Spatio‐temporal responses of butterflies to global warming on a Mediterranean island over two decades

1. One very conspicuous sign that warming is affecting the ecology of butterflies are the phenological advances occurring in many species. Moreover, rising temperatures are having a notable impact – both negative and positive – on population abundances. To date, patterns have generally been analysed at species level without taking into account possible differences between populations, which, when they are noted, are mostly attributed to large‐scale climate differences across a latitudinal gradient. 2. We use a long‐term database (18 years) of butterflies from five sites of the island of Menorca (Balearic Islands, Spain) to investigate how phenology and population dynamics have been affected by climate warming during the past two decades. 3. Both species' phenology and abundance respond differently to warming at a local scale depending on the season. Rising temperatures in spring give rise to greater advancement of the phenology, whereas warming affects population abundance negatively in summer. Additional variability of responses among sites suggests that habitats are involved in the modulation of the aforementioned seasonal effect. 4. We discuss how the effects of temperature could be partially offset in more inland habitats such as forests or deep ravines, especially the latter which represent particularly fresh and humid environments. The positive effect of temperature on ravine populations during the summer suggests that butterflies disperse across habitats as a response to rising temperatures during the season. This dispersal behaviour as a response to warming could be especially important in island ecosystems where the possibilities of modifying altitudinal or latitudinal distributions are often severely limited.PC is funded by a PhD fellowship financed by the Govern de les Illes Balears (FPI‐CAIB‐2018). This work is framed within project GLC2017‐88122‐P financed by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to AT. The Catalan Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is funded by the Departament de Territori i Sostenibilitat de la Generalitat de Catalunya.N

Long-distance autumn migration across the Sahara by painted lady butterflies: exploiting resource pulses in the tropical savannah

The painted lady, Vanessa cardui, is a migratory butterfly that performs an annual multi-generational migration between Europe and North Africa. Its seasonal appearance south of the Sahara in autumn is well known and has led to the suggestion that it results from extremely long migratory flights by European butterflies to seasonally exploit the Sahel and the tropical savannah. However, this possibility has remained unproven. Here, we analyse the isotopic composition of butterflies from seven European and seven African countries to provide new support for this hypothesis. Each individual was assigned a geographical natal origin, based on its wing stable hydrogen isotope (¿2Hw) value and a predicted ¿2Hw basemap for Europe and northern Africa. Natal assignments of autumn migrants collected south of the Sahara confirmed long-distance movements (of 4000 km or more) starting in Europe. Samples from Maghreb revealed a mixed origin of migrants, with most individuals with a European origin, but others having originated in the Sahel. Therefore, autumn movements are not only directed to northwestern Africa, but also include southward and northward flights across the Sahara. Through this remarkable behaviour, the productive but highly seasonal region south of the Sahara is incorporated into the migratory circuit of V. cardui.K.A.H. was funded by an operating grant and D.X.S. by an NSERC visiting fellowship from Environment Canada. Funding to R.V. and G.T. was provided by the Committee for Research and Exploration of National Geographic (grant no. 9528-14) and by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CGL2013-48277-P). G.T. is supported by the Marie Curie Actions FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IOF (project 622716) and the grant BP-A00275 (AGAUR-Generalitat de Catalunya). Expeditions in Morocco were funded by Antoni Jonch Cooperació.Peer Reviewe

Comunidades ictiológicas demersales del mar catalán (Mediterráneo noroccidental) por debajo de los 1000 m. de profundidad

Memoria de tesis doctoral presentada por Constantino Stefanescu para optar al grado de Doctor en Ciencias Biológicas por la Universitat de Barcelona (UB), realizada bajo la dirección del Dr. Domingo Lloris Samo del Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC).-- 490 pagesPeer Reviewe

Taxonomía y presencia de dos mictófidos congenéricos, Lampanyctus crocodilus (Risso, 1810) y L. intricarius Taning, 1928 en el Mediterráneo (Osteichthyes, Myctophidae)

Tablas, cluster, Taxonomía numérica, Distribución geográfica.[EN]Taxonomy and presence of two congeneric myctophids, Lampanyctus crocodilus (Risso, 1810) and L. intricarius Taning, 1928 in the Mediterranean Sea (Osteichthyes, Myctophidae).- The presence in the Mediterranean Sea of the myctophid Lampanyctus intricarius Taning, 1928 is discussed. Several Mediterranean specimens referred to the species L. intricarius and L. crocodilus (Risso, 1810) and some Atlantic specimens of L. intricarius are studied using numerical methods. The Mediterranean record of L. intricarius is thus based on misidentified specimens of L. crocodilus and so L. intricarius cannot be considered to be part of the Mediterranean ichthyofauna. The most important meristic characters distinguishing L. intricarius from L. crocodilus are also discussedEste trabajo ha sido financiado por el Proyecto BATIMAR (CSIC-CAICYT; referencia PAC 86-0081ID 821)Peer reviewe

First record of Seriola fasciata (Bloch, 1793) (Osteichthyes: Carangidae) in the Mediterranean

2 pagesThe capture of a juvenile specimen of Seriola fasciala (Bloch, 1793), a species previously unrecorded in the Mediterranean, is reported from the Badia de Palma (Balearic Islands, North‐western Mediterranean). Copyright © 1993, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserve

Second record of Schedophilus ovalis (Cuvier & Valenciennes, 1833) (Osteichthyes, Centrolophidae) in the Catalan Sea (NW Mediterranean)

3 pages, 1 tableThe capture of a specimen of S. ovalis is reported from Cala Ratjada in the Balearic Islands. Morphometric and meristic characters are given and the possible confussion with other similar species is discussed. Some aspects of the behaviour of this species are also mentionned. The mesopelagic behaviour of the adults could be responsible of the apparent scarcity of S. ovalis in the Mediterranean SeaPeer reviewe

Factors influencing the degree of generalization in flower use by Mediterranean butterflies

Despite the enormous importance of nectar sources in butterfly ecology, little research has been carried out in determining broad patterns of flower use at the community level. In this paper we report the results of a long-term study (12 years) of the flowers visited by adult butterflies at four sites in northeast Spain encompassing an altitudinal gradient of 1100 m and a rich variety of biotopes. The complete dataset consists of 29 305 recorded flower visits by 100 butterfly and one burnet moth species to 214 different plant species. Our analysis showed firstly that the degree of generalization in flower use is a species trait that remains fairly constant throughout the biotopes and regions occupied by a butterfly species. Related to this pattern, we also found that phylogeny had an important effect on flower use. Of the ecological traits influencing the degree of generalization, the length of the flight period was identified as the most important. Habitat preference was also important, since forest butterflies were more specialized than the butterflies of open habitats. The existence of a link between the degree of generalization in flower use and the degree of larval polyphagy seems more doubtful as we obtained conflicting results that contradict the most plausible biological explanation. Our data provided no support for the hypothesis that rarer species are more specialized than commoner ones, but did seem to confirm a previous finding that body size is not relevant to any explanation of the degree of generalization in adult butterflies. © 2009 Oikos.Peer Reviewe

Invalidation of the record of Lionurus carapinus (Goode & Bean, 1883) (Osteichthyes, Macrouridae) from the Western Mediterranean

En base a un conjunto de caracteres biométricos, merísticos y anatómicos se pone de manifiesto las diferencias existentes entre Lionurus carapinus y Coryphaenoides guentheri, concluyendo que los ejemplares citados en el Mediterráneo de L. carapinus, corresponden en realidad a C. guentheriSee article (pdf)A detailed study of those specimens captured in the Western Mediterranean and determined as Lionurus carapinus (Goode & Bean, 1883), has shown that they belong to the species Cotyphaenoides guentheri (Vaillant, 1888). Morphometnc, meristic and anatomic characters are presented in order to separate Lionurus carapinus (Goode & Bean, 1883) from Coryphaenoides guentheri (Vaillant, 1888)Peer reviewe

Hábitos bentopelágicos de ejemplares adultos de Lampanyctus crocodilus (Risso, 1810) (Osteichthyes, Myctophidae) en la zona profunda del talud continental en el Mediterráneo occidental

6 páginas, 3 figuras, 3 tablas[EN] In an extensivesurvey of the middle and lower slope fish fauna of the Catalan Sea (westernMediterranean), the myctophid Lampanyctus crocodilus appeared as acommon species despite using a semi-balloon otter trawl as sampling gear. Allspecimens captured were adults ranging from 5-18 cm. The peak abundance was located around 1200 m, the species becoming notably scarcer below thisdepth. No differences between day and night catches were found. These findingssharply contrast with the results obtained in the upper slope (544-710 m) using a commercial bottom trawl, where there are important differences in daytnight catches. Astudy of the feeding habits of the specimens coming from the upper slope showedboth a marked predominance of pelagic prey and a nocturnal foraging periodcentered in the BBL. The diet of those specimens collected in the middle andlower slope is markedly different, considering the great contribution ofepibenthic mobile prey such as calanoid copepods and mysids. The diminishing influenceof the mesopelagic fauna below 1000 m could be responsible of this change indiet and also may be the cause of the loss of a diel migration habit in adultspecimens of L. crocodilus[ES] Lampanyctus crocodilus resultó ser una de las especies más frecuentes entre las capturadas en un estudio exhaustivo de la ictiofauna del talud medio e inferior del mar Catalán (Mediterráneo occidental), en el que se utilizó como muestreador un "semi-balloon otter trawl". Todos los ejemplares eran adultos con tallas comprendidas entre 5 y 18 cm. La máxima abundancia se localizó sobre los 1200 m, disminuyendo notablemente a partir de esta profundidad. Asimismo, no se detectaron diferencias entre las capturas diurnas y nocturnas. Estos resultados contrastan con los obtenidos en el talud superior (544-710 m) mediante un arte de arrastre bentónico de tipo comercial, en donde sí se detectaron importantes diferencias entre capturas diurnas y nocturnas. El análisis de la dieta de ejemplares procedentes del talud superior indica el predominio de presas pelágicas y, por otra parte, una actividad depredadora nocturna a una cierta distancia del fondo, en el BBL. Por contra, la dieta en el talud medio e inferior presenta una alta proporción de presas epibentónicas móviles (p. ej. copépodos calanoideos y misidáceos). La menor influencia de la fauna mesopelágica por debajo de los 1000 m parece estar relacionada con este cambio de las preferencias tróficas y explicaría, además, la pérdida de una actividad migradora en los ejemplares adultos de L. crocodilusThis work was supported by the research programs BATIMAR (CSIC-CAICYT, ref. PAC 86-008lID 821), ZONAP (DGICYT, ref. PB90-0166) and PUENTE-89 and PUENTE-90 (CSIC)Peer reviewe

Fish community structure and depth-related trends on the continental slope of the Balearic Islands (Algerian basin, western Mediterranean)

Comparativa de abundancias y biomasa de la ictiofauna profunda (200-1800 metros)de las proximidades de las islas Baleares. Mapas, gráficos y listado de especiesA total of 13 026 fishes belonging to 82 species and 43 famllies were collected in a continuous transect between depths of 200 and 1800 m south of the Baleanc Islands (Algerian basin, western Mediterranean). The analysis of 32 bottom trawls showed the existence of 4 groups associated with the upper slope (groups 1 and 2, from 200 to 400 and 400 to 800 m, respectivelv), middle slope (group 3, from 800 to 1400 m) and lower slope (group 4, below a depth of 1400 m) Thc differcnces in the mean values of the ecological parameters species richness, abundance, biomass and mean fish weight were also indicative of distinctive characteristics between these fish assemblages. Species richness decreased significantly with depth. The highest values of diversity corresponded to the samples from group 2. Biomass did not show any specific trend throughout the whole bathymetric range. Mean fish weight show 2 different trends along the continental slope: a bigger-deeper phenomenon at the upper 1000 to 1200 m depth. and a smaller-deeper phenomenon below this depth. Our results are compared with those obtained in the north Atlantic basin and in the western Mediterranean (Balearic basin), and the main factol-s affecting these deep-sea fish assemblages are discussedEU FAIR PROJECT CT 95-0655. European Commission DC;-XIV, FisheriesPeer reviewe