrate the point about the importance of metre scale changes and how changes on the small scale can be important. As you will see it isn't gaps beyond the insect's flying distance that is important but the spacial arrangement quantity and quality of habitat.





This is from a paper entitled "Metapopulation dynamics and conservation of the marsh fritillary butterfly: Population viability analysis and management options for a critically endangered species in Western Europe" and comes from the respected journal Biological Conservation.

Small scale changes are important for the Marsh Frit since the foodplant is relatively uncommon, patchily distributed and slow to colonise new areas. Completely unlike Ragwort, in fact.

[glsammy]

No doubt I'll get accused of stifling the debate, but I think this thread has gone far enough. There's been some unpleasant remarks made on both sides and I don't think we're getting anywhere other than descending into attacks on other members which I don't want to see.
For this reason I'm closing the thread.