Research on nature reserves and at an allotment has revealed how susceptible caterpillars are to climate change.
Dr Esme Ashe-Jepson said this could result in fewer "beautiful, charismatic butterflies", impacting on pollination and the birds which eat caterpillars."We found that caterpillars are really bad at temperature regulation, unable to warm up when they get too cold or cool down when they get too warm," said Dr Ashe-Jepson, from the university's Department of Zoology.
This was in the context of rising average temperatures and increasingly frequent and intense extreme weather events associated with climate change, she said. "It doesn't need to be a massive tree, it could just be a foot strip in a garden with extra long grass," she said.The data was gathered at Wildlife Trust nature reserves at Pegsdon Hills, near Hitchin, Hertfordshire, and Blow's Down and Totternhoe, both near Dunstable, Bedfordshire.