Off The Wall

 The month of May sees the emergence of the first brood of the Wall Brown (Lasiommata megera), usually at the end of the month, but in favourable years it can be mid-month. The mild spring this year meant that I recorded my first Wall on my butterfly transect at Bardon Hill Quarry on the 13th May, two weeks earlier than last year. Mine, however, was not the first sighting in the county this year. Matthew Merkin spotted a solitary Wall at Lyndon, Rutland Water two days earlier on the 11th. This is a significant find as the species was last recorded in the area back in 2004.

Wall in NW Leics.   Photo by Richard Jeffery

The Wall gets its name from its habit of basking on dry-stone walls, rocky outcrops and stony places, and prefers areas of short grassland with open bare patches. It is found in used and dis-used quarries, and also on old railway embankments and farm tracks.

Wall have been regarded in recent years as a species of altitude and coast with a large void in the centre of England where the butterfly has not been recorded for many years. This is believed to be due to the effects of the warming climate. The Leicestershire population has, for quite some time, been recorded within an approximate 2km radius of Bardon Hill in the north-west of the county. Bardon Hill is the highest point in the county at 279m above sea level. Outside of this area the next viable population is found in the Peak District in Derbyshire.

Wall Distribution Map 2022 showing range confined to
2km radius of Bardon Hill

To give you some idea of the drastic decline in the Wall population in VC55, historical records show that the 10 year period pre-millenium (1990-1999) was the peak in the species' distribution and abundance with records being received from 227 tetrads (2km x 2km squares) in the counties. The following 10 years saw that number more than half with records coming from only 106 squares. The most recent 10 year period to be assessed (2010-2019) shows an even more dramatic decline with sightings limited to a mere 26 squares. The last four years has worryingly seen that downward trend continue.

A Wall was recorded in a garden in Holwell village just outside Melton Mowbray, only a short distance from the L&R Wildlife Trust reserve, Brown's Hill Quarry, and this, combined with this week's sighting at Rutland Water suggests that the species may be expanding its range eastward. Maybe, just maybe, that downward decline has halted and we may now be witnessing the beginning of an upward turn in the Wall's fortunes in the counties.

I am planning on visiting as many sites as possible where Wall are known to be present and also sites where Wall have been recorded historically (since the year 2000) as the butterfly may be vastly under recorded. I would like to call on anyone who wishes to help in the search for Wall to get in touch to discuss this further.

For anyone who has never seen a Wall Brown and would like to I can recommend visiting the following sites:

Bardon Hill Quarry, Charnwood Lodge and Warren Hills.

For anyone who would like to visit other sites where Wall have been recorded in recent years and may still be present, I would suggest the following:

Altar Stones, Beacon Hill, Billa Barra, Bradgate Park (by Old John), Mount St. Bernard Abbey and Breedon on the Hill (by the church).

Other sites where I believe Wall could, or maybe should, be present are:

Cademan Wood, Croft Quarry (Old Hill), Brown's Hill Quarry, Ketton Quarry and Morley Quarry.

It's only by getting out and about during the flight periods that we can get a good idea of the status of the Wall Brown in Leicestershire and Rutland. The first brood are on the wing from mid-May to mid-June, and the second brood from the end of July to early September. Any help would be gratefully received and much appreciated.

I will post an update at the end of the season.

Richard M. Jeffery

Butterfly Recorder for Leicestershire and Rutland