A UK conservation group has declared a national “butterfly emergency” after this summer’s butterfly count recorded the lowest number of butterflies ever.
The British organisation Butterfly Conservation has been counting butterflies in the country for the past 14 years. According to the organisation, only seven butterflies were counted per 15-minute count. Among other things, it says it is the worst year for common species such as the pygmy fritillary, the lesser fritillary and the predatory fritillary. In total, eight of the ten most commonly seen species have declined. Previous lowest ever numbers of butterflies per count were logged in 2022, 2021 and 2020.
– The results are in line with wider evidence that the summer of 2024 has been very poor for butterflies, Richard Fox, scientific director at Butterfly Conservation told The Guardian.
A total of 935,000 butterflies and moths were recorded over the three-week period, a drop of nearly 600,000.
Butterfly Conservation is now calling on the UK government to declare a “natural emergency” and ban insecticidal neonicotinoid pesticides without the exemptions that currently apply. The UK and the EU banned neonicotinoids in 2018, but the UK government has authorised an exemption to allow the pesticides to be used on sugar beet every year since 2021.
– Butterflies are a key indicator species; when they are in trouble we know that the wider environment is in trouble too. Nature is sounding the alarm call. We must act now if we are to turn the tide on these rapid declines and protect species for future generations, he said.