Rare moths stop nuclear plant

This is a Sussex green emerald moth video.

From Current Biology:

Butterfly effect

Nigel Williams

That the flap of a butterfly’s wing might lead to a storm or other event halfway around the globe is a popular image used to introduce chaos theory. But two small lepidopterans appear to have played a major part in the scrapping of plans to build a new nuclear power station on a shingle bank in the south-east of England, which is becoming an increasing focus in the International Year of Biodiversity.

Two charities, Butterfly Conservation and Buglife, had highlighted the biodiversity on this shingle bank in Dungeness, the largest in Europe. Scarce and threatened species include the only known British population of the Sussex Emerald moth (Thalera fimbrialis) and the largest population of the White Spot moth (Hadena albimacula) in the country. …

The significance of Dungeness will also be marked in other plans for later this year. The site is set to be the site of the reintroduction of a native species of bee. The short-haired bumblebee was once common in southern England but disappeared as a result of changing and intensifying agricultural methods and is on the verge of extinction in the country. But the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), which owns the nature reserve, is planning a reintroduction this year with bees from New Zealand. Bees there were taken by British immigrants and have thrived. Researchers from the RSPB and the Bumblebee Conservation Trust have been working on South Island, collecting queens that are being reared in Christchurch.

Sam Dawes, the RSPB’s head of conservation for south-east England said: “The loss of this bumblebee is a prime example of the pressures faced by the UK’s natural environment. We’ve encouraged the flowering plants they love and it is already a haven for many bumblebees, but it is not often you get a chance to bring back a species that has been lost.”

Why Female Moths Are Big and Beautiful: here.

Does Tropical Forest Fragmentation Increase Long-Term Variability of Butterfly Communities? Here.

USA: Relying mostly on maps and hunches, noted butterfly expert Robert Michael Pyle spent 12 months traveling the country, trying to see as many species as possible: here.

Hidden habits and movements of insect pests revealed by DNA barcoding: here.

New Ferry Butterfly Park, a community-run nature reserve on the Wirral, is threatened with closure. Brock plc, the owners of the site, have told the Cheshire Wildlife Trust (CWT), which holds the lease, to vacate the Park and have refused repeated offers by CWT to buy it. The Park site, already a nature reserve and Site of Biological Importance, was bought in 1997: here.

Greenpeace took aim at a decrepit nuclear power plant yesterday which has leaked a carcinogenic cocktail into surrounding soil, calling on US legislators to make the firm “pay the full price of decommissioning”: here.

Browntail moth: here.