Volunteers wanted for butterfly project

Citizen scientists are being sought to help track butterfly and pollinator populations at various sites across Sussex.

Volunteers will be trained by researchers at the University of Sussex to identify the insects and record observations over the summer.

It comes as figures from the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme revealed in April that more than half of the UK's butterfly species are in decline.

The volunteer-led survey showed 33 of the country's 59 species have fallen since the previous study in 1976.

Dr Chris Sandom, associate professor at the University of Sussex, told BBC South East butterfly populations were "suffering a lot of problems".

"The way we use land we prioritise food, shelter and water for people, perhaps understandably, but we've got to think about nature as well," he said.

"We've got to stop using as many pesticides that are so broad-brush and kill so many things," he continued.

Information from the project will help academics and land managers across the Southeast take an evidence-based approach to caring for the environment, according to the university.

Surveying has already taken place at the University of Sussex campus in Falmer and the Knepp Estate in West Sussex.

Other surveys are being planned elsewhere in the county, the university added.

Dr James Whitehead, a post doctoral ecologist at the University of Sussex, said the south east region was home for some of the blue species of butterfly and those that love chalk grasslands.

"We have, for example, the Adonis Blue not far away from here, which is an incredibly private little butterfly that won't even fly over a hedge," he told the BBC.

"It will stay within a few metres during its entire lifetime."

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