The Butterfly Conservation charity’s big butterfly count asks the UK public to record butterflies wherever they see them each summer. In 2024 so far, sightings are the lowest in the survey’s 14-year history.

Cool weather in Britain this summer is partially to blame. The butterflies are still somewhere though. On a cool day, they’re nowhere to be seen but when it’s hot, they suddenly reappear, so where do they go?

Like all insects, butterflies are poikilotherms – they don’t produce their own body heat like humans do. Instead, they rely on the ambient temperature for everything their body does: moving, growing and their general metabolism.