SUMMER would not be summer without butterflies. Who says?

No less an authority than Sir David Attenborough. And that’s why he wants us all to join him next week, in the gentle art of counting butterflies, as the annual survey of this ‘bewitching’ insect gets underway.

As president of the Dorset-based Butterfly Conservation charity, Sir David is a keen lepidopterist. “Butterflies are one of the stars of the British countryside,” he says. “But they continue to be in long-term decline.”

He says it’s more vital than ever to know where they can be found and in what numbers and that’s where the Big Butterfly Count comes in.

He wants us to find a sunny spot and note down the species we see using a chart identifying 20 widespread species, including two day-time moths, which is downloadable from Butterfly Conservation’s website.

Sir David says the 15-minute count helps make ‘a real contribution to our understanding of these beautiful creatures’.

Last year’s Big Butterfly Count saw 10,000 people record 189,000 butterflies and revealed that Britain’s most common butterfly, the Meadow Brown, had its worst year on record, but the Common Blue had an excellent summer.

This year butterfly-watchers are being encouraged to look out for Six Spot Burnet Moths, Marbled Whites, Peacocks and Red Admirals, as well as Commas and Common Blues.

Butterfly Conservation, based at Lulworth, wants to know if the hot, dry spring helped turn round butterfly fortunes, or if it caused the insects to starve as the plants they feed on wilted in the drought.