2007 was generally a fairly slow year for butterflies, and not as productive as 2006. The weather played its part, with both butterflies and surveyors staying in during the August rain.

Notwithstanding the general lack of abundance, most of the scarcer species were spotted: Black Hairstreak, Brown Argus (in Slade Camp this year), Essex Skipper, Painted Lady, Purple Hairstreak, and White Admiral. There was no record of Clouded Yellow, Purple Emperor or a repeated sighting of the mystery Fritillary. Brown Hairstreak, which although doing well (see below), remains as eggs without an adult.

In 2007 the flush of Marbled Whites on The Plain began earlier than usual on 13th June, but abundance was well down on previous years.

Brown Hairstreak - through more painstaking searching the number of eggs found along the Plain has again increased on previous years (2005/06 = 4, 2006/07 = 8, 2007/08 = 12). Most of these were on the North side of The Plain, and the rest just off the south side of The Plain in either Johnson’s Piece or Horseshoe Field. Similar increases were recorded overall, especially below Westhill Farm and Slade Camp bringing the SSSI totals to: 2005/06 = 8, 2006/07 = 23, 2007/08 = 48. Yet still no adult Brown Hairstreak has been sighted. However, the Brown Hairstreak is very illusive, and spends much of its time high in a favoured landmark tree, and only briefly sneeks down to our level for egg laying. Given the number of eggs found so far, this could be the work of a single female, further reducing the prospect of catching sight of the species. Butterfly expert David Redhead believes that we have ‘… either one female from an egg laid at Shotover in 2006 and that has spent her whole 2007 flight period in or near Shotover (mated by a male at Shotover, also from a Shotover egg) or more than one female made her way over Shotover Hill this summer. Whichever, we can safely conclude that the Brown Hairstreak is definitely tightening its grip on Shotover given the excellent habitat’.

In summary, we recorded 26 species during 2007, with no new species added to the overall list, and the total species recorded in recent years remains at 31.


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