Abstract
We studied population sizes and mobility of Erebia epiphron and Erebia sudetica, two high mountain butterflies forming endemic subspecies in the Hrubý Jeseník Mountains, Czech Republic. E. epiphron formed two continuous populations containing ≈100,000 and ≈4,500 individuals on alpine grasslands. The butterflies moved freely within their habitats, but movements between the two populations were highly unlikely. E. sudetica formed a system of colonies at timberline sites on valley headwalls and in forest clearings. Two such colonies studied in detail contained ≈4,500 and ≈450 adults and were interconnected by limited dispersal. The negative exponential function and the sigmoid function (this assumes flat decrease of movements over short distances) were superior to the inverse power function in fitting mobility data for both species. For E. sudetica, the functions describing movements within a habitat differed significantly from total movements, suggesting different behaviours of dispersing individuals. The habitats of E. epiphron are uniform and highly isolated, favouring free within-habitat mobility but prohibiting leaving their boundaries. The habitats of E. sudetica are diverse and disturbance-dependent; leaving such habitats is less risky, and a source-sink model may explain the persistence of the species in the mountains.
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Acknowledgements
We thank the administration of the Hrubý Jeseník Landscape Protected Area, especially P. Balaz and V. Kavalcova, for logistic and moral support and permission to work in the nature reserve. J.E. Benes, A. Faltynkova, M. Harastova, M. Horak, K. Chytilova, M. Kaminska, T. Koudela, I. Kurasova and J. Pizskiewicz helped us in the field, L. Berec, O. Cizek, V. Jarosik, P. Kepka, P. Kindlmann, M. Maradova and V. Novotny contributed valuable suggestions to earlier versions on the manuscript. Simone Heinz and Karin Frank kindly sent us their paper containing the SIF function. Two anonymous referees and K. Yamamura commented on previous versions of the manuscript, which much improved its quality. The fieldwork was funded by Palacky University grants No. 32503003/1997, 32103008/1998 and 32503008/1999.
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Kuras, T., Benes, J., Fric, Z. et al. Dispersal patterns of endemic alpine butterflies with contrasting population structures: Erebia epiphron and E. sudetica . Popul Ecol 45, 115–123 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-003-0144-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10144-003-0144-x