Moth populations have declined across large parts of north-western Europe since the mid-20th century due, in part, to agricultural intensification. Agri-environment schemes (AES) are widely implemented across Europe to protect biodiversity in agricultural landscapes. Grass field margins enriched with wildflowers typically out-perform grass-only margins in terms of increasing...
Bumblebees (genus Bombus) have received increased academic and conservation attention with the recognition of a global pollinator crisis. However, the Bombus subgenus Psithyrus (cuckoo bumblebees), has been overlooked. Psithyrus species parasitise social Bombus species and are frequently viewed as being detrimental to their hosts. This lack of attention, combined with the taxon’s...
Monitoring of odonates has become an important instrument for ecological status assessment of (semi-)aquatic habitats. Besides information on presence and abundance, knowledge about a species´ autochthony at the surveyed waterbody is a significant information within the assessment process. Here, the finding of exuviae represents the ultimate proof of successful reproduction...
Intensive forestry is a threat to biodiversity, and therefore actions are made to mitigate this loss. The actions are, however, designed based on available knowledge about the requirements of species, and for saproxylic insects this concerns mainly Coleoptera, while the diverse but poorly known Hymenoptera has contributed less. In this paper we therefore asked whether the...
The heterogeneity of microhabitats is an important driver of biodiversity. Therefore, conserving habitat heterogeneity at multiple spatial scales is essential to biodiversity conservation. This study investigates the effect and the conservation value of micromosaic heterogeneity provided by the heather (Calluna vulgaris) patches in an Eastern-European peat bog on the spider...
The mountain ecosystems of Central Europe are an important natural phenomenon. The character of small isolated islands also predetermines their vulnerability. Typical inhabitant of subalpine and alpine peat bogs, tiny montane habitats, is the endangered dragonfly Alpine Emerald (Somatochlora alpestris) a glacial relict surviving in restricted area of several mountain ranges...
Euphydryas aurinia is a declining butterfly inhabiting oligotrophic grasslands in Central and Western Europe. Despite numerous ecological studies, patterns of its adult activity have so far been rather neglected, although adult resource use contributes to resource-based understanding of insects’ habitats. To relate E. aurinia adult activity patterns to within-habitat vegetation...
While some species rapidly decline, compromising vital ecosystem services, others are stable or even increasing in abundance. We studied shifts in species richness and abundance of moths over five decades in Central Sweden and examined whether and how changes were associated with phenotypic traits. We combined information from captures in a light trap in historical time (the...
One approach to prioritise conservation efforts is to identify hotspots that are either species-rich or that harbour a high proportion of narrow-ranged species with varying functional roles. Given this, we have developed full ant species distribution models as tools for identifying biodiversity and hotspot areas in Mexico. We predicted ant species richness and potential areas of...
Over the last decades, numerous natural habitats have been converted into settlement areas, agricultural land, and tree plantations on a large spatial scale. As a result, natural ecosystems have been destroyed. In consequence, many ecosystems exist today as small and geographically isolated remnants. To what extent the original species diversity can persist in such small habitat...
Recent studies reporting widespread declines in arthropod biomass, abundance and species diversity raised wide concerns in research and conservation. However, repeated arthropod surveys over long periods are rare, even though they are key for assessing the causes of the decline and for developing measures to halt the losses. We repeatedly sampled arthropod fauna in a...
Eastern migratory monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) have declined over 80% in recent years, but little is known about fall reproduction in the southern U.S. where monarchs may compete with queen butterflies (Danaus gilippus). We provide data on the survival to third instar, associated arthropods, and phenology of fall breeding monarchs and queens in Texas. Monarch and queen...
Climate change represents a threat to narrow-ranged mountain species living in low-altitude massifs. We studied the disjunct Apennine population of Lasiommata petropolitana (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. We quantified the altitudinal shifts undergone in the last decades (1964–2021) in the Alps and Apennines and estimated the local...
The steep population decline of the emblematic monarch butterfly is caused mainly by the reduction of food sources for caterpillars and adults, as well as disturbance in its overwintering forests. Although feeding at the overwintering sites in Mexico has long been considered unimportant, observations show that butterflies feed inside and outside of their forests on sunny days...
Agricultural intensification has led to structurally simplified landscapes with reduced and fragmented resources for farmland insects. However, studies on the effects of landscape composition on farmland insects have mainly been performed in areas dominated by open arable land and semi-natural grasslands, while studies from forest-dominated landscapes are scarce. This research...
Within the Natura 2000 network, there is a legal imperative to protect endangered species. A lack of knowledge about habitat requirements for these species undermines the ability to make informed decisions about appropriate conservation measures, especially for isolated populations that may have developed habitat preferences specific to their region. Carabus menetriesi is an...
Evolutionary traits acquired in response to one type of disturbance will potentially confer resilience to other disturbances that have similar environmental impacts, even if the biota has no evolutionary history of such disturbances. In grassy ecosystems the environmental impacts of grazing have important similarities to those of fire through the removal of grass biomass, and we...
Grassland ecosystems are species-rich habitats that are rapidly declining globally posing serious concerns for biodiversity conservation. This situation is particularly relevant in agricultural areas in Europe. As traditional management practices and livestock grazing regimes ceased, rewilding could be a potential avenue to tackle current biodiversity declines. To test this...
The artificial light sources are useful tools for sampling night active insects, however, they also possess potential environmental risks in their habitats. To test their applicability and evaluate environmental risk for caddisflies (Trichoptera), the attractivity of different portable light traps working with LED, UV and mixed-white light sources was studied and compared with...
Integrating aspects of larval lepidopteran behavior that enhance survival into conservation plans could increase the overall impact of the efforts. We previously recommended that where possible, maintaining 2–4 ramets of closely-spaced common milkweed would support the development of at least one monarch through pupation, based on a seemingly innate behavior in which monarch...
Introduction: Climate change is threatening biodiversity hotspots. Notably, alpine bumblebees, which are mostly associated with a cold ecological niche, face a higher risk of extinction. Bombus formosellus is one of the alpine bumblebees endemic to Taiwan. Aims/Methods: In this study, we use ensemble ecological niche modeling for the first time to predict spatial and temporal...
As growing urban populations have fewer chances to experience nature, i.e., ‘the extinction of experience’, the subsequent loss of emotional affinities for biodiversity (biophilia) pose major challenges to environmental conservation. Gardening, as an everyday nature interaction and window into invertebrate ecological functioning may offer opportunities to develop biophilia...
The tropical and subtropical rainforests of eastern Australia are a major component of the Forests of East Australia global hotspot. Australian rainforests are maintained orographically and are embedded within vast tracts of pyrogenic open forest and woodland. Australian tropical and subtropical forests stretch over 24° of latitude from Cape York, Queensland, to south of Sydney...