Butterflies and dragonflies

By cerianwencraft on June 23, 2024

There seems to be a problem at the moment with butterflies and dragonflies. Earlier in the year I saw Speckled Wood, Holly Blue and Brimstone butterflies in my garden. Since then I haven't seen a butterfly at all. I have seen one damselfly but no dragonflies either. Last week I was in Melton Mowbray out walking by some fishing lakes. I did not see one butterfly and no dragonflies either but I did see a lot of blue tailed damselflies busy mating to keep their species going. People walking around one of the nearby nature reserves are also saying that there are only a few butterflies and dragonflies around, far less than previous years. One area in this particular reserve is known as a butterfly conservation area and is usually full of butterflies and dragonflies. But that particular part was under water for quite a long time earlier this year. Has this been the cause of the lack of butterflies and dragonflies?

I find this quite worrying. Is climate change affecting our insects much more than we think? What can we do about it? In some other local country parks and reserves, volunteers have been building butterfly banks. Hopefully this will help to preserve the butterflies. We take a lot of care to preserve birds and other animals but what about the insects? They are just as important. Every living thing on our planet has a purpose and form a chain. If one part of the chain is broken then it alters the chain dramatically as has been seen in the past when whole generations of one particular insect or animal has been wiped out. So what are we going to do? Have you got any ideas?