Churchill’s dream of rearing lost butterfly may finally take wing
‘The black veined white is one of the most spectacular species. We are looking at its habitat requirements and I think, so far, it looks promising’
WINSTON CHURCHILL’S attempt to resurrect a butterfly extinct in the UK in the grounds of his estate was, it is widely agreed, a disaster.
The project, to which the former prime minister dedicated a significant amount of time and energy, was rolled out with military precision.
While his fellow MPS were immersed by the threat of war, Churchill was also absorbed with his grand plan to release hundreds of black-veined whites into the gardens of Chartwell in Kent.
Imported caterpillars stuffed in muslin bags were eventually tied to his hawthorn hedge, but the project ended in farce when his gardener misunderstood the instruction to open the bags, instead of which he removed them from the bushes and burnt the lot.
Churchill would no doubt be heartened to know that, more than 70 years later, plans are in place to follow in his footsteps, albeit in a rather more conventional manner.
Butterfly Conservation has revealed that a changing climate means conditions may be suitable again for the return of the black-veined white, which became extinct in the UK in the midtwenties, due to changes in land use and a few years of bad autumn weather.
It is conducting research to determine whether their reintroduction may be possible. The first phase has produced promising results – two recent studies in parts of northern France that have a similar climate to southern England found it would be easy to recreate the habitat the butterflies need by creating field margins rich in wildflowers and patches of scrub.
The species needs warm weather in late May and early June, with tempera- tures of 66F (19C) required for the adults to become really active.
Prof Tom Brereton, associate director of monitoring at Butterfly Conservation, told The Daily Telegraph: “The black-veined white is one of the most spectacular species. We are looking at its habitat requirements and I think, so far, it certainly looks promising. The main concern is the extremes in climate that we increasingly get now, and that will form the focus of further research, as well as extensive data analysis on butterfly emergence across Europe.
“A prolonged cold spell in spring could cause problems as the species only flies as an adult for three weeks.”
He said that any potential reintroduction was years away due to the amount of research still required.
Churchill’s interest in butterflies was piqued at a young age.
When he was 12, he wrote to his mother: “I am never at a loss to do anything while I am in the country for I shall be occupied with ‘butter flying’ all day (as I was last year).”
Matthew Oates, nature conservation adviser at the National Trust, previously suggested that Churchill likely enjoyed the romantic idea of butterflies flitting around his grounds during his famous garden parties. He told The Guardian in 2010 that the politician and Hugh Newman, a local butterfly expert who advised him, “got a little carried away” with their plan to reintroduce the black-veined white.
At the end of the Second World War, Mr Newman converted the larder at Chartwell into a butterfly house. Churchill would sit on the benches and watch the butterflies emerge from the chrysalis before releasing them.
Winston Churchill wrote to his mother: “I am never at a loss to do anything while I am in the country for I shall be occupied with butterflying all day.” He was 12 then, but kept up his lepidopteral interests through his years of action in Sudan, the North-west Frontier and South Africa. His attempt in the Forties to bring back the black-veined white, absent from England since the Twenties, ended in something of a farce when his gardener at Chartwell removed and burnt in error the muslin bags with promising caterpillars attached to hawthorn foliage. Churchill had rival concerns to attend to in those years, but now a project has been hatched at Southampton University that could see black-veined whites from France raised on English thorn bushes. They’re pretty creatures. Churchill would be pleased.