Nine per cent of butterflies, 11 per cent of beetles - which depend on decaying wood and are essential for recycling nutrients in the soil - and 14 per cent of dragonflies species are threatened with extinction in Europe.

Some indigenous European species are so threatened they are at risk of global extinction, and are now included in a Red List of Threatened Species update compiled by the World Conservation Union(IUCN).

The latest study reveals 31 per cent of Europe's 435 butterfly species have declining populations, and 9 per cent are threatened with extinction. The Madeiran Large White Butterfly may already be extinct, having not been seen for at least 20 years.

"This is a worrying decline," states EU Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. "Nature's future is our future, and if it fails, we will fail too. So when a Red List like this raises the alarm, the implications for our ecosystems and for our own future are clear."