The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme

The UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme assesses changes in butterfly abundance across a network of over 750 sites, most of which are semi-natural in character and support uncommon butterflies.

The annual abundance of butterflies at most of these sites is determined through weekly butterfly transect counts made along fixed routes.

At some sites, rare species are monitored by single visit, timed counts.

A new method, involving a few visits to randomly selected 1-km squares is currently being developed with the help of the BTO to better assess the status of common butterflies in the general countryside.

This new scheme is The Butterflies of the Wider Countryside project.