Darklane Wildlife
THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT?
White-Letter Hairstreak Butterfly
The
The White-letter Hairstreak is a very elusive butterfly that spends most of its time high up in the canopy of Elms (Ulmus spp.), on which it breeds, in woodlands and hedgerows and far less widespread and common than it was before the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease.
It is distinguished from the other hairstreaks by the white letter "W" on the underside of the wings.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
The White-Letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album) is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.
Appearance, behaviour and distribution
A dark little butterfly that spends the majority of its life in the tree tops, feeding on honeydew, making it best observed through binoculars. The upper sides are a dark brown with a small orange spot in the bottom corner of the hind wing. The male has a small pale spot on the forewings made up of scent scales. The undersides are a lighter brown with a thin white line, the 'hairstreak' which gives this group of butterflies their name. On the hind wing this streak zigzags to form a letter 'W' (or 'M') from which this species gets its name. The outer edge of the hind wing has an orange border, but there is no orange on the forewings like the similar Black Hairstreak and there are two short tails on the hind wings. Part of a group known as 'lateral baskers', they always rest with their wings closed. Widely but patchily distributed across most of England it is absent from Scotland , Ireland , western Wales and most of Cornwall Japan
The butterflies occasionally fly down from the canopies to collect nectar from flowers when honeydew is unavailable, notably after heavy rains have washed it from the leaves. The much-preferred flower is creeping thistle, but bramble and others are used.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-letter_Hairstreak
The Great Crested Newt
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopaedia
Distribution
Its range extends from Great Britain and Brittany in the west across much of Europe north of the Alps and the Black Sea. It is one of only three amphibians which are protected by the Uk Biodiversity Action Plan. It is one of three newts found in the British Isles, along with the Smooth Newt and the Palmate Newt, and is the biggest and least common of the three.
The Italian Crested Newt was formerly considered a subspecies of Great Crested Newt (T. cristatus carnifex).
Conservation status
It is a protected species under schedule 5 of the UK's Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and is therefore subject to the provisions of Section 9, which make it an offence to:
• Intentionally kill, injure or take a great crested newt [Section 9(1)]
• Possess or control any live or dead specimen or anything derived from a great crested newt [Section 9(2)]
• Intentionally or recklessly damage, destroy or obstruct access to any structure or place used for shelter or protection by a great crested newt [Section 9(4)(a)]
• Intentionally or recklessly disturb a great crested newt while it is occupying a structure or place which it uses for that purpose [Section 9(4)(b)]
Regulation 39 of the Conservation (Natural Habitats etc.) Regulations 1994 (the Habitats Regulations) makes it an offence to:
• Deliberately capture or kill a great crested newt [Regulation 39(1)(a)]
• Deliberately disturb a great crested newt [Regulation 39(1)(b)]
• Deliberately take or destroy the eggs of a great crested newt [Regulation 39(1)(c)]
• Damage or destroy a breeding site or resting place of a great crested newt [Regulation 39(1)(d)]
In the United Kingdom, habitat of the Great Crested Newt has diminished due to land development pressure from population growth and agricultural expansion; for example, it is considered eliminated from its prior range at the Portlethen Moss Nature Reserve in Scotland.
The Great Crested Newt is a protected species in other jurisdictions as well, notably in Germany, where a planned extension to an Autobahn in Hesse may come to naught as a result.
Description
Great crested newts have dark grey-brown backs and flanks, and are covered with darker coloured spots so that they appear almost black in colour. Their undersides are either yellow or orange-coloured and are covered in large black blotches. Males can be distinguished from females by the presence of a jagged crest that runs along their backs, dipping at the rear of the abdomen to a smoother-edged crest above and below the tail. Adult newts have been recorded that are up to fifteen years old and often return to the same breeding site.
Behaviour
After a courtship display great crested newts mate and breed in ponds and pools. The female lays 200-300 eggs on aquatic plants. Once juveniles have emerged from ponds it can take up to 4 years to reach sexual maturity, during which time the juvenile newts are primarily terrestrial.
Outside of the breeding season, adult and juvenile newts are found in suitable terrestrial habitat where they seek shelter under rocks, logs and other suitable refugia.
Their diet consists primarily of invertebrates including insects, worms, water snails, larve and sometimes tadpoles.
References
- Arntzen, J.W. et al. (2004). Triturus cristatus. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN 2006. Retrieved on 11 May 2006. Database entry includes a range map and justification for why this species is of least concern
If you have a pond in your garden with one great crested newt in it, then nobody can do any development of any sort within 500m. You can’t even put up a garden shed without first commissioning an ecology survey and moving the newt to safety. One developer ended up in the magistrates’ court after cutting grass in an orchard in Kent. He was ‘endangering the habitat of the slowworm’.
To move reptiles you have to set out heat traps and collect them on a regular basis. It can take as many as 90 visits and can take months."
It is only since Planning Policy Statement 9 (PPS9) was introduced last year that local planning authorities have become more aware of the legislation and their responsibilities towards "biodiversity action plan species", ie wildlife.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2771-2418017,00.html