Volunteers from Kent’s Magnificent Moths venture, led by Butterfly Conservation, counted 255 of the uncommon Black-veined Moths throughout surveys on former farmland in Wye in East Kent.
The moth, which nectars on flowers within the sunshine and might be mistaken for a white butterfly, was near changing into extinct in 1995 because of lack of habitat. It now solely survives within the Wye countryside and is likely one of the 5 moth species that Butterfly Conservation lessons as Critically Endangered.
Nonetheless, by a venture led by Pure England, farmers have spent the final 25 years restoring beforehand unproductive fields again to chalk grassland to assist the species get better. Due to the creation of those wildflower grasslands, the perfect habitat for the Black-veined Moth, throughout the Kent panorama, beforehand remoted populations of the moth are actually related.
However the restoration course of isn’t a brief one. Dan Tuson, Pure England’s farm adviser, mentioned: “Farmers are main nature restoration by long-term one-to-one recommendation and shut working to create new wildflower grasslands at scale. It takes round fifteen years for a discipline to realize the required wildflower species range and construction for the Black-veined Moth to colonise.”
Black-veined Moth, copyright Andy Adcock, from the surfbirds galleries
To finish their lifecycle, this moth species wants a mosaic of each tall tufts of grass and quick wildflowers inside the similar discipline. This makes the moth rarer than many different insect species that stay in chalk grassland. The moth colonises and will increase in quantity when there may be rigorously managed cattle grazing over the winter months which leaves a patchwork of longer and shorter areas.
This mosaic habitat is now discovered throughout over 30 chalk grassland fields. Many of those fields are subsequent to one another, permitting for particular person moths to disperse inside a related panorama of habitat which makes their populations extra resilient to potential extinction occasions equivalent to excessive climate.
Rebecca Levey, Kent’s Magnificent Moths Undertaking Conservation Officer at Butterfly Conservation, mentioned: “As a part of the Kent’s Magnificent Moths venture, volunteers joined daytime survey walks in June. They helped us rely a peak of 255 moths, which is the very best variety of Black-veined Moths recorded in a single 12 months for the reason that restoration venture started.”
Discover out extra about Kent’s Magnificent Moths Undertaking here
