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News - Rare Butterflies do well

Rare butterflies do well in spring sunshine thanks to the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust

Over the last 3 years the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trusts supported by the Aggregates Levy Fund, Countryside Council for Wales and Powys Country Council have initiated a plan to save the rare butterfly – Pearl border fritillary. There remain only seven colonies left in the whole of Montgomeryshire, or so we thought!

Dr Simon Spencer, project officer for the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Pearl-bordered Fritillary project was excited to find these rare and beautiful butterflies at a site in Cyfronydd where they had not been seen since 2004 and also on a new part of Y Figyn common nearby where the had not been seen before.

The population of these rare butterflies near Welshpool has seven of the last ten sites in Wales for a species that has declined dramatically in the last 50 years.

Considerable management work by the project on these sites, such as flail mowing gorse, is now showing benefits. The recent restoration of grazing to Y Frochas common should soon benefit the butterflies. The common had been ungrazed for many years. The project, which is funded by the Aggregates Levy Sustainability fund works closely with CCW who bought Y Figyn and Y Frochas commons in 2003.

There is still hope that this species will return to Llanymynech Rocks reserve and Llanymynech golf course as a new site was found by Dr Spencer in Nantmawr on the English side of the border about 2 miles away. At one time it was thought that this species had disappeared from the Llanymynech area completely.

An extension to the project is planned for a further 2 years at least. If you would like to help us save these rare and beautiful butterflies, then please contact Simon Spencer at the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust on 01938 555654.