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Finding that Norfolk butterfly has been distinct subspecies for 200,000 years could transform conservation approach
The endangered swallowtail butterfly Papilio machaon britannicus, which is only regularly found breeding in Britain on the Norfolk Broads, has been a distinct subspecies for at least 200,000 years, according to a study.
Smaller, darker in colour and much rarer than the continental swallowtail, britannicus was previously considered to have developed its distinctive form during its confinement in the wetlands of eastern England over the last 8,000 years, after the flooding of Doggerland.
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Cooling down has become political amid record highs, as experts say row is distracting from work of protecting lives
As the afternoon heat rose to a dizzying 41.7C (107F) in eastern Brandenburg on Sunday, taking German temperatures to unprecedented highs, Mario, 65, took precautions but did not panic. Two years ago, a fierce heatwave had prompted him to buy a powerful device that few Germans own: an air conditioning unit.
“The summers are slowly getting warmer,” says the retired handyman in Neuzelle on the German-Polish border, whose bungalow is now among the 6% of German homes with fixed air-conditioning. “And as you get older, the heat gets harder to endure.”
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Huge numbers of blackchin tilapia, a fish native to west Africa, are wreaking havoc among Thailand’s river ecosystems. Experts – and some chefs – are seeking sustainable solutions
The menu at Kor-Tae seafood restaurant, in Thailand’s Samut Prakan province, is filled with Thai classics – from tom yum talay, a fragrant hot and sour soup, to spicy larb salads. But the restaurant’s chef is also experimenting with a more controversial ingredient: blackchin tilapia.
“People are hesitant, but once they try it – [they say] it’s delicious,” says owner Adisorn Jamsuksaward, who has been offering the non-native fish free of charge to friends who request it.
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Cornell Lab for Ornithology plans data linkup between app and population monitoring on eBird platform
The Merlin bird ID app will allow users to feed real-time bird identifications into one of the world’s biggest citizen-science biodiversity projects in an update it is hoped will aid conservation of at-risk birds.
Since 2021, the free Merlin app, created by the Cornell Lab for Ornithology, has used machine learning to provide an almost instantaneous sound-identification service for birdsong, along with an image for each bird identified. In future, the detections of bird species recorded by people will be automatically collected on the global online database eBird, which contains more than 2bn bird observation records.
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As this year’s invertebrate of the year competition launches, we join scientists studying last year’s winner
Witek Morek is closely inspecting an old brick-and-flint wall on the Cambridgeshire campus of the Wellcome Sanger Institute.
“We are going to use a very advanced tool designed by bioengineers and evolved over millions of years – the human hand – and grab some moss, and put it in an envelope,” he says.
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Guardian recreates audio landscape of past filled by loud morning symphony before 73m wild birds were lost
Imagine a deafening abundance of birdsong so loud it wakes your children at dawn; the chirrup of house sparrows, the chattering of starlings, the melody of the wren, and the clear high-pitched flute of blackbirds saturating the garden, reverberating around your local park, dominating your neighbourhood from early morning to evening twilight.
So loud is the song of the thrush that the naturalist and ornithologist WH Hudson wrote in 1919 that he was grateful when observing one that it was perched on a tree at a distance from his home, “so that when I woke at half past three or four o’clock, the shrill indefatigable voice came in at the open window, softened by distance and washed by the dewy atmosphere to greater purity”.
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Hitchin, Hertfordshire: The broad-bodied chaser is often the first to arrive at a new pond, and sure enough, I spot an exuvia clinging to a leaf blade
The hole in the nest box on our house wall is all mouth. A sparrow chick on the cusp of fledging has thrust its head out, beak open, displaying an orange gape ringed with a creamy-yellow flange. It’s an unmissable prompt for the parents: Insert Invertebrates Here.
I’m watching the spuggies from behind the pond, where I’m perfectly positioned to see the aftermath of another emergence. At the top of a bur-reed, the hollow legs of a dragonfly exuvia (the shed larval casing) grip the leaf blade, while a split in the cuticle shows where the adult has pushed through its exoskeleton.
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The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions considers a hot topic within renewable energy
This week’s replies: Are there places on Earth where humans haven’t been?
I would like to know why we build solar farms over green space, when we could just put them over massive car parks as a popular current internet meme suggests. Chris, Middlesbrough
Post your answers (and new questions) below or send them tonq@theguardian.com. A selection will be published next Sunday.
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As Britain reached its hottest June temperature on record, readers recall the summer when temperatures hit 36C
The recent heatwave in the UK broke the previous June record of 35.6C, recorded during the 1976 heatwave.
In Lingwood, Norfolk, a provisional temperature of 37.7C was recorded on Friday 26 June, breaking the previous record reached on 28 June 1976 and on 29 June 1957.
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By using websites copied from stores such as Aldi, fraudsters hope hot and bothered buyers will miss the red flags
With the UK heatwave expected to increase temperatures over the next week, you decide to invest in an air conditioning unit. But they are expensive, and stocks are running out in the shops as everyone else has had the same idea.
After a quick search, you see that there are other options online, and some from names that you recognise.
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