Habitats and abundance of butterflies on agricultural land at Writtle College
Table 7. Total number of individuals per 100 metres, number of species and
notable species recorded on both transects over the five year monitoring period
Key: 1 Coenonympha pamphilus 2 Lasiommata megera 3 Aricia agestis
4 Lycaena phlaeas 5 Aphantopus hyperantus
Weather data for the five years was obtained from the Writtle College Weather Station and the total
rainfall and total sun hours for each month throughout the butterfly season are presented in Tables 8
and 9. The butterfly monitoring season has tended to become wetter over the survey period with
total rainfall being highest in 1998 and 2000. The critical butterfly emergence month of April has
been wet in 1998, 1999 and 2000, with June (the other emergence period) being very wet in 1997,
1998 and 1999.
Table 8. Total rainfall for the survey period
The sunniest butterfly monitoring seasons were in 1996, 1997 and 1999 whilst the other two seasons
were relatively dull (Table 9). The months when most butterflies would be emerged and flying arc
May and July with May being sunniest in 1997 and 1998. The highest total sun hours for July was
in 1996, 1997 and 1999.
Essex Naturalist (New Series) 18 (2001)
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