
The Large Tortoiseshell was once widespread in southern Britain but declined to extinction by the 1980s. It is a woodland butterfly whose larvae feed mainly on Elm (Ulmus) spp. It is still common in some parts of Europe, but declining in others. There continue to be sporadic records in Britain, but these are largely considered to be of specimens released from reared stock rather than immigrants. (For further details on this species see http://www.butterfly-conservation.org/).
Family: Nymphalidae
Status: Insufficient information
Status details:Insufficient information

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:
There are no records of this butterfly on BMS transects.
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).
Phenology...

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

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.