19 Jun 2008 - Butterfly watch 2008

Hi ,

 I have been appointed by Butterfly Conservation to promote, co-ordinate and collate volunteer surveys for the Mountain Ringlet during 2008 as part of the wider research project to increase knowledge and understanding of Scotland's montane invertebrate fauna.

I am contacting you to see if you would consider contacting your members to ask them if they would like to survey Mountain Ringlet butterflies from late June to early August this year. The survey methodology is described here: http://www.southwestscotland-butterflies.org.uk/surveys/surveys2008.shtml

The survey form to be completed is: http://www.southwestscotland-butterflies.org.uk/surveys/MountainRingletSurveyForm.doc

The aim is to get data for a number of different 200m long transects at different altitudes on each mountain which should provide information on which altitudes peak populations occur and the minimum altitude of Mountain Ringlet colonies. Another aim is to record the preferred habitat type and nectaring plants of Mountain Ringlet.

Two recent papers show a decline in Mountain Ringlet populations at lower altitudes which is thought to be caused by climate change and as a result, the Mountain Ringlet was designated a UK BAP priority species in 2007. So it would be good to get hillwalkers involved in surveys of this butterfly in the next six weeks or so, not least because it is certainly under-recorded (see Distribution Map on webpage) but also to learn more about its ecology and to determine the minimum altitude at which it is currently found.

Regards Andrew Masterman

Committee Member

Glasgow & SW Scotland Branch of Butterfly Conservation