THE DISAPPEARANCE OF BUTTERFLIES
By Josef H Reichholf (translated by Gwen Clayton)
Butterflies and moths may seem like ethereal creatures, flitting in and out of view, but the last decades haven’t been kind to them. Over the past 50 years, the population of moths and butterflies has fallen by more than 80 per cent, writes Josef Reichholf in The Disappearance of Butterflies. ‘Perhaps only older people will recall a time when meadows were filled with colourful flowers and countless butterflies fluttered above,’ he writes.
Reichholf, an expert in the field, has been charting the comings and goings of lepidopterans – the order of insects that includes moths and butterflies – since his childhood in Germany in the 1960s. Throughout that time, he has diligently recorded his interactions and scientific discoveries. This book is filled with detailed observations on species, habitats and habits, and is targeted more at butterfly enthusiasts than lay readers. Even so, Reichholf beautifully captures his own personal experiences with different species over the years, from his first glimpses of the death’s-head hawk moth to stumbling across a purple emperor butterfly seemingly drugged up on toad poison.
Butterflies that were once plentiful are now rarely seen, Reichholf writes, blaming the impact of chemical fertilisers and pesticides on farmland, as well as the land consolidation that followed the Second World War. In fact, it is now in cities that biodiversity is more welcome, he says. Cities are more species-rich and appear to be richer the larger they are. Meanwhile, the situation in the countryside is vastly different, with swathes of farmland occupied by nothing but maize or rapeseed. ‘In fields that are farmed intensively, [butterflies and moths], like other insects, barely exist anymore,’ he writes. ‘Their populations have been best preserved in gardens and parks in urban areas.’
While Reichholf ’s research is heavily focused on Germany, he makes it clear that British butterfly species haven’t fared better, declining by more than 70 per cent, with 62 species of macro and micro lepidoptera becoming extinct during the 20th century. In many ways, The Disappearance of Butterflies reads like a love song to these creatures, and to a life spent trying to understand and document them.