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Inachis io - Peacock Butterfly Throughout the British Isles up to northern Scotland. |
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A very attractive butterfly, the upper wing with distinctive blue and black 'peacock' eye markings. The Peacock is still fairly common and can be seen almost anywhere its favoured food plants grow, from meadow grassland to suburban gardens. The adults feed on flower nectar, with Hemp Agrimony and Buddleia being particular favourites, whilst the caterpillars feed on Stinging Nettles. |
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Rhagium mordax - A Long-horned Beetle The number of species of beetle on earth may outnumber vertebrate species by 50:1. |
In 1982 entomologist Terry Erwin published a paper estimating that the total number of insect species on earth may exceed 30 million. To date taxonomists have only described around 1.8 million of the earth's species. Even if Erwin's total is an over-estimation, other workers have given estimates varying from 2.7 up to 80 million insect species, we know there are still a great many undescribed species out there. With present rates of extinction running at 100-1000 times the natural background rate, largely as a result of human activity, species are disappearing faster than we can record them. |
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We are witnessing a period of mass extinction unparalleled since the end of the Cretaceous, when 50% of all life on earth died out. No wonder some environmentalists are referring to the present day as 'the sixth extinction'! There are around 500 species of vertebrates within the British Isles and 2500 mosses and 'higher' plants. Most species action plans, reserve management and virtually all publicity is given to the conservation of a few of these large, 'glamorous' species, principally birds, mammals and flowering plants. However, these groups make up only a tiny percentage of Britain's total biodiversity compared to the 26,000 species of invertebrate, around 22,000 species of fungi and 20,000 species of algae, to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of single celled organisms and bacteria. All these species are part of the complex ecosystems around us, many are under severe threat and have been largely ignored by conservation efforts aimed at larger, more charismatic, species. Today, conservation must take a more holistic approach, taking account of a site's total biodiversity and recognising that any habitat will support a wide range of different species, many of which may not be immediately visible, but are equally deserving of consideration. |
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Photos: D. Heward |
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