[Pollinator] European butterflies in trouble

[Matthew Shepherd (Xerces Society)]

Europe's butterfly havens are vanishing
3/18/06
Full article in New Scientist, at: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?hbxmail=nl&id=mg18925432.800

Vanishing wet grasslands are making a nonsense of the European Union's plan to halt biodiversity loss by 2010, if the alarming decline in butterflies is anything to go by.

Since the 1990s, Martin Warren of Butterfly Conservation in the UK and his colleagues in the Netherlands have been gathering information on butterfly distribution in 45 European countries. They have found serious declines in almost every country, with 71 of the total 576 species now classed as threatened.

Now the team has classified butterfly fortunes by habitat and found that the areas occupied by specialist wetland or forest species shrank by about 15 per cent in the past 25 years. Grassland butterflies have fared even worse, their distribution shrinking by 19 per cent (Journal of Insect Conservation, vol 10, p 189).

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Another article on the same subject: 

Fears for survival of Europe's butterflies
Fordyce Maxwell;
Full article in The Scotsman, at: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=398642006

RESEARCHERS have warned that more than 70 species of European butterfly might become extinct if changes to their environment continue.
 
Species threatened by grazing animals and wetland drainage include the beautiful Marsh Fritillary of Scotland's west coast and the Large Heath, found in bogland across north Britain.

Martin Warren of Butterfly Conservation UK, who led the research, said the fear was that disappearing butterfly species are "the tip of the insect iceberg". Falling insect numbers also has a knock-on effect on birds, for which they are a source of food.
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The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
Protecting wildlife through science-based advocacy, education, 
and conservation projects since 1971. To join the Society, make a 
contribution, or read about our work, please visit www.xerces.org.

Matthew Shepherd
Director, Pollinator Conservation Program
4828 SE Hawthorne Boulevard, Portland, OR 97215, USA
Tel: 503-232 6639 Fax: 503-233 6794
Email: mdshepherd at xerces.org 
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