Changes in the distribution of Clouded Apollo Parnassius mnemosyne (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in Estonia

2013·0.41 MB·

by  Ave Liivamägi

©EntomologicaFennica.8October2013
Changes in the distribution of Clouded Apollo
Parnassius mnemosyne (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in Estonia
AveLiivamägi,ValdoKuusemets,JaanLuig&KadriKask
Liivamägi,A.,Kuusemets,V.,Luig,J.&Kask,K.2013:Changesinthedistribu-
tionofCloudedApolloParnassiusmnemosyne(Lepidoptera:Papilionidae)in
Estonia.—Entomol.Fennica24:186–192.
Clouded Apollo (Parnassius mnemosyne) has been occupying three separate
areasinEstoniaandhasincreaseditsabundanceandpopulationarearemarkably
duringthelast30years.Sincethebutterflywasfirstidentifiedinthenortheast
(1878)andsoutheast(1984)ofEstonia,thespecieshasexpandeditsdistribution
withoverallexpansiondistancesofapproximately135and100km,respectively.
InwesternEstonia,thebutterflywasfoundlocallyontheislandofSaaremaain
1922–1973.Today,thebutterfly ismostlikely extinctthere.Theoccupational
trendofthespeciesinEstoniaisnotinaccordancewithitsgeneraltrendinEu-
rope,whereithasshownacontinuousdecline.WesuggestthatinEstoniathereis
asuitablelandscapestructurewiththepresenceofsuitablelandscapeelements
andstillenoughsemi-naturalgrasslandsthataresuitablehabitatsforthebutterfly
evendespitethefactthatthetraditionalextensiveagriculturalpracticeingeneral
isdecreasinginEstonia.
A.Liivamägi,V.Kuusemets,J.Luig&K.Kask,InstituteofAgriculturalandEn-
vironmentalSciences,EstonianUniversityofLifeSciences,Kreutzwaldi5,Tartu,
51014,Estonia;Correspondingauthor’se-mail:[email protected]
Received1October2011,accepted13February2013
1.Introduction lands(Luotoetal.2001,Meieretal.2005),butin
Central Europe, it is found in forest steppes,
Many European butterfly species are endan- sparse deciduous forests and forest clearings
gered,andtheirdistributionhasdeclinedduring (Konvi(cid:1)ka&Kuras1999).
recent decades (Van Swaay et al. 2010). One The distribution and abundance of Clouded
widelydistributedandendangeredspecialistspe- ApollohasdeclinedinNorthEurope,e.g.Finland
ciesthathasreceivedmuchattentionoverrecent (Väisänen & Somerma 1985), Sweden (Berg-
decadesandthathasbeenwellstudiedbyseveral ström2005),Norway(Aagaard&Hansen1992),
researchers(Konvi(cid:1)ka&Kuras1999,Megléczet andinCentralEurope(Konvi(cid:1)ka&Kuras1999).
al.1999,Luotoetal.2001,Välimäki&Itämies However, there are few studies providing evi-
2003,Meieretal.2005,Grattonetal.2008,Gor- dence in which P. mnemosyne has increased its
bach & Kabanen 2010) is Clouded Apollo, abundanceandexpandeditsdistributionarea(see
Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus 1758). Over Gorbach&Kabanen2010).
theentiredistributionrange,thisPalaearcticspe- Duetothevulnerabilityofthepopulationsof
cies has discrete populations. In Northern Eu- CloudedApolloandduetoseveralreportsabout
rope,thespeciesoccursinflatsemi-naturalgrass- local extinctions or the limited distribution of
ENTOMOL.FENNICAVol.24 (cid:127) CloudedApolloinEstoniain1878–2010 187
populations(Bergström2005),thespeciesispro- Apollo in Estonia during the period of 1878–
tectedinEuropebytheBernConvention,theEU 2010.Understandingthepatternofthedistribu-
HabitatDirectiveNatura2000(CEEHabitatDi- tionandabundanceofthebutterflyisnecessary
rective43/92,annexIV),andnationalprotection forplanningeffectiveconservationofthespecies.
acts,anditisincludedinmanyregionalRedData
Books.InEstonia,thebutterflyhasbeenunderle-
galprotectionsince1995. 2.Materialandmethods
Clouded Apollo has been occupying three
geographically separate areas in Estonia: west, Wecollectedandorganisedallknownrecordsof
northeastandsoutheast.Inaccordancewithare- thefindingsofCloudedApolloinEstoniatoada-
gionalseparation,threesubspecieshavebeende- tabase.Thedatabaseincludesdatafromvarious
scribed:P.mnemosyneosiliensis(Bryk1922)in sources,suchasliterature,insectcollections,re-
SaaremaaIsland;P.mnemosyneestonicus(Viida- cords from researchers and local surveys of the
lepp2000)innorth-easternEstonia,andP.mne- butterfly.Whereasthepurposeofthestudiesand
mosyne viidaleppi (Kesküla & Luig 1997) in thecollectionsofthebutterflyhavedifferedand
south-easternEstonia.ThefirstrecordofP.mne- have been performed by different groups of
mosyneinnorth-easternEstoniawasin1878.In people(amateurlepidopterists,qualifiedlepidop-
1922thebutterflywasdiscoveredontheislandof terists,volunteers),thereareseveralduplications
Saaremaaandin1984insouthernpartofEstonia. ofrecordsandvariationintheaccuracyofdata.
Thelastinformationoftheexistenceofthespe- Mostoftheearlierrecordsweremoregeneral,
ciesontheislandofSaaremaaisfrom1973.Dur- describingthenameoftheplaceorthedescrip-
ingthesameyear,2individualswerecaughtand tionofthelocationusinglandmarkfeaturessuch
30 were reported to be seen (Kesküla 1989). asroads,rivers,treesandbushes,someofthedata
Therearenolaterrecordsfromthearea,despite weredescribedwithina10x10kmUTMsquare.
that many entomologists have searched for the Theaccuracyofthesedatawasseveralkilometres
butterfly. Thesubspeciesisprobably extinctto- butatleast5km.
day. In two other parts of Estonia, Clouded The records from years 1981–2010 were
Apollohasexpandeditsdistribution. takenfromthenationalperiodicalreviewcalled
The geographical distribution of Clouded LepInfo (a publication of the Estonian Lepi-
Apolloisgenerallyrelatedtothedistributionof dopterologists’SocietyandtheSectionforento-
itshostplantsandtocertainenvironmentalcondi- mologyoftheEstonianNaturalists’Societythat
tionsrequiredbythegivenspecies.Thelarvaof collects all findings of most butterfly species in
the species is monophagous on the plant genus Estonia).Theaccuracyoftheserecordsisgener-
Corydalis. In Estonia, they mainly feed on the allybetterthaninthecaseofolderdata,because
leavesofC.solida.Therefore,thedistributionof allrecordsarefixedaccordingtothecoordinates
CloudedApollodependsonthedistributionofits oftheEstoniannationalgridsystem(10×10km)
larvalhostplantspecies. andconcurrentlyinternationalUTMgridsystem.
Theothergeneralfactorsthatmakeabiotope Duringthelasttenyears,recordsofthebutterfly
suitable for Clouded Apollo are food resources (andtheexactpositionofthehabitatpatch)have
foradults,suitablehabitatpatchesandsurround- beenadditionallycollectedbytheauthorsofthis
ing landscape structure. Due to the specific re- paperusingportableGPSunits.
quirements of environmental and habitat condi- Theaccuracydiffersamongseparatedatasets
tions,populationsofCloudedApolloareindan- butinallitisadequateforanalysingthespecies
gerofbecomingfragmented,whichmayleadto distribution for the scale of the whole Estonian
theextinctionofthebutterfly.Therefore,itisim- duringthelongtimeperiod(132years)sincethe
portanttostudythestateanddistributionchanges firstrecordofCloudedApolloinEstonia.
ofCloudedApolloindifferentpartsofitsdistri- Alldescriptionsofthefindingsofthebutter-
bution. flywerelinkedonadigitalcadastralmapofEsto-
The aim of this study was to examine the nia(1:10,000)tothecommonGISdatabaseusing
abundance and distribution changes of Clouded MapInfo Professional 9.0. The database of
188 Liivamägietal. (cid:127) ENTOMOL.FENNICAVol.24
Table1.SummaryofrecordsofParnassiusmnemosyneinEstonia.
Studyperiods Regions No.offindings No.ofsites No.ofindividuals
perregion perregion persite
NE 32 8 1–44
1878–1969 W 9 1 1–20
SE – – –
NE 12 6 1–17
1970–1979 W 1 1 –
SE – – –
NE 19 11 1–37
1980–1989 W – – –
SE 13 9 1–9
NE 14 11 1–50
1990–1999 W – – –
SE 81 42 1–200
NE 57 48 1–60
2000–2010 W – – –
SE 69 44 1–300
CloudedApolloconsistsofdataabouttheexact periods, most records of distribution (82%) are
location of the findings (place name or coordi- from1980andlater.Only18%ofallrecordsare
natesifpossible),classofaccuracyona1–3scale fromtheperiod1878–1979.
(1:exactlocation,2:gridsystemcoordinates,3: During the first study period 1878–1969,
descriptivelocation),dateandtimeoftheobser- thereare41recordsofCloudedApollo,withthe
vation,nameoftheobserver,genderandthenum- majorityofthemlocatedineightplacesinnorth-
ber of individuals if determined and counted, eastern Estonia and only one location (Kübas-
sourceofdataandashortdescriptionofthehabi- saare)ontheislandofSaaremaa(Table1).Dur-
tat. For analyses of the distribution changes we ing the period 1970–1979, there are 13 records
divided our data into five study periods: 1878– withthemajorityofthemlocatedinnorth-eastern
1969, 1970–1979, 1980–1989, 1990–1999 and EstoniaandoneontheislandofSaaremaa.Dur-
2000–2010. The first period is longer than the ingthesetwostudy periodsthenumberofindi-
rest,becausetherewereonlysinglerecordsofthe vidualsofP.mnemosyneseenatthesitesoffind-
butterflyfromthisperiod. ings varied between 1–44. During the period
Finally,forthegeneralevaluationoftherela- 1980–1989,thereare32recordsinEstonia.The
tionsbetweenthedistributionofthebutterflyand butterflywasregistered19timesinnorth-eastern
itslarvalfoodplantCorydalissolida,thedistribu- and13timesinsouth-easternEstonia.Numberof
tionmapoftheplantspeciesinEstoniawasde- individualsvariedbetween1and37.Duringthe
rivedfromtheAtlasoftheEstonianFlorawhere period1990–1999and2000–2010, thereare95
the data are displayed in a grid of 9 × 11 km and 126 records of P. mnemosyne, respectively.
squares(Kukk&Kull2005). Approximately two thirds of the findings from
thelasttwostudy periodsarelocatinginsouth-
easternEstoniawherethenumberofrecordedin-
3.Results dividualshasreached300.
ChangesinthedistributiontrendsofClouded
Thereare307recordsofCloudedApolloinEsto- ApolloinEstoniaareshowninFig.1.Duringthe
niafromtheperiod1878–2010.Ofthefivestudy period1878–1969,thedistributionofthebutter-
ENTOMOL.FENNICAVol.24 (cid:127) CloudedApolloinEstoniain1878–2010 189
Fig.1.DistributionofCloudedApollo(Parnassiusmnemosyne)inEstoniain1878–2010.Brokenlinesshowthe
extentofthebutterflydistributioninagivenperiod.Therecordwithanasterisk(*)concernsasingleinstance
fromtheyear2002(5individuals)withnorecordstherelater.Therefore,the2000–2010linewasnotdrawntoin-
cludethisrecord.
flyremainedlocalinnorth-easternEstonia.Dur- ThedistributionpatternofCloudedApolloin
ing the periods 1970–1979 and 1980–1989, the EstoniaandthatofitslarvalhostplantCorydalis
species moved westward, with decennial maxi- solida are generally consistent (Figs 1 and 2).
mum expansion distances of approximately 30 Corydalis solida is mainly growing in northern
kmand20km,respectively(Fig.1).Duringthe and south-eastern part of Estonia and in some
last two decades (1990–1999, 2000–2010) the areas on islands. The plant is almost missing in
expansion of the butterfly has continued to the thecentralpartofEstonia.Onlyinnorth-western
westandtothesouth.Incontrast,ontheislandof partthereareareaswithC.solidabutnofindings
Saaremaathebutterflywasfoundduringtheperi- ofCloudedApollo.
od 1922–1973 but it remained local and few in
numbersinitshabitatsovertheentireperiod.
Until the middle of the 1980s, Clouded 4.Discussion
Apollowasfoundonly innorth-easternEstonia
andontheislandofSaaremaa.InsouthernEsto- Thedatasetsusedinourstudydifferedinquality,
niathebutterflywasfirstrecordedin1984nearto butweconsidertheirprecisionadequateforana-
theriversPedetsiandPiusa. Sixyearslater, the lysing the distributional changes of P. mnemo-
butterfly was already found approximately 40 syneinthescaleofwholeEstoniaduringthelong
kilometrestothenorthintheAhjaRivercatch- timeperiod.However,onecansuspectmorerep-
mentandfiveyearslaterapproximately35kilo- resentativerecordingeffortintherecentdatathan
metres to the northwest in the Võhandu River intheolderones.Weconcurthatrecentrecording
catchment.Amoresubstantialincrease,30to50 tendstobemoresystematicandorganised.Onthe
kminoccupancytothenorthandnorth-westerly otherhand,entomologistshadbeenvisitingsimi-
directions, was observed in the period 1990– larhabitatssuitableforP.mnemosynealsoinear-
2000. lier years, and a rare butterfly species has re-
190 Liivamägietal. (cid:127) ENTOMOL.FENNICAVol.24
Fig.2.ThedistributionofCorydalissolidainEstoniain1921–2005isdisplayedinagridof9×11kmsquares.
Emptycircle:recordedin1921–1970;filledcircle:recordedin1971–2005(Kukk&Kull2005).
ceivedalotofattentionthroughthedecadesand threeregions and becausetheinitial findings of
is often recorded more carefully than common the butterfly in the regions came from different
species. Therefore, we expect that presence of years, we suggest that the colonisation of these
CloudedApolloincertainareaswouldhavebeen threeregionsbyCloudedApollotookplacefrom
noticedwhereasunrepresentativerecordingofP. differentdirections.Forinstance,toNorthEsto-
mnemosyneespeciallyindifferentlocationsisnot niathebutterflyprobablyexpandedfromRussia,
the issue of this study. Additionally, there is no tosouth-easternEstoniafromNorth-EastLatvia
reason to doubt the study effort in the three re- orRussia(Pskovregion)andtoSaaremaafrom
gions of Estonia where the species is present. westernLatvia.Thisissupportedbythegeneral
Sincetheareaofthecountryisrelativelysmall, distribution areas of Clouded Apollo in neigh-
practicallythesameamountofattentionhasbeen bouring countries. However, there is no certain
paid to butterfly research all over Estonia. It evidenceforthisinterpretationandfurtherinves-
shouldbenotedthatthenumberofthelepidopter- tigationtoclarifythisisneeded.
istshasbeenalmostthesamethroughthetimes. Theresultsofthisstudyshowedthatthespe-
The general distribution pattern of Clouded cialist species Clouded Apollo has increased its
ApolloinEstoniaisingoodagreementwiththe abundanceanddistributioninEstonia.Thegen-
distributionofitslarvalhostplantspecies.Inter- eraltrendformostEuropeangrasslandbutterflies
estingly,C.solidahasnotbeenrecordedincen- andalsoelsewhereforP.mnemosyne,isadecline
tralEstoniaandmostprobablybecauseofthatthe inabundanceanddistributionarea(Kuussaariet
butterfly has neither been recorded there. Fur- al.2007,Setteleetal.2008).Habitatloss,deteri-
thermore,thisphenomenonoffersaplausibleex- oration ofhabitatquality, increasing fragmenta-
planation why the butterfly occupies three geo- tionofhabitatpatchesorcombinedeffectsofall
graphically separated areas in Estonia. Since these factors are the main threats to Clouded
there are rather long distances between these Apollo(Megléczetal.1999,Luotoetal.2001,
ENTOMOL.FENNICAVol.24 (cid:127) CloudedApolloinEstoniain1878–2010 191
Bergström2005).InEstonia,theextinctionofthe habitat patches that support the dispersal of the
subspecies of Saaremaa Island has most likely butterfly. However, specific attention should be
been related to habitat degradation in particular paid to avoiding the disappearance of suitable
locationsandalackofothersuitablehabitatsin habitatsofCloudedApollointhefuture.
thevicinity.Therefore,apossibleexplanationof
the pattern of contrasting trends of Clouded Acknowledgements.Weareverythankfultotwoanony-
Apolloindifferentgeographicalregionsisavail- mousreviewersfortheirusefulcommentsthatgreatlyim-
provedthemanuscript.Thisresearchwasfundedbytar-
abilityandqualityofsuitablehabitats.Similarly
getedfinancingoftheEstonianMinistryofEducationand
tootherEuropeancountries,thetraditionalexten-
Research(SF1090050s07),byanappliedresearchproject
siveagriculturalpracticeisdecreasinginEstonia. oftheEstonianMinistryofAgriculture(T8014PKPK)and
Ingeneral,theareaofsemi-naturalgrasslandsin byEURegionalDevelopmentFoundation,Environmental
Estoniahasdecreasedfrom1,571,000hain1939 ConservationandEnvironmentalTechnologyR&DPro-
grammeprojectEDULOOD(3.2.0802.11-0043).
to130,000hain2006(Kukk&Sammul2006).
However,theareaofspecificsemi-naturalgrass-
lands that are suitable habitats for Clouded
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