Setback distances as a conservation tool in wildlife-human interactions : testing their efficacy for birds affected by vehicles on open-coast sandy beaches

In some wilderness areas, wildlife encounter vehicles disrupt their behaviour and habitat use. Changing driver behaviour has been proposed where bans on vehicle use are politically unpalatable, but the efficacy of vehicle setbacks and reduced speeds remains largely untested. We characterised bird-vehicle encounters in terms of driver behaviour and the disturbance caused to birds, and tested whether spatial buffers or lower speeds reduced bird escape responses on open beaches. Focal observations showed that: i) most drivers did not create sizeable buffers between their vehicles and birds; ii) bird disturbance was frequent; and iii) predictors of probability of flushing (escape) were setback distance and vehicle type (buses flushed birds at higher rates than cars). Experiments demonstrated that substantial reductions in bird escape responses required buffers to be wide (> 25 m) and vehicle speeds to be slow (< 30 km h-1). Setback distances can reduce impacts on wildlife, provided that they are carefully designed and derived from empirical evidence. No speed or distance combination we tested, however, eliminated bird responses. Thus, while buffers reduce response rates, they are likely to be much less effective than vehicle-free zones (i.e. beach closures), and rely on changes to current driver behaviou

Setback distances as a conservation tool in wildlife-human interactions : testing their efficacy for birds affected by vehicles on open-coast sandy beaches

In some wilderness areas, wildlife encounter vehicles disrupt their behaviour and habitat use. Changing driver behaviour has been proposed where bans on vehicle use are politically unpalatable, but the efficacy of vehicle setbacks and reduced speeds remains largely untested. We characterised bird-vehicle encounters in terms of driver behaviour and the disturbance caused to birds, and tested whether spatial buffers or lower speeds reduced bird escape responses on open beaches. Focal observations showed that: i) most drivers did not create sizeable buffers between their vehicles and birds; ii) bird disturbance was frequent; and iii) predictors of probability of flushing (escape) were setback distance and vehicle type (buses flushed birds at higher rates than cars). Experiments demonstrated that substantial reductions in bird escape responses required buffers to be wide (> 25 m) and vehicle speeds to be slow (< 30 km h-1). Setback distances can reduce impacts on wildlife, provided that they are carefully designed and derived from empirical evidence. No speed or distance combination we tested, however, eliminated bird responses. Thus, while buffers reduce response rates, they are likely to be much less effective than vehicle-free zones (i.e. beach closures), and rely on changes to current driver behaviou

A global phylogeny of butterflies reveals their evolutionary history, ancestral hosts and biogeographic origins

Butterflies are a diverse and charismatic insect group that are thought to have evolved with plants and dispersed throughout the world in response to key geological events. However, these hypotheses have not been extensively tested because a comprehensive phylogenetic framework and datasets for butterfly larval hosts and global distributions are lacking. We sequenced 391 genes from nearly 2,300 butterfly species, sampled from 90 countries and 28 specimen collections, to reconstruct a new phylogenomic tree of butterflies representing 92% of all genera. Our phylogeny has strong support for nearly all nodes and demonstrates that at least 36 butterfly tribes require reclassification. Divergence time analyses imply an origin similar to 100 million years ago for butterflies and indicate that all but one family were present before the K/Pg extinction event. We aggregated larval host datasets and global distribution records and found that butterflies are likely to have first fed on Fabaceae and originated in what is now the Americas. Soon after the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum, butterflies crossed Beringia and diversified in the Palaeotropics. Our results also reveal that most butterfly species are specialists that feed on only one larval host plant family. However, generalist butterflies that consume two or more plant families usually feed on closely related plants

Taxonomic review of \u27Candalides absimilis\u27 (C. Felder, 1862) and \u27C. margarita\u27 (Semper, 1879) (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), with descriptions of two new subspecies

Volume: 24Start Page: 33End Page: 5

Dismorphiinae

Dismorphiinae Klots (1933) divided the genus Dismorphia Hübner into five subgenera (Dismorphia, Lieinix Gray, Enantia Hübner, Moschoneura Butler, Patia Klots), of which Patia was newly described. The five taxa differ quite markedly in structure of the male genitalia, and in a detailed revision of the Mexican, Central American and Antillean species, Lamas (1979) treated all subgenera as distinct genera, a view which has been adopted for the entire Neotropical fauna (Lamas 2005).Published as part of Braby, Michael F., 2005, Provisional checklist of genera of the Pieridae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), pp. 1-16 in Zootaxa 832 on page 9, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17066

Butterflies and diurnal moths of Wongalara Station : final report

Targeted searches for butterflies/diurnal moths at Wongalara Station, NT, were conducted over a 11-day period in the mid dry season 2012. Total survey effort was about 60 hrs during which a total of 249 records were obtained representing 59 species (52 butterflies, 7 diurnal moths). Among these, 12 taxa (2 species, 10 subspecies) are endemic to the Top End and/or north-western Australia. The most significant discoveries were new locations for a number of species: three of these (Candalides delospila, C. geminus, Deudorix smilis) represent substantial range extensions from their previous known extent of occurrence, while two (Comocrus behri, Hestiochora xanthocoma) represent new locations of species that otherwise have been rarely sampled in the Top End. Wongalara Station preserves an interesting and unusual mix of species associated with different bioregions, including sandstone specialists of central Arnhem Land, monsoon vine thicket specialists that occur more widely across the higher rainfall areas of the Top End, and a component associated with the lower rainfall (semi-arid) areas of the monsoon tropics.List of contributors -- Abstract -- Introduction -- Methods -- Results and Discussion -- General comment on species lists -- Conclusions -- Acknowledgements -- References -- Appendices.Report funded by the Bush Blitz Program, Australian Biological Resources Study, Canberra.Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT

Coliadinae

Coliadinae The pantropical genus Eurema Hübner has been extensively revised in the Old World (Yata 1989), and only two subgenera are now recognised: Eurema and Terias Swainson. Klots (1933) treated Nirmula Moore (with type species venata Moore) and Maiva Grose­ Smith & Kirby (with type species brigitta Stoll) as subgenera of Eurema, but Yata (1989) considered them to be synonyms of Eurema (Eurema) based on similarities of the male and female genitalia. Field (1950) revised Teriocolias Röber from the New World and treated it as a monobasic subgenus (with type species zelia Lucas) of Eurema. Lamas (2005), however, provisionally treated Teriocolias, together with the two other New World subgenera of Eurema, Abaeis Hübner and Pyrisitia Butler, as distinct genera pending further investigation of their monophyly. Lamas’ classification is tentatively followed here, although it should be noted that a recent cladistic analysis of molecular characters provided strong evidence that Eurema is paraphyletic, with the Eurema clade (i.e. Eurema (Terias) + Eurema (Eurema)) including the genus Leucidia Doubleday, as well as Terioco ­ lias and Pyrisitia (Braby et al., unpublished data). Although Abaeis was not included in that study, it is clear that the status of other taxa currently or formerly included in Eurema will need to be revised. Two possible solutions are either to raise the Old World subgenus Terias to generic status, or to treat Pyrisitia, Teriocolias and Leucidia all as subgenera of Eurema. Historically, Klots (1933: 184) regarded Pyrisitia and Teriocolias as subordinate taxa of Eurema, but stated that “the relationships of Leucidia are rather hard to trace. It may be an offshoot from the ancestral stem of Eurema, to some species of which the genitalia are very similar.” implying that Leucidia may be the sister taxon to Eurema. The analysis of Braby et al. (unpublished data) shows that Leucidia belongs within the Eurema group, being most closely related to New World species of Eurema (Eurema). Klots (1933) proposed three subgenera within the predominantly Neotropical genus Phoebis Hübner (Phoebis, Rhabdodryas Godman & Salvin, Aphrissa Butler) but treated Prestonia Schaus as a synonym of it. Lamas (2005) did not recognise any subgenera in his comprehensive checklist of the Neotropical Pieridae, treating Rhabdodryas and Aphrissa as well as Prestonia as distinct genera, although emphasised that his taxonomic elevations were partly a matter of convenience until more phylogenetic information becomes available. The status of these four taxa will almost certainly be revised in future. Klots (1933) noted that ‘his’ subgenera were somewhat heterogenous and that Phoebis showed greater intraspecific differences in genitalia and other characters compared to differences observed between other genera. A recent molecular cladistic analysis (Braby et al., unpublished data) showed that Phoebis and Aphrissa comprise sister taxa in a well­supported monophyletic group, although that study did not include Rhabdodryas or Prestonia in their analysis. Klots (1933) placed three species of Colias Fabricius in the subgenus Zerene Hübner (with type species caesonia Stoll). The male genitalia of Zerene, illustrated by Klots (1933), differ fundamentally from Colias, and several authors (e.g. Berger 1986; Cheong 1990; Ferris 1993; Pollock et al. 1998) have advocated full generic status. The molecular phylogenetic analysis of 10 Holarctic species by Pollock et al. (1998) revealed that Colias and Zerene were sister taxa and formed a well­supported monophyletic group. Petersen (1963), Berger (1986) and Verhulst (2000) revised the higher­level classification of Colias sensu stricto. Berger (1986) divided the genus into eight subgenera, five of which were newly described. The subgenera are distinguished by few morphological characters, each showing rather minor differences, and the validity of some of these taxa has been seriously questioned (Yamauchi et al., unpublished data; G. Lamas, pers. comm. 2004). For instance, Shapiro (1993), Lamas (2005) and Yamauchi et al. (unpublished data) did not recognise subgenus Protocolias Petersen, and Pollock et al. (1998) concluded that Neocolias Berger would be better subsumed under Eriocolias E. Y. Watson. The subgenus Eriocolias, however, was not recognised by either Klots (1933) or Lamas (2005). Six of the subgenera, besides Colias (Colias), are listed tentatively until further study. Hemming (1964) introduced Klotsius Hemming as a subgenus of Anteos Hübner (with type species menippe Hübner), but this was not accepted by Lamas (2005) on nomenclatural grounds. Yamauchi and Yata (2000) revised the systematics of Gandaca Moore, although did not propose changes at the generic or subgeneric level.Published as part of Braby, Michael F., 2005, Provisional checklist of genera of the Pieridae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), pp. 1-16 in Zootaxa 832 on pages 7-9, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17066

Pierinae

Pierinae: Incertae sedis De Baar and Hancock (1993) revised the Australian species of Elodina Felder & Felder and, like Klots (1933), treated Elodinesthes Fruhstorfer as a synonym of Elodina. De Baar (2004) subsequently produced an updated list of all lower taxa assigned to Elodina. Stoneham (1940) erected the monotypic genus Pseudohuphina Stoneham to accommodate the species Belenois raffrayi Oberthür, but this proposal has subsequently been ignored by modern authorities (e.g. Bernardi 1953; Larsen 1991; Ackery et al. 1995). Bernardi (1953) described Pseudanaphaeis Bernardi as a subgenus of Belenois and included two Afrotropical species in it, but Ackery et al. (1995) treated Pseudanaphaeis as a synonym of Belenois. van Son (1949) and Ackery et al. (1995) also regarded Anaphaeis Hübner, treated as a subgenus of Belenois by Klots (1933), as a synonym of Belenois.Published as part of Braby, Michael F., 2005, Provisional checklist of genera of the Pieridae (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea), pp. 1-16 in Zootaxa 832 on page 13, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17066

New larval food plant associations for some butterflies and diurnal moths (Lepidoptera) from the Northern Territory and eastern Kimberley, Australia

Volume: 27Start Page: 85End Page: 10

Remarks on the spatial distribution of some butterflies and diurnal moths (Lepidoptera) in the Top End of the Northern Territory, Australia

Volume: 25Start Page: 29End Page: 4