This is the second article on Butterflies Ecology, the first can be found here

Ecology and Landscape design for creating habitat for Butterflies.

Butterflies ecology and what to do to help stem the trend of decline in butterflies, such as Small Tortoiseshells?There are a number of general habitat needs of butterflies.

 By providing for these, butterflies can be conserved and encouraged.

 The caterpillar stages require the correct food plants.

 The adults require suitable plants for nectar.

 Provide warm, sunny sheltered spots, preferably with a south facing aspect. Butterflies need this habitat to raise their body temperatures.

 Trees, hedgerows and shrubs are needed for shelter too, as well as for food plants, but must be managed to still maintain open areas of ground for butterflies nearby.

Butterflies need a variety of different habitats depending on species;

 Your landscape design for butterflies should include some of the following habitats.

 Woodland edge habitat – perhaps you could get a grant for creating the right ecology

 Wild flower meadow and tall grassland habitat.

 Marshy, marginal habitats.

 Scrub areas.

Habitat diversity and structural diversity.

 Management should allow different vegetation heights will give insects different habitats to shelter and feed in. This will encourage plant species to mature, such as Hedge Garlic for the Orange Tip butterfly to lay its eggs on.

 Diverse native hedgerows and copses will encourage a variety of different butterflies.

 South facing slopes, valley bottoms and lowland areas are favoured. If the site is quite exposed, adding planting and a shelter belt/hedge will help.

 Management of habitats needs to be carefully controlled; ideally, a maintenance plan or programme will help to coordinate activities.

 If an area has a good colony of butterflies or has a rare species, be careful how you change any management of the site or the character of the site.

 A single mature Oak tree can support a colony of the Purple Hairstreak; most occur in woods.

Different habitats of butterflies.

 Woodland butterflies;

•  Purple Hairstreak – feed on oak and spend most of their time on the mature 0ak tree canopy.
•  Black Hairstreak – feed on old blackthorn thickets.
•  White Admiral – need mature growth of old coppice woodland and Honeysuckle. Decline of coppicing helps this species of butterfly, so management for these butterflies needs to be carefully monitored.

 Caterpillars of the Fritillaries depend on herbs, in particular Common Dog Violet, which grow after coppicing in woods, so restoring woods to coppice helps the following species;

•  Pearl bordered Fritillary.
•  Small pearl bordered Fritillary.
•  Silver washed Fritillary.

 Whilst grassland butterflies include;

•  Brown butterflies which feed on grasses in woodland rides and other grassy places.
•  Damp grassland rides – favour the Ringlet.
•  Sunny open rides – favour the Meadow Brown.
•  Wood white – feeds on legumes and needs 30% shade.
•  Some Skippers also use woodland rides as habitat.
• The Blues favour more open grassland habitats with their food plants (see Butterflies 3.)

 Other Habitat

Hedgerows support Gatekeeper and Orange Tip.

Hedgerows near woods support Brown Hairstreak.

Management – this depends on the type of flora, but generally, it is best to cut each ride in alternate years, this will allow plants to grow up and mature as different butterfly food plants.

 So, all butterflies have specific niches and creating a variety of habitats is ideal for attracting butterflies. To discuss creating habitats for butterflies, go to Contact page

 or leave a comment.

For a landscape design to encourage butterflies ring 01892 782200

The post Butterflies Ecology Landscape Design, Creating Habitat appeared first on Landscape Architects.

Why should we worry about butterfly ecology? It is not only because butterflies are attractive. They are also important pollinators of our wild flowers. They are one of the first visible indicators of changes in habitats. They are easily spotted and recorded. The decline of butterflies and their habitats in Europe is why studying them and conserving them is important. Listen to David Attenborough on Radio 4’s Today program talking about RSPBs  State of Nature report.

The life of the butterfly is short, from only a few days to a couple of weeks. Some species do have a longer life though as the Small Tortoiseshell and the Peacock hibernate as adults and survive into a second season.

Adult butterflies are often brightly coloured, but when they close their wings they can hide from predators, by merging into the background vegetation.

Predators include; birds, frogs, toads and mammals.

Brown butterflies have small eye spots near the edge of each wing, so that if birds peck at them, they will peck on a harmless spot and the butterfly will survive. Whilst the blues and hair streak butterflies have tails with false eyes, so that if birds see these, they will peck at the tails and not the head of the butterfly- allowing the butterfly a greater chance to escape.

 Ecology of Butterflies require;

• Adults need suitable flowers which they can feed on for nectar (see Butterflies 3 on our blog.)
• Places such as old ivy clad trees and walls where they can hibernate.
• Small areas of scrub where they can rest on days when it is dull and sleep at night.
• Habitat – adult butterflies have different habitat needs to those of the early stages of butterfly.
• Butterflies – females need to lay their eggs on food plants which are in the right stage of growth, the right size and in the right growing conditions of light and shade.
• The caterpillars require plenty of food to grow.
• They moult several times until eventually they turn into a chrysalis.

The flight of a butterfly may be hundreds of miles; the Painted Lady butterfly flies from the Mediterranean each year; sometimes reaching Scotland if the weather is fair.

Many butterflies have suffered a decline due to cessation of woodland coppice management, loss of woodland edge habitat, lack of ride management and cessation of wild grassland grazing; ploughing up of old grassland and wild flower meadows with intensification of agricultural practices have all led to a decline in butterflies since the late 1950s.

See our next blog on ecology of Butterflies.

To arrange a site visit to find out more on the ecology of butterflies go to our Contact Page or ring 01892 782200. To find out more about the ecology services which Landvision can offer you click on the link.

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