If you think that when you were younger there were more butterflies around, you are right. Butterflies are disappearing from the Maltese islands.

Twenty years ago I wrote an article about the meadow brown butterfly. At the time this was one of the most common butterflies locally.

Alas, this is no longer so. The meadow brown butterfly has not been seen in Malta for many years although it is still found in very small numbers in a couple of sites in Gozo.

Unfortunately, the meadow brown is not the only butterfly that has disappeared from the Maltese islands in the past 20 years. The brown argus and small copper have not been seen for many years and most other species of butterfly have decreased drastically with some, such as the speckled wood, likely to become extinct soon.

The disappearance of butterflies from the Maltese islands is very bad news. It is serious because butterflies are recognised as environmental indicators and the decrease in their numbers is indicative of the deteriorating state of the environment.

Butterflies are good indicators because they are easily seen and identified, making it easy to count them and map their ranges and they have been well documented, so it is easy to record population changes. Butterflies have short lifecycles and thus react quickly to environmental changes. They do not disperse quickly and dying butterflies are not quickly replaced by others from surrounding areas.

Nobody as yet knows the reason for the disappearance of butterflies from our countryside. It is probably a combination of several factors including habitat destruction, pesticide use and climate change.

The loss of our butterflies is not just about the loss of colourful insects. It is about the health of our environment and our health.

We have already allowed our environment to degrade far too much and we must take immediate action to reverse the harm.

We have lost too much of our nature and we cannot afford to lose any more. What is left of our countryside must be protected. Action must be taken to recreate lost habitats and the use of pesticides must be strictly curtailed.

portelli.paul@gmail.com