Wings of desire: call for butterfly watchers as numbers boom

People are being urged to help measure Britain's butterfly recovery after a dramatic drop in numbers last summer with the launch of the world's biggest insect survey.

- Patrick Barkham

The Big Butterfly Count asks volunteers to spend 15 minutes in a local green space counting the butterflies and day-flying moths they see. Results of the survey, which begins today and runs until 10 August, can be logged online or via Butterfly Conservation's free app.

Naturalists say it has been an "outstanding" summer for butterflies and other flying insects, but the Big Butterfly Count will determine whether it is better than average or just a return to normal after the dismal, butterfly-less summer of 2024.

Fine and sunny weather in April and May ensured caterpillars prospered, and there have been large and unusually early emergences of midsummer butterflies including peacocks, gatekeepers and marbled whites. Butterflies have also been seen farther north than before because of global heating, with the booming purple emperor spotted in North Yorkshire and the white-letter hairstreak, which only reached the Scottish borders in 2017, now found in Dundee.