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Dingy Skipper (Erynnis tages)
© Nick Greatorex-Davies
The Dingy Skipper is a declining species that occurs in discrete colonies in sunny sheltered unfertilised grassland where its main foodplant Bird's-foot Trefoil (Lotus corniculatus) grows in abundance. It can be frequent on disturbed land, especially brownfield sites such as abandoned industrial sites and disused railway land. (For further details on this species see http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/).
Family: Hesperiidae
Status: Rapid decline
Status details:
Status since 1976 is Rapid decline with a decrease of -38.2%
Status over the last 20 years is Rapid decline with a decrease of -40%
Status over the last 10 years is Stable with a decrease of -26.4%
Back to the topLog collated index plot
This chart shows the index of abundance (LCI = Log Collated Index) over time. It shows fluctuations in populations from year to year, and is scaled so that the average index over the whole series is equal to 2 (horizontal line). For greater detail about how this index is derived, click on the green question mark above.
Trend description:
After an intial increase up to 1984 following the huge drop in 1977 after the 1976 drought (that adversely affected many species), the Dingy Skipper has shown a steady and statistically significant decline. Even including the earlier years the trend shows an overall decline which is significant at the 1% level. These declines have not been universal, but have occurred on many calcareous grassland sites as well as woodland sites. In the latter case increasing shadiness is probably an important factor. Increases have been on some calcareous grassland sites. The Dingy Skipper is not represented on brownfield sites in the BMS; another important habitat for this species.
Distribution...
This map shows the distribution between 1995 and 1999. Data is derived from the Butterflies for the New Millenium dataset via the NBN Gateway (www.searchnbn.net).
View the distribution on the NBN GatewayPhenology...
Phenology plot
Phenology plot
This chart shows the average number of butterflies seen on transects between Arpil and October. The black line gives average counts over the full BMS series (1976 to date) and the red line gives the average for the last year.
Abundance...
Abundance
This map shows symbols for the mean abundance at transect sites, with the size of symbol reflecting the level of abundance. Means are over all years.
Coverage
In total, Dingy Skipper has been recorded from 453 transects in the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Of these, annual indices of abundance have been calculated from 465 sites, with an average index of 13 individuals per site.
For 220 of these sites, Dingy Skipper has been recorded well enough to calculate annual indices of abundance in 6 or more years, allowing trends to be calculated.
In 2006, 2773 individuals were recorded from 184 sites, producing annual indices at 126 of these.
This map shows the trend in abundance at particular transect sites. Trends (increasing, declining or stable) are assessed at sites where the species has more than five years of annual index data. Click on the green question mark next to the species name above for more details on how trends are calculated.
Links to lists of sites with particular statuses
• Extinct sites (16)
• Colonised sites (6)
- Stable sites (98)
- Declining sites (40)
- Increasing sites (11)
