A report published by Defra today on Butterflies in the Wider Countryside has highlighted long term declines in numbers. This trend is apparent both among species found in the wider countryside across a variety of habitats, and also among specialist species that are more restricted in their habitat requirements.

Although butterfly populations are by nature highly variable year on year, and many species trends are stable in the short term, over the longer term (since 1976), butterflies which are habitat specialists have fallen by 61 per cent and species of the wider countryside have fallen by 41 per cent.

A summary of the data can be found here

Source: Butterfly Conservation, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Defra, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.