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Message: <blockquote data-quote="harry eales" data-source="post: 1623387" data-attributes="member: 3028">Hello Martyn.Not quite correct, Yellow-winged Darters have been recorded in my home county, Northumberland from the 1930's  onwards, however I take your point in that in hot years there can be significant insect movement.  Also in recent years more and more new species are coming into Britain. The Queen of Spain Frits have not been those insects that come here in vast masses, invariably they come in dribs and drabs. Very much in line with the rarest of the migrant butterflies like the Long and Short-tailed Blue's and Large Tortoiseshell.It doesn't really have to be a hot year for the common migrants to arrive here. 2007 & 2008 were quite cold with unusually for Britain what could be described as Monsoon summers. Yet Red Admirals, Painted Ladies,Silver Y's made it here without difficulty. This current year wasn't a particularly warm summer either, but 15 Red-veined Darters were seen on one pond by many observers in SE Northumberland, the most ever recorded in the county. Migration appears to be caused by numerical pressure in areas of Southern Europe and N. Africa. Insect there cannot have any idea what the weather conditions are like here in the UK, yet they still set off. Favourable winds certainly will help, but in most years the summer winds here in Britain are west to east.  I think it is a matter of luck that some migratory swarms hit on a wind blowing towards us from the south east.Odd things do happen though, the first Long-tailed Blue ever recorded in Northumberland was caught on the 13th March this year in a garden in Whitley Bay. Almost certainly an escape from a supermarket fruit or veg dept. But, if it had happened in midsummer coinciding with the arrival of other migrants, what would the claim be then?Harry</blockquote>

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