IF butterflies are indeed "self-propelled flowers", then Scotland has just enjoyed its best floral display for a very long time, thanks to this year's hot summer.

It has enabled butterflies to recover from a string of poor years, the world's largest butterfly count has revealed, according to Butterfly Conservation (BC).

The Small Tortoiseshell has done particularly well, returning to the top of Scotland's butterfly charts.

Members of charity BC say the long spells of warm sunny weather in July and August provided a much-needed boost for our beleaguered butterflies, with around four times as many recorded during this year's Big Butterfly Count than in 2012.

A record-breaking 46,000 people took part counting more than 830,000 butterflies and day-flying moths across the UK.

It follows what is being called "Washout 2012", which was the worst year on record for butterflies and had followed a series of poor summers that had compounded the long-term decline of many UK butterflies.

Butterfly spotters counted almost two thirds more of them than in 2012, with both Large White and Small White numbers up more than 200%.

However, garden favourite the Small Tortoiseshell regained the top spot in the Big Butterfly Count chart in Scotland, with the Small White in second and the Green-veined White in third. The colourful Peacock had a very good year, rising to seventh place.

In Scotland, Small Tortoiseshell numbers were up by 300% compared with 2012 and Peacock numbers up by more than 700%. The closely related Comma, which only returned to Scotland early in this century, also had a good year.

In all, 14 of the 19 Big Butterfly Count species that occur in Scotland showed an increase, and 11 of these were up by more than 100%.

However, several species that fared well last year dropped back considerably, with the six-spot Burnet moth numbers falling by 88% and counts of Meadow Brown and Ringlet also down on 2012.

The warm weather has seen an increase of migrants from the continent, with Painted Lady showing a big increase (114%) over last year and sightings of the Clouded Yellow, normally very scarce in Scotland.

Butterfly Conservation surveys manager Richard Fox said: "It has been a truly memorable summer for butterflies in Scotland. Butterflies are resilient and will thrive given good weather. The problem facing butterflies is not the notoriously variable weather but the way humans manage the landscape."