[Pollinator] butterflies under threat

[David Inouye]

If you want a coy of the article, I can send a PDF.

David

Thomas, J. A. (2016). "Butterfly communities under threat." Science 
353(6296): 216-218.
     Butterflies are better documented and monitored worldwide than any 
other nonpest taxon of insects (1). In the United Kingdom alone, 
volunteer recorders have sampled more than 750,000 km of repeat 
transects since 1976, equivalent to walking to the Moon and back 
counting butterflies (2). Such programs are revealing regional 
extinctions and population declines that began before 1900 (3, 4). In a 
recent study, Habel et al. report a similar story based on inventories 
of butterflies and burnet moths since 1840 in a protected area in 
Bavaria, Germany (5). The results reveal severe species losses: Scarce, 
specialized butterflies have largely disappeared, leaving ecosystems 
dominated by common generalist ones. Similar trends are seen across 
Europe (6) and beyond, with protected areas failing to conserve many 
species for which they were once famed.

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Dr. David W. Inouye
Professor Emeritus
Department of Biology
University of Maryland
College Park, MD 20742-4415
inouye at umd.edu

Principal Investigator
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory
PO Box 519
Crested Butte, CO 81224