Adonis Blue (Polyommatus bellargus)
© - Nick Greatorex-Davies
The Adonis Blue is a scarce butterfly in Britain, and like its relative the Chalkhill Blue, occurs only on herb-rich chalk and limestone grassland where its foodplant Horseshoe Vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) grows, usually on south or south-west facing slopes. It requires shorter turf than the Chalkhill Blue where the microclimate is particularly warm. (For further details on this species see http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/).
This chart shows the index of abundance (LCI = Log Collated Index) over time. It shows fluctuations in populations from year to year, and is scaled so that the average index over the whole series is equal to 2 (horizontal line). Further details on the analysis of UKBMS data can be found [here]
This chart shows the average number of butterflies seen on transects between April and October across all sites (fitted values from a Generalised Additive Model). The blue line gives average counts over the full BMS series (1976 to date) and the red line gives the average for the last year.
This map shows symbols for the mean abundance at transect sites, with the colour of the symbol reflecting the level of abundance. Means are over all years. Grey background squares are the occupied cells as shown by the Butterflies for the New Millenium over the previous ten year period.
