| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 | |
| Area of Search | Surrey |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TQ 420 542 [1] |
| Interest | Biological |
| Area | 45.3 hectares (112 acres) [1] |
| Notification | 1987 [1] |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Titsey Woods is a 45.3-hectare (112-acre) biological Site of Special Scientific Interest north-west of Oxted in Surrey. [1] [2]
A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man. SSSI/ASSIs are the basic building block of site-based nature conservation legislation and most other legal nature/geological conservation designations in the United Kingdom are based upon them, including national nature reserves, Ramsar sites, Special Protection Areas, and Special Areas of Conservation. The acronym "SSSI" is often pronounced "triple-S I".
Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is 9 miles (14 km) south south-east of Croydon in Greater London, 8.5 miles (13.7 km) west of Sevenoaks in Kent, and 9 miles (14 km) north of East Grinstead in West Sussex.
Surrey is a county in South East England which borders Kent to the east, West Sussex to the south, Hampshire to the west, Berkshire to the northwest, and Greater London to the northeast.
This site is composed of wet semi-natural woods on Gault Clay with diverse ground flora. There are a number of uncommon Lepidoptera, including the silver-washed fritillary and white-letter hairstreak butterflies and rose-marbled and alder kitten moths. [3]
Lepidoptera is an order of insects that includes butterflies and moths. About 180,000 species of the Lepidoptera are described, in 126 families and 46 superfamilies, 10 per cent of the total described species of living organisms. It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world. The Lepidoptera show many variations of the basic body structure that have evolved to gain advantages in lifestyle and distribution. Recent estimates suggest the order may have more species than earlier thought, and is among the four most speciose orders, along with the Hymenoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera.
The silver-washed fritillary is a common and variable butterfly found over much of the Palaearctic ecozone – Algeria, Europe, temperate Asia and Japan.
The white-letter hairstreak is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae.
