I was lucky to get a photo of this female Wall Brown butterfly Lasiommata megera in our garden last year. This species is in sharp decline in the UK. However, butterflies are here the best, most comprehensively monitored group of insects anywhere in the world. Butterflies fulfil a very important role as an indicator for thousands of other species and the general state of our environment. Butterfly Conservation’s report ‘The State of the UK’s Butterflies 2022’ is gloomy reading.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/03/uk-butterflies-vanish-from-nearly-half-of-the-places-they-once-flew-study