The vanishing rate is scarcely believable. Well over 200 British insect species have become extinct in the past 50 years, while some counties are seeing a species of wildflower disappear nearly every year. Yet the astonishing scale of decline in Britain’s insects and plants, now becoming clear to specialists, is not yet remotely appreciated by the British public or the British Government. It is a decline that is unrelenting. Only yesterday came news that the stunning and very rare scarlet malachite beetle pictured on our front page – a priority species for conservation action- has suffered a massive fall in numbers at its main site in Essex, and may be heading for oblivion. For unknown reasons, in the past three years its population has shrunk by more than 75 per cent in the wildflower meadows where it lives – which are themselves gravely threatened. Today The Independent highlights the massive plunge in numbers of British insects and plants – two sectors which between them account for more than 95 per cent of our wildlife, yet which have lagged far behind birds and mammals, the so-called ‘charismatic megafauna’, in public support. While creatures such as golden eagles […]