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Habitat use and population biology of the Danube Clouded Yellow butterfly Colias myrmidone (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) in Romania

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Abstract

The Danube Clouded Yellow (Colias myrmidone) is one of the most endangered butterflies in Europe. Its distribution range shrank dramatically in the last few decades due to the extinction of populations in Western and Central Europe. Ecological studies were commenced when populations were already at the verge of extinction, thus our knowledge on the population ecology and habitat use of this butterfly is very limited. Here we report the results of a study on habitat preferences, egg distribution and demography of C. myrmidone in Romania, perhaps the last remaining stronghold of the species in Central Europe. We found that Danube Clouded Yellow adults occurred mainly in mesophilous grasslands created by forest clearing and then maintained by low intensity grazing allowing bushes and forest-edge vegetation to develop and host Chamaecytisus species to grow. Butterflies highly preferred lightly grazed pastures over hay meadows and abandoned grasslands, their density was positively related to host plant density. Egg-laying females preferred habitat patches with relatively high cover of the host plant and tall vegetation. Both apparent survival rate and encounter probability were lower for females than males, and parameter estimations also had much higher errors for females. These indicate that much higher sampling effort is needed to estimate and monitor population parameters for females than for males. Our results provide guidelines for the habitat management and population monitoring of Colias myrmidone, thus may significantly contribute to its successful conservation.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Őrség National Park Directorate for its support for the field work in 2007. Field work in 2009 was supported by a Zöld Forrás grant (K-38-08-00149A) of the Ministry of Environment and Water. We thank to Csaba Tibor Vizauer for his help in the field work in 2010. We are grateful to two anonymous Reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Őrség National Park Directorate, Siskaszer 26/A, Őriszentpéter, 9941, Hungary

    István Szentirmai

  2. Hunyadi u. 55., Celldömölk, 9500, Hungary

    Attila Mesterházy

  3. Department of Nature Conservation, Ministry of Agriculture, Budapest, Hungary

    Ildikó Varga

  4. József Attila u. 35., Csákánydoroszló, 9919, Hungary

    Zoltán Schubert

  5. Tarisznyás Márton Museum, Str. Rákóczi Ferenc Nr. 1., 535500, Gheorgheni, Romania

    Lehel Csaba Sándor

  6. Rippl-Rónai Museum, Fő u. 101., Kaposvár, 7400, Hungary

    Levente Ábrahám

  7. MTA–ELTE–MTM Ecology Research Group, Pázmány Péter s. 1/C, Budapest, 1117, Hungary

    Ádám Kőrösi

  8. Field Station Fabrikschleichach, Biocenter, University of Würzburg, Glasshüttenstr. 5, 96181, Rauhenebrach, Germany

    Ádám Kőrösi

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  1. István Szentirmai
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  2. Attila Mesterházy
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  7. Ádám Kőrösi
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Correspondence to István Szentirmai.

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Szentirmai, I., Mesterházy, A., Varga, I. et al. Habitat use and population biology of the Danube Clouded Yellow butterfly Colias myrmidone (Lepidoptera: Pieridae) in Romania. J Insect Conserv 18, 417–425 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9651-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-014-9651-7

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