Ingham’s W RLD
AS BRITAIN shivers through Snowmageddon, there is one group of animals you won’t find complaining. It’s not mountain hares or ptarmigan, which don festive white outfits for the winter, and it’s certainly not the fluffed-up birds frantically devouring sunflower seeds and nuts in my feeders.
Instead, the big fans of the deep freeze are dainty, delicate residents better known as symbols of summer.
Butterflies like nothing more than a bleak midwinter. It means they will do better the following spring and summer.
Despite being creatures of the sun they are surprisingly resilient to winter, according to Butterfly Conservation’s Richard Fox.
Some survive as adults, snoozing through winter in caves and sheds or on the underside of leaves while others pass their time as eggs, laid on food plants such as nettles.
Most pass the months of chill and damp as caterpillars or pupae, waiting for the days to lengthen and the sun to warm them back into action.
But in winter few like it hot. If we have a mild winter, their numbers often fall the following year, says a study of 37 years’ data by the University of East Anglia, Butterfly Conservation and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
Dull, mild, damp winters have “significant detrimental effects” in just over half of the 41 species studied, reported the Journal of Animal Ecology. They include species which overwinter as adults such as Brimstone, Small Tortoiseshell, Peacock and Comma.
In contrast, very cold winter days were linked to a population increase in 13 species including Large Skipper, Large White, Ringlet and Chalk Hill Blue.
Meanwhile, a Swedish study in the same journal found that cold winters lead to the earlier appearance of some species.
So for every 10 days of temperatures below 7.2C, the Orange Tip emerged a day earlier in spring.
No one knows why, though Richard says milder winters may make butterflies more vulnerable to diseases or predators such as spiders. Warmer temperatures also raise their metabolism so they burn off their winter fat too quickly.
Sadly, the butterflies’ preference for cold winters means their future may not be so bright.
Climate change is expected to make milder winters more common. As about 75 per cent of our 59 resident species are already in trouble, this would be a big blow.
So don’t curse the cold snap. It may lead to more beauty in the spring. A PREHISTORIC penguin as big as a man has been discovered in New Zealand. Fossils show that it stood 5ft 8in in its flippers, weighed nearly 17stone and hoovered up fish about 59million years ago. Its name, German ornithologist Gerald Mayr tells Nature Communications, is Kumimanu, Maori for Monster Bird. GOLDEN Eagles could return to England thanks to a £1.3million reintroduction scheme in the Scottish Borders. Fifty chicks from the Highlands are to be released over the next five years in the Lottery-funded project backed by the RSPB, Scottish Land & Estates and others. Some youngsters may stray further south and reclaim their kingdom in the Lake District. GREEN TIP: Old Christmas tree lights can be recycled at many local household waste depots. SEAWATER could help save the planet, York University research suggests. Professor Michael North says a mix of seawater, scrap metal and solar power could trap the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide as the mineral dawsonite. This could capture 850 million tonnes of CO2 a year – double the UK’s emissions – says the journal ChemSusChem. WHEN the EU banned three pesticides harmful to bees in 2014 doom-mongers said crop yields would plunge and use of older pesticides would rise. Official figures for oilseed rape since the ban disagree. Buglife says the weight of pesticide sprayed went down while crop yields went up. Protecting the planet can be profitable.