2026: A Good Year For Irish Butterflies
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Why is 2026 considered a good year for Irish butterflies?
Let's change our focus for the moment now. We're going to talk about butterflies. It's been a good year, it seems, for butterflies and moths. A few weeks ago, Terry Flanagan, you were out and about with Declan Murphy. Yes,
Derek. One of the advantages of the good summer weather this year has been the abundance of butterflies there's been. Recently, I travelled to Newcastle in County Wicklow to meet wildlife author and naturalist Declan Murphy, who brought me to his favourite butterfly bush, which was completely covered in butterflies.
Now, Terry, have a look at this buddleia bush here beside me.
Wow, it's
covered. It's absolutely covered, isn't it? It's covered in butterflies. Now,
you can see why they call it the butterfly bush. Because it is covered here in butterflies. And it's not just one species of butterfly. There's three, four, five different species. I can
see
the tortoiseshell.
Yeah, there's two small tortoiseshells there. I can
see the whites there. I presume that's a cabbage white, is it?
Yes, well, cabbage white is a general term for a number of different white butterflies.
There's two behind you
there that
are just about to mate
as well. Well, that's a red admiral, so that's one of the common migrant butterflies.
Yes, but there's the whites there. Look, just
coming up to you
there. Yep, there's two whites
there. But
let's get back to the buddleia bush here. You can see also the painted lady and you can see... A
comma. Look, there's a comma. Now, commas are really, really interesting because we didn't have comma butterflies in Ireland before the early 2000s.
Which butterfly species were spotted on the Buddleia bush in Newcastle?
They were an English species that didn't occur here. I've only had them in the garden for the last two years. Yes, they're getting more and more numerous and it's because they've spread. They've spread from England across here to Ireland and they first started in Wexford. And they were a big rarity. There was like two or three and it was kind of keep quiet. There's rare butterflies. And then they spread and they're right up into Dublin now. And they're quite a common garden butterfly. And they're very distinctive. Look at the shape of the wings. They have lovely scalloping on the wings. If you see
any close to the wing there, you can see the distinctive comma sign in
white. That's right. It's a little white comma underneath. And this is a butterfly that hibernates as an adult. Now, this year has been an incredibly good year for butterflies. Why? Well, the past two years have been really fantastic, but this year in particular. And a lot of it is down to the weather. And while some of our butterflies, like the comma here and like the small tortoiseshell, live in Ireland all year round, we have several migrants, the Red Admiral and the Painted Lady. And they come from Africa. So they're butterflies that are associated with warm climates. And with the last couple of years, we've been getting in the spring this lovely warm weather coming up. We get the strong winds coming from the Sahara.
And this encourages and brings these butterflies up. And they're able to breed then more easily as they go along because they don't fly straight from Africa up to Ireland. They breed in several generations. So they keep moving north and north and north. And as long as the weather is fine,
What is the story behind the spread of the comma butterfly in Ireland?
they'll keep on moving north and breeding. And that's why we have so many Painted Ladies this year. And last year was as good as well.
Is it a case that it is so hot in southern Spain, Morocco, places like that, this year and last year, that more of these are moving northwards? It's
more, actually, it's not just that it's so hot there because that's where they breed traditionally. It's they're able to leave there and move further north into areas they may not have bred as regularly.
So
our climate is becoming more like the climates further south where they occur all year round. Like, if you go down... to where the Painted Lady originates from down in Africa, they breed all year. They don't just breed during summer months. There isn't a summer. They breed month after month after month.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why is 2026 considered a good year for Irish butterflies?
0:00–1:27
2
Which butterfly species were spotted on the Buddleia bush in Newcastle?
1:27–2:53
3
What is the story behind the spread of the comma butterfly in Ireland?
2:53–4:48
4
How is Ireland’s changing climate influencing butterfly migrations?
4:48–6:12
5
Why do Buddleia bushes attract many adult butterflies but not their larvae?
6:12–7:33
6
What patterns are emerging in the arrival of migrant species like the Painted Lady and Red Admiral?
7:33–9:10
7
What garden planting strategies help support both adult butterflies and their caterpillars?
9:10–10:44
8
What final thoughts did Terry and Declan share about Ireland’s butterfly future?
10:44–12:23