2 Apr 2025
Nine species, including the small tortoiseshell, Chalk Hill blue and small copper, had their worst year since counting of butterflies began.
Paul Imrie
Job Title
A small tortoiseshell butterfly. Image: Gilles San Martin
More than half of all butterfly species in the UK are in long-term decline after data showed 2024 as one of the worst years on record for the insects.
Nine species, including the small tortoiseshell, Chalk Hill blue and small copper, had their worst year since counting of butterflies began, but 2024 also marked the second-worst year for countryside species including the common blue, gatekeeper and large white.
Figures were released today (2 April) by the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (UKBMS), which has been asking volunteers to count butterflies and feed the data back since 1976.
Led by Butterfly Conservation, the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the British Trust for Ornithology and the Joint Nature Conservation Committee, more than 3,000 sites a year are now monitored.
Overall, 2024 was the fifth worst year since records began for UK butterflies, with numbers fluctuating annually and last year’s low count put down to a wet spring and relatively cool summer.
But the UKBMS data shows 31 of 59 resident UK species are now in long-term decline.
Richard Fox, head of science at Butterfly Conservation, said: “I am devastated by the decline of our beloved British butterflies, and I’m sorry to say it has been brought about by human actions: we have destroyed wildlife habitats, polluted the environment, used pesticides on an industrial scale and we are changing the climate.
“That means that when we have poor weather, these already-depleted butterfly populations are highly vulnerable and can’t bounce back like they once did – and with climate change, that unusual weather is becoming more and more usual.”
The small tortoiseshell, one of the best-known butterflies because of its bright colours, has seen its numbers plummet 86% since 1976.
