IT’S always a bit of thrill when I look back to my Dad’s columns and find myself mentioned. On May 6, 1978, the 10-year-old me had found a caterpillar and wanted to know which butterfly it would turn into.

It was an inch long, had two sets of short legs, six at the front and eight at the rear, with rows of yellow dots running the length of its pale green body. The head was small and green too.

Dad couldn’t identify it at first glance, but, as is still the case today, his study was stuffed full of reference books which he called upon, and sure enough, within minutes we had identified it as the caterpillar of the meadow brown butterfly.

The meadow brown is one of the UK’s most common and prolific butterflies with mainly brown wings, in the middle of which are what look like beady black little eyes with tiny white pupils.

The females can be distinguished by their obvious splash of orange towards the tips of the upper wings. They emerge from their chrysalis’ around late June and are active over the summer months.

Sadly, some of the 59 treasured UK butterfly species are not faring so well. In fact, butterflies are one of the most threatened groups of wildlife in the country, with two-thirds of their species in decline.

Last year, the small tortoiseshell, once one of our most populous varieties, was placed on Countryfile Magazine’s list of the 10 most endangered animal species in Britain, alongside natterjack toads and red squirrels.

The reason was its rapid recent decline of 77 per cent over the 10 years up to 2013. Year after year of wet springs and summers, which some attribute to global warming, have led to a serious decline in its natural habitat.

Other perhaps less well-known species also fared very badly over the past couple of years. In 2017, the grizzled skipper and the grayling suffered their worst year since records began. Grizzled skipper numbers have halved since the 1970s, and grayling numbers are down 63 per cent over the last decade.

The cabbage white was one of those I saw most often growing up, and so was sad to learn that it is in a state of long-term decline.

I do remember a bed of nasturtiums in the back garden which used to be teeming with them. They’d lay their bright yellow eggs on the underside of the leaves, and then soon dozens of caterpillars would appear and feast on them, much to my mum’s aggravation.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. The red admiral is up 78 per cent compared to 2016, and the comma is up an impressive 91 per cent, with both increasing in numbers over the long-term.

The remedy for stopping the decline is pretty straightforward, if not always simple to implement. If their natural habitat is available, then the species will thrive. The thing is though, different species prefer different types of habitat, and not all are easy, or even possible, to replicate.

There are things you can do to attract certain butterflies to your garden and help keep numbers healthy.

They need flowering plants right from early spring through to late September (the internet is a rich source of recommendations), and if you choose different plants, you will attract different species. Place your flowers in warm, sunny spots sheltered from the wind, and put the same plants in blocks together.

Increase the life of your flowers with regular deadheading and by mulching with organic compost. Avoid insecticides and pesticides, and also, if you’re buying compost, get one that is peat free.

Peat, which is a declining natural resource, is an important habitat for a number of special animals and plants, including the large heath butterfly.

Sadly, it’s rather difficult for us to use our gardens to help the most threatened species I mentioned earlier, as their habitats are very different.

The grizzled skipper thrives in woodland glades, wild grasslands, abandoned industrial sites and even rubbish tips.

The grayling enjoys coastal cliffs, dunes, salt marshes and old quarries. But what we can do is support conservation efforts by raising awareness, volunteering and fundraising.

I can’t end this column without commenting on the spectacular names given to some of these fluttering marvels. Who is responsible for grizzled skipper? Was it an old voyage-weary ship’s captain? And what about mountain ringlet and glanville fritillary? And you can only wonder how cryptic wood white and purple hairstreak got their names (Source: butterfly-conservation.com).