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The story from Suffolk and in particular Newmarket by Rob Parker and Sharon Hearle

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The story from Suffolk by Rob Parker

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Rob Parker is the County Butterfly Recorder for Suffolk

Sharon Hearle is Butterfly Conservation's regional officer for the East of England.

THE STORY FROM SUFFOLK BY ROB PARKER
Draft Annex E to Annual Report.

White-letter Hairstreak - 2006

The White-letter hairstreak has been accepted as a Suffolk BAP species, and the Species Action Plan is awaiting publication. At national level, the future for the White-letter Hairstreak is viewed with some concern largely because of the uncertain consequences of Dutch Elm Disease. The recently published "The State of British Butterflies" presents its ten-year population trend as a loss of 63% in Britain.

In Suffolk, we have been working so hard to unearth surviving colonies of this previously under-recorded insect, that distribution figures appear to show a substantial increase. Analysis shows that the number of tetrads occupied by White-letter Hairstreak has increased from 40 to 102 since the Millennium survey, but this apparent spread must be treated with caution. On the one hand, the butterflies are showing some adaptability in leaving elms infected by the disease, and they are moving on to younger suckers elsewhere. This adaptability could be an effective survival mechanism, but it also leaves dots on distribution maps at sites not permanently colonised, and is thus misleading. Our volunteer recorders are also becoming more skilled at finding small colonies at the same time as the butterflies are becoming easier to find due to lower elm canopies and successive hot summers.

That said, the White-letter hairstreak was recorded from 35 tetrads in 2006, including observations from no less than 17 fresh squares. This brings the total to 102 tetrads in which it has been found at some time in the last 12 years (a remarkable 9.3% of all tetrads). It is clear that the butterfly is surviving at many small sites spread across the county, many of them no more than a stretch of roadside elm hedge.

White-letter Hairstreak - Progression in Suffolk

1980-85 survey. Found in 54 tetrads (map in Mendel's Suffolk Atlas)

Suffolk progress 1995-1999 Suffolk progress 2000-2004

Millennium Survey 1995 - 1999 (Levana records for 5 years)
Found in just 40 tetrads 2000 to 2004 (the next 5 years)
Found in 45 tetrads (of 855 surveyed)
Suffolk 1995-2004 Suffolk 1995-2006

Ten Years 1995 to 2004
Found from 74 tetrads (of 1090 total coverage of Suffolk) 1995 to 2006
12 years including more thorough recent searching - found in 102 tetrads!

Rob Parker March 2007

RECENT NEWS

May 2007

© photo: Roger & Stella Wolfe © photo: Roger & Stella Wolfe

An amazing veteran elm pollard - a new discovery made by Roger & Stella Wolfe - looks to be in good health just outside the village of Denston. The girth is estimated at about 4 to 5 metres, and it sits on private farmland, close to a public footpath; English type, probably. Nearby, an elm copse surrounds an old pond, and we will be investigating this in the summer for White-letter hairstreak. The photos show the pollard from afar (the veteran oak is on the left) and closer-up, to show the pollarding.

The 12 mature smooth-leaved elms at Haverhill Sports Centre which were reported to Elm Map in 2003 have been brutally lopped by their owners (St Edmundsbury District Council). This drew attention to them, and we discovered that they were under threat of a Planning proposal which would fell 5 of them to make way for a drive through restaurant adjacent to a multiplex cinema. Fortunately, the local protest was sufficiently loud for the Council to take note, and they have slowed the application down, although it will probably re-surface at some time in the future, possibly re-arranged to save the trees. Although disfigured, the trees do appear to be in good health, and we discovered that some years ago they were "injected" against DED which appears to have been beneficial in this case
Rob Parker
May 2007

WHITE-LETTER HAIRSTREAK IN NEWMARKET SUFFOLK BY SHARON HEARLE

White-letter Hairstreak is a Local Biodiversity Action Plan species in Suffolk, and in 2003 I was intrigued to see whether it could be found in Newmarket knowing that there was a well known colony on Wych Elm along Devil's Dyke just over the Suffolk border in Cambridgeshire. It was easy to pick out Elm in the spring and soon it was clear that Wych Elm was surprisingly abundant in Newmarket. Elm formed an important part of roadside hedges and other hedges/shelter belts separating paddocks and former paddocks now built on. There is a cycle of tree death from disease but re-growth is rapid.

The first colony was found by parking the car on a layby opposite some elm at the end of June and waiting for movement in the canopy. (see photo) Activity was soon seen mainly on an adjacent Lime tree and confirmed as White-letter Hairstreak with binoculars. Over the next 3 years I have continued to search new groups of Elm for the butterfly and found it in 8 x 1km squares in the Newmarket area including very urban sites.

I have seldom found the butterfly at ground level nectaring. I have recorded it at thistles, bramble and the climber Old Man's Beard. I am watching an Elm shelter belt that was coppiced in 2004 and is already over 10 feet tall, for signs of the butterfly which occurs on older Elm within 100metres.

© photo: Sharon Hearle

White-letter Hairstreak distribution around Newmarket, Suffolk (TL66) for 2003 - 2006 - Sharon Hearle

White-letter Hairstreak distribution (1km squares) around Newmarket, Suffolk (TL66) for 2003 - 2006
Reference: Sharon Hearle personal records

Sharon Hearle
January 2007

Butterfly Conservation
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