Comma (Polygonia c-album)
© - Nick Greatorex-Davies
The Comma butterfly is a relatively mobile species of woodland rides and edges but it can also be found in parks, gardens and lanes with trees and tall hedges. Having declined in range in Britain during the first part of the 20th century it has experienced a rapid and dramatic expansion in range over the past few decades. Larvae feed solitarily on Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica), Hop (Humulus lupulus) and Elm (Ulmus spp.). (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.
