A butterfly has been spotted on the edge of a British county for the first time in nearly 200 years.
The Silver-washed Fritillary was recorded at Havannah and Three Hills Nature Reserve in Hazlerigg, near Newcastle's border with Northumberland, by local Chris Barlow in August, according to BBC.
The Natural History Society of Northumbria said the butterfly had not been seen in the county since 1850.
Stephen Kirtley, from charity Butterfly Conservation, said the species had become extinct in the North East in the 19th Century, but its numbers were growing again, especially in County Durham and Teesside.
Kirtley said he hoped the Silver-washed Fritillary would grow its presence in south Northumberland and start spreading further north.
However, he said the butterfly that was spotted at Havannah and Three Hills Nature Reserve was male and it would not create a colony itself.
The Silver-washed Fritillary is more widespread in Wales and southern England.
Its last sightings in the North East were in the 1850s.
It was not spotted again until 2017, when it was recorded in Wynyard Country Park, near Stockton.
"Perhaps at some stage in the mid-19th Century it became too cool for the butterfly to survive here," Kirtley said.
"Or perhaps changes in land management and woodland management meant that the places where it used to be found in the 1850s and before were no longer suitable and it's not been found in this area.”
