African butterflies descend on village

Although the insects were seen in the village two years ago, there has not been such a big influx of them since 1996, to the excitement of spotters.
Wendy Wilson, a Chalfont St Peter butterfly recorder, said: "They are everywhere at the moment, and I have not seen as many as this for a long time. I am sure that other people in the village must have noticed them as well.
"It needs to be warm and sunny for them to be seen because in bad weather they shelter deep down in the vegetation. They fly fast and low across open country and roads and look pale orange.
"They stop to refuel on nectar and in flowers, especially in the lovely gardens around here, before continuing their journey northwards."
Painted Ladies fly into the country from North Africa and live most of the year in Tunisia and around the Sahara.
Ms Wilson added: "A good time to see the butterflies is when the sun comes out and it warms up in the morning or after a cool gloomy spell. Gardeners don't need to worry because the caterpillars eat nettles, thistles and other weeds, not garden plants.
"Being under the flight path to Heathrow, it makes a nice change to instead be under the flight path of such exotic creatures