Coronavirus lockdown prevents release of rare butterfly

The chequered skipper became extinct in England in 1976

The release of a last batch of a rare butterfly that was reintroduced to England after more than 40 years was prevented by lockdown.

The chequered skipper was always scarce but died out in 1976 due to changes to woodland management.

Offspring from adults released in Rockingham Forest, Northamptonshire, in 2018 were spotted last summer.

Susannah O'Riordan, from the Back from the Brink project, said: "We weren't able to do all we hoped this year."

But she said she was "very pleased to confirm [the butterflies] are still present" in the forest.

Rockingham Forest in Northamptonshire was one of the chequered skipper's natural habitats

A decline in coppicing and a rise in conifer plantations that did not suit the butterfly led to its extinction in England.

Butterflies caught in Belgium, and brought to the UK on Eurostar, were released at the secret site in the forest two years ago as part of the project by wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation.

Another batch of 24 Belgian chequered skippers was introduced last year, but Ms O'Riordan said they "were not able to do another release as planned", which would have been the last in the project.

The chequered skipper's reintroduction was part of three-year project in Rockingham Forest

She said that once lockdown restrictions were lifted, the project team was able to return to the forest and "recorded reasonable numbers of butterflies".

"It still all looks promising, which is great," she added.

And one bonus of lockdown, she said, was that the butterflies "will have enjoyed a relatively undisturbed habitat".

Ms O'Riordan said the team would be carrying out work on the habitat in the autumn and surveying the butterfly larva.