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Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary
The Small Pearl Bordered Fritillary is a beautiful butterfly named after the small pearl borders on the underside of the hind wings, visible when the insect is at rest. It is a beautiful and fast declining species, seemingly unable to cope with habitat and possibly climate change. Small pockets of the butterfly are found widely scattered in clearings in woods in southern England. The population in Pamber Forest is especially fragile with dispersal being from one clearing and perhaps only a colony of 60 breeding adults survive. It is in this last clearing that efforts are being made to manage the habitat that remains in order to try and save the species. Let's hope it can be done. These butterflies are true jewels of the forest and are a joy to watch as they drift rapidly from flower to flower seeking out nectar. |
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The Heath Fritillary
The population of heath fritillaries in the Blean woods in Kent represents one of the last places this beautiful butterfly can be found in England. Once an abundant species it began to vanish after the last war when coppicing (especially of sweet chestnuts) ended. Without the open spaces between the coppiced trees where its food plant, cow wheat, grows, the species has suffered an inexorable decline. It now hovers on the edge of extinction and survives only due to the careful management of the last habitats in which it has managed to cling on. |
The East Blean woods are a beautiful example of ancient chestnut coppice and here, at the right time of year, it is possible to see a few fritillaries drifting slowly round the chestnuts where they land frequently to bask. The forest is small however and the butterflies are thinly spread and survive only due to the careful management of the site. How sad it would be if this fragile beauty were to be lost. It seems to be part of the spirit of the woods and it forms a kind of poetry with the trilling of the increasingly rare turtle doves which are also finding a refuge here after braving the guns in France.
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