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The Rise and Demise of the Glanville fritillary on the Isle of Wight

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Abstract

The Glanville fritillary is one of Britain’s rarest breeding butterflies, and is predominantly restricted to the south coast of the Isle of Wight. Populations have been monitored annually at a high proportion of known sites by counting the number of larval ‘webs’ during spring since 1996. In this paper, we present population time series for eight core sites. Populations have been observed to fluctuate considerably over the last 18 years, with a high degree of synchrony between sites. Recently, numbers of larval webs have shown a severe decline, with simultaneous extinctions occurring across many former strongholds. We combine our web count data with counts of adult butterflies from five sites of the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Together, these data suggest that the Glanville fritillary is threatened by extinction on the Isle of Wight, and that the total area used for breeding is likely no more than a few km2. The results flag up the need for a national census of remaining populations and further research to understand causes of decline, so that a conservation recovery plan can be developed.

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Acknowledgments

This work as supported by NERC Grants NE/D009448/1 and NE/F007930/1. We are also grateful to the Isle of Wight Natural History and Archaeological Society (IWNHAS), Andy Butler, David Simcox, Jeremy Thomas, Wightlink and two anonymous reviewers.

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Author notes

  1. R. J. Curtis

    Present address: Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Maclean Building, Crowmarsh Gifford, Wallingford, OX10 8BB, UK

    R. J. Curtis, M. S. Botham & N. J. B. Isaac

  2. University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    R. J. Curtis

  3. Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent’s Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK

    R. J. Curtis

  4. Butterfly Conservation, Manor Yard, East Lulworth, Wareham, BH20 5QP, UK

    T. M. Brereton

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  1. R. J. Curtis
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  2. M. S. Botham
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  3. T. M. Brereton
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  4. N. J. B. Isaac
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Correspondence to R. J. Curtis.

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Curtis, R.J., Botham, M.S., Brereton, T.M. et al. The Rise and Demise of the Glanville fritillary on the Isle of Wight. J Insect Conserv 19, 305–311 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9737-2

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