Map of area covered for records
Butterfly Survey 1976-2025
Ringlet
wingspan: 42mm
Habit: Inhabits wooded and scrubby margins and clearings in almost all of the now neglected and formerly coppiced woodland in our area. Also seen in wooded parks and large gardens. Flies weakly in bright or dull and rainy weather. My first sight of this butterfly was in Tring, but later I found it in and around Shoreham and Bromley - absent in Ruxley during the 1970's. While this butterfly became common during a phase late into the study 2010-2015 in the areas of Bromley Common, Elmfield/Rookery, perhaps during and after lockdown and the increased pedestrian and dog presence, the Ringlet has definitely declined - by as much as 75%!
Single brooded - can be seen on the wing from Summer onwards, earllier in some areas of Kent *
Larval Foodplant: different grasses
Status: common - stable and not under threat. Recovering from its decline in 2012 in Bromley Common and not back to its pre-2012 numbers, it again went into decline later in the study.
WH - White Hill Shoreham (inc Fackended), BC - Bromley Common, Ha - Hayes --BN -Bromley North , Ey- Eynsford (in Prestons), Lull - Lullingstone, Orp - Orpington
Thanks to: Fred O'Hare, Howard Walmsley, David Davis and all the other recorders who submit records or blog in our area.
By Rodney Compton