Half of the species of butterflies in the United Kingdom are threatened with extinction or are close to it, alerted on Wednesday May 25 an association for the protection of these insects which are suffering the effects of climate change and pollution.
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The Butterfly Conservation association indicated that four species out of the 62 assessed are already regionally extinct.
Of the remaining 58, 24 are threatened with extinction, listed as endangered or potentially extirpated from the UK and a further five species are listed as near threatened.
The situation has deteriorated since the last assessment in 2011, with five more species threatened with extinction - a 26% increase.
These include the Crone and Satyr (Lasiommata megera), which is still a widespread species but has disappeared from large areas of England, and the Woodland Moire (Erebia aethiops) whose population is declining in Scotland.
Head of Science for Butterfly Conservation, Richard Fox called the findings "
shocking
".
"
Even before this new assessment, British butterflies were among the most endangered in Europe, and now there are five more endangered species in the UK, an increase of more than a quarter
," he said. underline.
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Among the causes of this decline, nitrogen pollution from agriculture and climate change.
On the good news side, some of the UK's most endangered species, such as the Azure Thyme (Phengaris arion), which became extinct in the UK in 1979 but has been reintroduced, and the Pearly Meadow (Fabriciana adippe) are no longer critically endangered thanks to the implementation of conservation programs.
