National checklists and red lists for European butterflies

Dirk Maes; Martin Wiemers; Rudy Verovnik; Martin Warren; Dimitri Brosens; Peter Desmet

doi:10.15468/ye7whj

National checklists and red lists for European butterflies

Citation

Maes D, Wiemers M, Verovnik R, Warren M, Brosens D, Desmet P (2020). National checklists and red lists for European butterflies. Version 1.1. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/ye7whj accessed via GBIF.org on 2024-12-15.

Description

The National checklists and red lists for European butterflies is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It is described in Maes et al. (2019, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-019-00127-z) and compiled from national species lists and red lists from nearly all European countries to prioritize butterfly conservation actions. It covers all 496 butterfly species recognized by Wiemers et al. (2018) to occur in Europe, and includes the occurrence status for 42 countries, including the Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands), and the red list status for 33 of these. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, higher classification and taxon identifier (in the taxon core), the occurrence status, red list status and sources this is based on per country or Macaronesian island(group) (in the distribution extension), and the English vernacular name (in the vernacular name extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/inbo/eurobutt-checklist/issues

We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

We used the same delineation for Europe as in the red list of European butterflies (van Swaay et al. 2010) and Fauna Europaea (https://fauna-eu.org/data-handling): European mainland (Western Palearctic), including the Macaronesian archipelagos (excluding Cape Verde Islands), Cyprus, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya, but excluding the Western Kazakhstan. The European part of Russia (west of the Ural Mountains) and the Crimea are also included, but in contrast to Fauna Europaea European Turkey is excluded. This comprises 42 countries (excluding small countries such as Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City, as well as Kosovo). The Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands), which administratively belong to European countries (Portugal or Spain) were treated as separate "countries" because of their distinct biogeographical positions.

Sampling

For each of the 42 European countries, national species lists were compiled using the most recent literature and/or websites. These lists were checked by national experts (all authors of Maes et al. 2019) of the Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE) consortium, a partnership organisation focused on the conservation of butterflies, moths and their habitats throughout Europe (http://www.bc-europe.eu). The species list of the Macaronesian islands (Tennent 2005) was updated using Vieira and Karsholt (2010) and Vieira (2017) for the Azores, and Báez and Oromí (2010) and Monasterio León et al. (2017) for the Canary Islands. We used locally published species lists and matched them with the most recent taxonomic knowledge and species distribution information as used in the newly updated list of European butterflies (Wiemers et al. 2018). In total, 496 species were considered as being part of the European butterfly fauna, including the Macaronesian archipelagos. 148 (30%) of these species are endemic to the European continent. Apart from national species lists, we also compiled all available information regarding national red lists. Such lists were available for 34 out of the 42 European countries. Some countries such as Germany, Russia and Spain also have red lists at sub-national level (i.e. Länder, provinces, counties), but when a national red list was available, we used the latter for further analysis. Belgium has separate red lists for the two administrative regions that are responsible for nature conservation: Flanders (northern Belgium; Maes et al. 2012) and Wallonia (southern Belgium; Fichefet et al. 2008) and does not have a national red list for the whole country. Therefore, we combined the regional red lists into a Belgian red list by (conservatively) taking the lowest extinction risk category of the two regions as the Belgian red list category. Russia has a relatively old national red list (Iliashenko and Iliashenko 2000; Danilov-Danilian 2001), but only four butterfly species are assessed as declining. We only used relatively recent red lists (≥ 2005), which excluded Russia (2001), reducing the number of countries with red list status included in this dataset to 33. The full reference for all included national checklists and red lists is available at https://github.com/inbo/eurobutt-checklist/blob/e7e63e6728dfbe4612def7d483e5a76b751f0290/data/raw/references.csv

Quality Control

See step description.

Method steps

The source data for this standardized checklist is a Google Spreadsheet, maintained by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO) and updated at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RvxpOYf2ZrTu9nsTLumoi-G-GGhh6_lV37TNtPiVES4/edit?usp=sharing.
We developed a RMarkdown script to document and perform the transformation of the data to Darwin Core, which includes the following steps:
Download the source data as csv files that are versioned on a GitHub repository (https://github.com/inbo/eurobutt-checklist). See https://inbo.github.io/eurobutt-checklist for an introduction to this repository and the mapping of this dataset.
Perform some basic data cleaning of the raw data.
Generate stable and unique identifiers for each taxon (taxonID).
Create a taxon core file (http://rs.gbif.org/core/dwc_taxon.xml) with information about the higher classification.
Create a distribution extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/distribution.xml) with the distributions according to the source checklists and red lists (referenced in "source"). Countries are mapped to ISO 3166 codes, islands to marineregions.org identifiers, and occurrence status to http://rs.gbif.org/vocabulary/gbif/occurrence_status.xml (with the addition of "migrant"). 23 of the 33 source red lists follow regional IUCN criteria (https://www.iucnredlist.org/about/regional) and codes.
Create a vernacular name extension file (http://rs.gbif.org/extension/gbif/1.0/vernacularname.xml) with the English vernacular names.
The resulting Darwin Core data files are uploaded to the INBO IPT and documented with metadata.
The dataset is published and registered with GBIF.

Taxonomic Coverages

This checklist covers the 496 butterfly species of the superfamily Papilionoidea occurring in Europe according to Wiemers et al. (2018). Scientific names published in the source checklists and red lists that deviate from Wiemers et al. (2018) are mapped and indicated in occurrenceRemarks. As a result of lumping names, a limited number of species have multiple distributions in a single country.

Animalia
common name: animals rank: kingdom
Arthropoda
rank: phylum
Insecta
common name: insects rank: class
Lepidoptera
common name: butterflies rank: order
Papilionoidea
rank: superfamily

Geographic Coverages

This checklist describes the occurrence status of butterfly species in 42 European countries: Albania*, Andorra*, Austria*, Belarus*, Belgium*, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Bulgaria*, Croatia*, Cyprus, Czech Republic*, Denmark*, Estonia*, Finland*, France*, Germany*, Greece*, Hungary*, Iceland, Ireland*, Italy*, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania*, Luxembourg*, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands*, North Macedonia*, Norway*, Poland*, Portugal, Romania*, Russia, Serbia*, Slovakia*, Slovenia*, Spain*, Sweden*, Switzerland*, Ukraine*, United Kingdom* and the 3 Macaronesian archipelagos with their 18 islands: Canary Islands (El Hierro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, La Gomera, La Palma, Lanzorate, Tenerife), Azores (Corvo, Faial, Flores, Graciosa, Pico, Santa Maria, Sao Jorge, Sao Miguel, Terceira), and Madeira (Madeira, Porto Santo). National red list status is included for 33 countries (indicated with *), as well as for Europe and the European Union. There are four European countries without a national butterfly checklist that are therefore not included: Kosovo, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City.

Bibliographic Citations

Báez M, Oromí P (2010) Lepidoptera. In: Arechavaleta M, Rodríguez S, Zurita N, García A (eds) Lista de especies silvestres de Canarias. Hongos, plantas y animales terrestres. 2009. Gobierno de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, pp 302-318 -
Danilov-Danilian VI (2001) Red data book of the Russian Federation: animals. AST & Astrel Publ, Moscow -
Fichefet V, Barbier Y, Baugnée JY, Dufrêne M, Goffart P, Maes D, Van Dyck H (2008) Papillons de jour de Wallonie (1985–2007). Faune-Flore-Habitats, vol n° 4. Groupe de Travail Lépidoptères Lycaena, Département de l’Etude du Milieu Naturel et Agricole (SPW/DGARNE), Gembloux -
Iliashenko VY, Iliashenko EI (2000) Krasnaya kniga Rossii: pra- vovye akty [Red Data Book of Russia: legislative acts]. State committee of the Russian Federation for Environmental Pro- tection, Moscow -
Maes D, Vanreusel W, Jacobs I, Berwaerts K, Van Dyck H (2012) Applying IUCN Red List criteria at a small regional level: a test case with butterflies in Flanders (north Belgium). Biol Conserv 145:258-266 -
Maes D, Verovnik R, Wiemers M et al. (2019) Integrating national red lists for prioritising conservation actions for European butterflies. J Insect Conserv 23, 301-330. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-019-00127-z -
Monasterio León Y et al (2017) Propuesta actualizada de nombres comunes en castellano para las mariposas de la península ibérica y Baleares (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). Bol de la Soc Entomol Aragon 60:463-483 -
Tennent WJ (2005) A check-list of the butterflies of Macaronesia (Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores). Entomol Gaz 56:133-138 -
van Swaay CAM et al (2010) European Red List of butterflies. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/9511 -
Vieira V (2017) Vanessa virginiensis (Drury, 1773) in the Azores islands (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). SHILAP Revta Lepid 45:75-81 -
Vieira V, Karsholt O (2010) Lepidoptera. In: Borges PAV et al (eds) A list of the terrestrial and marine biota from the Azores. Princípia, Cascais, pp 188-192 -
Wiemers M, Balletto E, Dincă V, Fric ZF, Lamas G, Lukhtanov V, Munguira ML, van Swaay CAM, Vila R, Vliegenthart A, Wahlberg N, Verovnik R (2018) An updated checklist of the European Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea). ZooKeys 811: 9-45. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.811.28712 -

Contacts

Dirk Maes
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)
BE
email: dirk.maes@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7947-3788

Martin Wiemers
originator
Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut / Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)
DE
email: martin.wiemers@senckenberg.de
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5272-3903

Rudy Verovnik
originator
University of Ljubljana / Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)
SI
email: rudi.verovnik@bf.uni-lj.si

Martin Warren
originator
Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)
NL
email: martin.warren@bc-europe.eu

Dimitri Brosens
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Belgian Biodiversity Platform
BE
email: dimitri.brosens@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0846-9116

Peter Desmet
originator
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: peter.desmet@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8442-8025

Peter Desmet
metadata author
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
BE
email: peter.desmet@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8442-8025

Dirk Maes
administrative point of contact
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO) / Butterfly Conservation Europe (BCE)
BE
email: dirk.maes@inbo.be
userId: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7947-3788