Butterflies and winter temperatures
by Lewis, 10 August, 2012, 3 comments
Most species of butterfly produce one batch of eggs each year - like the gatekeeper butterfly. However, some species can produce two sets of eggs a year. Whether or not two sets of eggs are produced seems to be connected to or dependent upon the late winter / early spring mean (average) temperature.
If it is 'warm' then some species of butterfly can start flying and reproducing earlier in the year. The earlier production of the first brood of eggs makes the production of a second brood more likely. Work on this has been conducted by Angus Westgarth Smith at Brunel University (using data from the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme - co-ordinated from CEH). Read more...
