This butterfly needs a break
by Patrick Barkham from Environment | The Guardian on (#2NCDF)
Challenged by climate change, our most secretive butterfly could soon be getting a helping hand if a new campaign takes off
Recent very butterfly-unfriendly icy winds remind me of an insect that endures horrendous weather every summer. The mountain ringlet is our only montane butterfly, meaning that you have to climb a mountain - or at least 400 metres up a Lake District fell - to see it.
Some mountain ringlet caterpillars may live for two years so slowly do they grow, chewing grass in the most capricious British conditions, while the butterfly itself only survives for a few days in June and July.
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