Flutter bye: where did all the city butterflies go?

Butterflies are vanishing from cities even faster than in the countryside - from paving, pesticides or just plain heat. But some cities are luring them back

The purple plumes of railway-side buddleias are emptied of insects. A single white butterfly is dancing, alone, in a grassy park. Suburban gardens are unvisited by red admirals or small tortoiseshells.

The disappearance of butterflies from the British countryside over the past half-century is well documented, but a new study warns that they are also vanishing from UK cities, more quickly than in rural areas.