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.”