Aug 4, 2026 · 33 min · 12 segments
Join Isabella Tree and butterfly man Neil Hulme as they anticipate the exciting reintroduction of the black-veined white – a butterfly that went extinct in Britain a hundred years ago. Standing in…
Neil HulmeGuest
Isabella TreeHost
Yeah, very exciting project we've got going here, and what we're looking at are potted hawthorns and blackthorns and a further pot with some nectar, which we actually no longer need because the adult butterflies that were in there, having been imported all the way from Catalonia recently, have now done their job.
So it's now down to the important early stages of the black veined white butterfly.
There's a famous saying, the, the caterpillar does all the work, and the butterfly gets all the publicity, and that's certainly the case with this project.
So it's all about now getting these caterpillars through the winter before they emerge next spring, probably late May, into butterflies, and they'll then be released as part of this nature restoration project, bringing back an extinct butterfly to Britain.
So can you describe what a black veined white looks like? I suppose a lot of the, the clue is in its name.
It's larger than a large white, a, a peacock or a, a red admiral, but it's smaller than a purple emperor or a swallowtail.
So it's a big butterfly, a powerful flyer, although it doesn't like to venture far, and it glides beautifully.
It's a wonderful looking insect, and it's white with very well-defined jet black veins, so it's a real stunner.
And, and hopefully when people start seeing this butterfly back in the British countryside, they'll get really excited about it.
And the reason we, you need to bring it back and give it a helping hand is, of course, we're living in a, a very rapidly warming climate, and the natural response of any species to a warming climate is to either move north or to move uphill.
Yeah, very exciting project we've got going here, and what we're looking at are potted hawthorns and blackthorns and a further pot with some nectar, which we actually no longer need because the adult butterflies that were in there, having been imported all the way from Catalonia recently, have now done their job.
So it's now down to the important early stages of the black veined white butterfly.
There's a famous saying, the, the caterpillar does all the work, and the butterfly gets all the publicity, and that's certainly the case with this project.
So it's all about now getting these caterpillars through the winter before they emerge next spring, probably late May, into butterflies, and they'll then be released as part of this nature restoration project, bringing back an extinct butterfly to Britain.
So can you describe what a black veined white looks like? I suppose a lot of the, the clue is in its name.
It's larger than a large white, a, a peacock or a, a red admiral, but it's smaller than a purple emperor or a swallowtail.
So it's a big butterfly, a powerful flyer, although it doesn't like to venture far, and it glides beautifully.
It's a wonderful looking insect, and it's white with very well-defined jet black veins, so it's a real stunner.
And, and hopefully when people start seeing this butterfly back in the British countryside, they'll get really excited about it.
And the reason we, you need to bring it back and give it a helping hand is, of course, we're living in a, a very rapidly warming climate, and the natural response of any species to a warming climate is to either move north or to move uphill.
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