Here are some great pictures of butterflies taken recently in the local vicinity. This is no doubt due to the rewilding that has taken place over the last few years.
The wildflowers we propagate offer far more than just nectar and pollen for pollinators. A big reason John Gapper, founder of WFCS-BB, started propagating our native wildflowers was his love of butterflies and moths. He saw that as our native downland herbaceous perennial plants began to disappear from the landscape, so too did these colourful invertebrates. This is due to the fact that Lepidopterans (and many other taxa such as bugs and beetles) are picky eaters and often rely on a few specific species of plant (or sometimes just one) as the food plant for their larvae.
Restoring these plants to our landscape, as has been done on the highly successful bee banks and scrapes around Brighton and Hove's green spaces, allows these dependent species to island hop and recolonise their former ranges. A recent study of the bee banks found a higher proportion of species of invertebrate with a conservation status than the average nature reserve the ecologist who did the study surveys. BHCC is looking to build on this success with further bee banks being built in the near future in a park near you!