White Admirals (Ladoga camilla L.) are back in
Bentley Woods after an absence of over 40 years. First seen and reported on the
30th June, 2004 by Dr Michael Bamford of Bentley Old Hall, and
confirmed by the author, a single specimen was observed flying, in sunshine,
among flowering brambles and honeysuckle along the north side of a wide, grassy
ride, adjacent to coniferous woodland in Bentley Old Hall Wood (TM 121398).
Dr
Bamford took photographs of the butterfly on 1st July 2004 (see
photo). The butterfly was seen again, at the same location, on 2nd,
3rd and 4th July. A second White Admiral was observed at
the same site the following week. A possible third specimen, rather tattered in
appearance, was also recorded.
The White Admiral was last recorded from this tetrad by Sam Beaufoy in 1960 (Martin Sanford, SBRC, pers. comm. See Mendel and Piotrowski, 1986). There were no records from that 10km square during the 1995 to 2003 period, although there is one record in the current five-year period from the adjacent TM1240 (Rob Parker, pers. comm.)
The history of the White Admiral in Suffolk has been documented by Mendel and Piotrowski (1986). The butterfly’s status is summarised below using their data.
‘Common in woods near Ipswich and Stowmarket’ (Greene, 1857).
‘Local, sometimes abundant: Stoke-by Nayland, Stowmarket, Bentley, and various places near Ipswich’ (Bloomfield, 1890).
Occasional reports of unusual abundance in some seasons, e.g. Bentley area (Morley, 1933).
Reported from woodlands across the County in the early 1930’s.
Found in many of Suffolk’s ancient woodlands until the late 1950’s.
Sharp decline from the early 1960’s. Scarce. Disappeared from woodlands to the south of Ipswich.
First reports of White Admirals from conifer plantations in the late 1960’s.
One of the few butterflies on the increase in Suffolk (Butterfly Survey 1983-1985: Mendel and Piotrowski, 1986).
Still very local, but has shown a dramatic increase (Butterfly Survey 1995-1999: Stewart, 2001).
Claude Morley’s association with the Bentley Woods, which were famous for their rare butterflies, is reported in many of the Suffolk Naturalists’ Society publications. The woods were one of his favourite collecting areas. There, where Baldrough Wood in Belstead joins Old Hall Wood and Howe Wood in Bentley, White Admirals were common and sometimes extraordinarily abundant. There too, on one small group of holly trees Morley carved his initials in 1892 and again on his last visit in 1950. The small ring of trees, some six main trunks, is still present, just east of the public footpath, which runs north to south through the woods (Hawes, personal observation, 2004).
Suffolk was once amongst the best counties for butterflies in Britain and a stronghold for species such as the White Admiral. In the 1940’s and 1950’s one ‘could always be sure of seeing the Purple Emperor, White Admiral, Pearl-bordered, High Brown and Silver-washed Fritillaries, Large Tortoiseshell, Grizzled Skipper and Dingy Skipper around the Belstead (and/or Bentley) and Raydon Woods’ in the south-east of the County (Beaufoy in: Mendel and Piotrowski, 1986: Foreword).
The recorded change in status of Suffolk’s breeding butterflies is well documented by Stewart (2001). There was a marked decline during the nineteenth century, seven species being lost to the County. Additional decline took place in the first half of the twentieth century, with six more species becoming extinct. Warnings of further serious decline began to sound in the late 1950’s and by 1999 an additional nine species had been lost, including the Purple Emperor and Large Tortoiseshell.
Today, Suffolk has thirty-one breeding butterfly species, of which two are reported to be in serious decline, the Dingy Skipper and White-letter Hairstreak. On the positive side, seven species are increasing their range, including the White Admiral and, most spectacularly, the Speckled Wood (Stewart, 2001).
Decline in butterfly species is considered to be mainly due to changes in land management – agricultural and forestry practice, urban development and unsympathetic cutting of grassland have all contributed to a vast loss of butterfly habitat. Fluctuations in butterfly numbers are due to change in weather conditions and natural butterfly cycles. Dramatic population fluctuations are well known in the Holly Blue. Contractions and expansions in range, characteristic of the White Admiral, are less well understood but have been attributed to a combination of habitat change and weather (Pollard, 1979).
A joint Suffolk Naturalists’ Society and Butterfly Conservation field meeting to the Bentley woods is planned for 2005 to look for White Admirals and to record the many other butterfly species that frequent this site. The all-day meeting will also provide an opportunity for SNS recorders to examine these privately owned woods. Details of the arrangements for this meeting will be published in the Society’s Calendar of Events and in White Admiral.
Bloomfield, E. N. (1890). The Lepidoptera of Suffolk. Wesley. London.
Greene, J. (1857). List of Lepidoptera occurring in the county of Suffolk. Naturalist, 7: 253-8.
Mendel, H. and Piotrowski, S. H. (1986). The Butterflies of Suffolk. Suffolk Naturalists’ Society. Ipswich.
Morley, C. (1933). Spread of White Admirals. Trans. Suffolk Nat. Soc. 2: 182-3.
Pollard, E. (1979). Population ecology and change in range of the White Admiral butterfly Ladoga camilla L. in England. Ecol. Entomol. 4: 61-74.
Stewart, R. (2001). Millennium Atlas of Suffolk Butterflies. Suffolk Naturalists’ Society. Ipswich.
Colin Hawes, 3 Silver Leys, Bentley, Ipswich.
© 2004 Suffolk Naturalists' Society
used by kind permision.