Forget the birds and the bees. It's the butterflies, Stupid!

Britain’s hottest April on record has meant butterflies are hatching up to two months early. The charity Butterfly Conservation said butterflies had been emerging an average of half a day earlier each year from the mid-Seventies until last year.

But a manager for the charity, said: “This year has blown all that away. We have had lots of species coming out two weeks earlier than last year, some a month or two months early. It’s really a very dramatic situation.”