The grand total of butterflies seen in 2018 was 2,227 of 25 species, making it the best since 2015.  It was a summer of extreme weather, with a prolonged heatwave and almost complete lack of any rain for many weeks.  The early season had been wet, but from May onwards the rain stopped, the temperature rose, and the emergence of butterflies in June and early July was impressive.  However, as the drought persisted, and vegetation died off, the butterflies disappeared.  The flight seasons of the later emerging species, in particular, were shortened.  The warm weather persisted into September, and only the Speckled Wood appeared to thrive.  Two species were seen for the first time at Latchmore, Dark Green Fritillary appeared twice in the scrub beside Latchmore Brook on Section One of the route, and a rather battered Wall Brown appeared in the green ride of Section Three in late July.

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The most numerous species was Gatekeeper (as usual), but with 550 seen, numbers were down by 8% on 2017, and were less than half the numbers seen in 2015.  By contrast, Silver-studded Blue more than doubled to 429, and Large Skipper had its best year by far with 271 sightings (up from 54 in the previous year), knocking Meadow Brown (253) out of the top three for the first time.  It was also a record year for Speckled Wood (156), Small White (104) and Brimstone (96).  Common Blue, after being seen for the first time last year, had a spectacular increase to 36 sightings, and it was also a good year for Small Skipper (18),  Small Heath (89) and Grayling (30).  In contrast, Red Admiral had a disastrous year (down over 80% with only 6 individuals seen all season), and it was also a poor year for Peacock (23), Comma (9), and Small Tortoiseshell (1).  Missing this year were Brown Argus and Orange-tip, each seen once in 2017, and Clouded Yellow and White Admiral, not seen since 2015.

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Monitoring took place on all 26 weeks of the season, with thanks to John and Jayne French for completing the walks in weeks 24 and 25 while I was away.