Walkers asked to look out for rare mountain butterfly

VISITORS to the Lake District are being asked to look out for England's only mountain butterfly to help scientists protect the rare species.

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The mountain ringlet, a small brown butterfly with orange wing spots, lives exclusively on mountains and is more commonly found in Scotland than in England, where conservationists say it is so hard to find that they have yet to discover whether numbers are going up or down.

Adult butterflies usually emerge in June and fly for up to three weeks, but the timing depends on the weather - with the last week of May the earliest it has been spotted in Cumbria while the latest is mid-July.

The butterflies are small 35-38mm (1.4inches) - and only active in bright sunshine, keeping low to the ground in short flights, pausing on grass tussocks or feeding on the flowers of tormentil and heath bedstraw.