White-letter Hairstreak Recording Project

Welcome to the home page of the White-letter Hairstreak (Satyrium w-album) Recording Project

The White-letter Hairstreak butterfly is a Priority Species in the UK Biodiversity Action Plans [BAP], due to population declines picked up by the British Monitoring Scheme [BMS]. However, this is a small and somewhat elusive arboreal species that can be quite difficult to monitor effectively when using the standard transect recording method.

Given an adequate level of targetted surveying for both elms and White-letter Hairstreaks in a number of random sample areas, the project aimed to provide enough information to create a reasonable model for estimating the likely spatial distribution and occurrence of White-letter Hairstreaks at a landscape level. The project also established the likely present range of the species, and to what degree elms could be used as a proxy for White-letter Hairstreak distribution.

The three year project period ended in 2009 but we hope the following pages will encourage recorders to continue looking for this elusive butterfly in future years. We would like to thank everyone that has contributed.