Leader: Rare visitor brings a warm glow

AFTER all the horror stories attendant on global warming it is pleasing to report a positive development as a result of warmer temperatures - or at least a warmer turn in the weather.

The strikingly beautiful holly blue butterfly, normally resident in the south of England, has been spotted in gardens in Edinburgh and the north Solway coast in recent months. It is coloured bright blue and derives its name from its attraction to holly and ivy. Its larvae can also feed on gorse and dogwood. Other butterflies that have turned up in the south of Scotland over recent years from England include the small skipper, a bright orange-brown species, which has been seen in the Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

Quite how permanent these stunning visual arrivals will prove to be depends on what the visitors make of the Scottish summer … and autumn and winter. Scotland has been fitfully enjoying some of the warmest summer days in recent years. That is bound to attract insects and birdlife that would not normally venture so far north for fear of our wetter, colder climes. Continuous appearance over a span of summers would indicate that our climate may have changed, for a period at any rate. Exotic butterflies are to be enjoyed, but so also native species that have so sensibly learnt to take the Scottish climate one day at a time.