Summer of butterflies

摘要

Along the south coast last summer, an exotic migrant was spotted loitering in gardens and allotments. The yellow-and-black continental swallowtail looks like an escapee from a tropical butterfly house, but these spectacular insects hatched in the wildand flew across the Channel during fine weather. Half-a-dozenfemales laid eggs on carrots and fennel, and when several keen gardeners spotted its charismatic caterpillars, they called Michael Blencowe of Sussex Butterfly Conservation.