Butterflies have thrived in Britain's hot summer, with many native insects increasing and southerly winds bringing an influx of exotic species, conservationists said yesterday. It could result in continental swallowtails more regularly reaching Britain and possibly colonising southern regions.''Conservationists believe the influx of the swallowtail's more robust European cousins could lead to the East Anglian population becoming more adaptable and expanding to use a wider range of habitat and food.Despite their small size and fragile appearance, many butterfly species are capable of migrating vast distances across land and sea, carried by thermal currents and winds.The Saharan conditions of Britain's heatwave and favour-able southerly winds are believed to have encouraged the arrival of some species from across the Channel. Other continental delights include the long-tailed blue, Lampides boeticus, which normally migrates from North Africa to the Mediterranean but has recently appeared near Poole in Dorset and Dorking in Surrey. There have also been sightings of painted ladies, another North African migratory species, as far north as Shetland.The heat has also proved beneficial to native species, including the Adonis blue, which declined by 52 per cent in 20 years.
More were seen at one Dorset site in a day this month than in any summer since records began in 1980. Other successes include the wood white, whose numbers fell by three quarters in the 20th century but has this year enjoyed its best 12 months of the past decade. The rare silver-spotted skipper has recolonised nature reserves in central Hampshire, where it became extinct in the 1970s, and the dark green fritillary was seen in Wharfedale for the first time in 50 years.Other species have spread further north because of the heat. The comma was seen in Fife for the first time in almost 200 years and the speckled wood was found in the Outer Hebrides for the first time.Mr Fox said that the progress could only continue if suitable habitats, from gardens to farmland, continue to be provided. He said: "Butterfly numbers are governed by the weather but without the protection and management of the habitats they need many species would be lost for ever.''. It is a warm, altogether heavenly summer's afternoon and I am spending it in the engaging company of Ben Ainslie, Olympic, world and European champion sailor, watching him as he whizzes left and then right, right and then left, a manoeuvre which in nautical terms I believe is known as tacking.
"You should see my sailing," I say, in an admittedly feeble attempt to humour him as his ball squirts into the trees for the umpteenth time. He smiles weakly.Watching Ainslie all at sea is a novelty for those of us who have followed his frankly awesome progress in a series of dinghies. Next month off Cadiz he will defend the world championship he won in Athens in the Finn class, having bagged Olympic gold three years ago in the smaller Laser class. Four years earlier, in the Atlanta Olympics, he finished in silver-medal position, then won the Laser world championships in 1998 and 1999. That amounts to a lot of medals for a lad who is still only 26.These past couple of weeks he has been back in familiar waters near Athens, this time competing in the pre-Olympic regatta. And in winning the Finn gold medal he has again demonstrated his class, apart from the race last Sunday - "the worst race I have ever sailed" - in which he ended up bailing quite a lot of Aegean sea out of his boat with a sponge.There seems little chance that he will not qualify for the British Olympic sailing team in Cadiz; to do so he needs to finish in the top eight ahead of all the other Brits, or in the top three regardless of how his compatriots get on.
Last weekend's tribulations notwithstanding, the form book rather suggests that he will finish in the top one.Ainslie's achievements in the Finn are already the stuff of sailing legend. He had been sailing the 15-footer for less than six months when he won the world title, which is akin to Frankie Dettori switching to steeplechasing this autumn and then winning next year's Grand National.Quite apart from the technical complexities of the larger vessel, Ainslie ordinarily weighs in at about 82 kilos, ideal for racing the much simpler Laser, but inadequate for the demands of a Finn, which requires sheer weight to balance the boat against the wind."For that I need to be between 95 and 115 kilos. I'm about 95 at the moment, but it's a big challenge putting on the extra weight," he says, tucking enthusiastically into chicken on a toasted ciabatta. We are now back - to his manifest relief - in the clubhouse.In career terms, he is also relieved to be back in charge of his own boat and thus his own destiny. After the Sydney Olympics, seeking to broaden his sailing horizons, Ainslie accepted an invitation to join the OneWorld America's Cup crew. He had to live in Seattle for four months to gain his American residency qualification, before heading out for Auckland. But gradually it became clear that he would not be given the opportunity he craved to helm the boat, not even in training.
