The decline of the charismatic Parnassius mnemosyne (L.) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in a central italy national park: A call for urgent actions

Here we report the strong decline of a population of the endangered species Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758) (Lepidoptera: Papilionidae) in the National Park of Foreste Casentinesi, Monte Falterona and Campigna (Italy). We compared historical presence data (before 1969) with current data from two years of monitoring (2018–2019) and provided evidence of a drastic reduction in the number of sites inhabited by the species. A preliminary assessment suggested that the population of P. mmemosyne occurring in the Park is limited to a few individuals. We argue that the population of this iconic and charismatic butterfly is at the verge of extinction in this National Park, probably because of a combination of habitat loss (i.e. decrease in size and number of areas of open grassland on the mountain belt) and climatic changes. Being one of the few populations of P. mnemosyne in the Northern Apennines, the implementation of protection measures is a high conservation priority. Several other butterfly species on the Italian mountains that are facing the same survival challenges would also benefit from the establishment of conservation actions aimed at improving habitat quality for P. mnemosyne. Present article is meant to call for action researchers, stakeholders, and especially decision-makers in order to increase the efforts to upturn the evident decline in abundance of this population

Unrelated Helpers in a Primitively Eusocial Wasp: Is Helping Tailored Towards Direct Fitness?

The paper wasp Polistes dominulus is unique among the social insects in that nearly one-third of co-foundresses are completely unrelated to the dominant individual whose offspring they help to rear and yet reproductive skew is high. These unrelated subordinates stand to gain direct fitness through nest inheritance, raising the question of whether their behaviour is adaptively tailored towards maximizing inheritance prospects. Unusually, in this species, a wealth of theory and empirical data allows us to predict how unrelated subordinates should behave. Based on these predictions, here we compare helping in subordinates that are unrelated or related to the dominant wasp across an extensive range of field-based behavioural contexts. We find no differences in foraging effort, defense behaviour, aggression or inheritance rank between unrelated helpers and their related counterparts. Our study provides no evidence, across a number of behavioural scenarios, that the behaviour of unrelated subordinates is adaptively modified to promote direct fitness interests

Historical and contemporary factors generate unique butterfly communities on islands

The mechanisms shaping island biotas are not yet well understood mostly because of a lack of studies comparing eco-evolutionary fingerprints over entire taxonomic groups. Here, we linked community structure (richness, frequency and nestedness) and genetic differentiation (based on mitochondrial DNA) in order to compare insular butterfly communities occurring over a key intercontinental area in the Mediterranean (Italy-Sicily-Maghreb). We found that community characteristics and genetic structure were influenced by a combination of contemporary and historical factors, and among the latter, connection during the Pleistocene had an important impact. We showed that species can be divided into two groups with radically different properties: widespread taxa had high dispersal capacity, a nested pattern of occurrence, and displayed little genetic structure, while rare species were mainly characterized by low dispersal, high turnover and genetically differentiated populations. These results offer an unprecedented view of the distinctive butterfly communities and of the main processes determining them on each studied island and highlight the importance of assessing the phylogeographic value of populations for conservation

DNA Barcoding the Geometrid Fauna of Bavaria (Lepidoptera): Successes, Surprises, and Questions

BACKGROUND: The State of Bavaria is involved in a research program that will lead to the construction of a DNA barcode library for all animal species within its territorial boundaries. The present study provides a comprehensive DNA barcode library for the Geometridae, one of the most diverse of insect families. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: This study reports DNA barcodes for 400 Bavarian geometrid species, 98 per cent of the known fauna, and approximately one per cent of all Bavarian animal species. Although 98.5% of these species possess diagnostic barcode sequences in Bavaria, records from neighbouring countries suggest that species-level resolution may be compromised in up to 3.5% of cases. All taxa which apparently share barcodes are discussed in detail. One case of modest divergence (1.4%) revealed a species overlooked by the current taxonomic system: Eupithecia goossensiata Mabille, 1869 stat.n. is raised from synonymy with Eupithecia absinthiata (Clerck, 1759) to species rank. Deep intraspecific sequence divergences (>2%) were detected in 20 traditionally recognized species. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The study emphasizes the effectiveness of DNA barcoding as a tool for monitoring biodiversity. Open access is provided to a data set that includes records for 1,395 geometrid specimens (331 species) from Bavaria, with 69 additional species from neighbouring regions. Taxa with deep intraspecific sequence divergences are undergoing more detailed analysis to ascertain if they represent cases of cryptic diversity

Use of Arthropod Rarity for Area Prioritisation: Insights from the Azorean Islands

We investigated the conservation concern of Azorean forest fragments and the entire Terceira Island surface using arthropod species vulnerability as defined by the Kattan index, which is based on species rarity. Species rarity was evaluated according to geographical distribution (endemic vs. non endemic species), habitat specialization (distribution across biotopes) and population size (individuals collected in standardized samples). Geographical rarity was considered at ‘global’ scale (species endemic to the Azorean islands) and ‘regional’ scale (single island endemics)

Rise and fall of island butterfly diversity : understanding genetic differentiation and extinction in a highly diverse archipelago

Aim. We describe fine-scale diversity patterns of the entire butterfly fauna occurring on the Tuscan Archipelago. By assessing the traits associated with population diversification, haplotype uniqueness and extinction, we aim to identify the factors determining the origin and maintenance of genetic diversity, and population vulnerability to environmental changes. Location. Tuscan Archipelago, Sardinia, Tuscany (Italy) and Corsica (France). Methods. We built a mtDNA dataset (1,303 COI sequences) for the 52 butterfly species reported in the Archipelago, also including specimens from neighbouring areas, and compiled data on 12 species traits and on the apparent extinction of species from the main islands. We calculated indices that measure genetic differentiation, and using phylogenetic regressions we evaluated the relationships between these indices and species traits. Finally, we inferred which traits are associated with disappearance of species on individual islands using phylogenetic regression. Results. The overall spatial pattern of genetic diversity corresponded with the proximity of the areas, but strong contrasts were also identified between geographically close areas. Together with the island endemics, several common and widespread species had a high genetic diversification among islands and mainland. Phylogenetic regressions revealed that smaller-sized, more specialized species, with a preference for drier regions, displayed greater genetic structure and/or haplotype uniqueness. Species that disappeared from islands had a higher population diversification. Capraia has experienced a notable loss of diversity, which significantly affected species with shorter flight periods. Main conclusions. Tuscan island butterflies are characterized by strong genetic contrasts and species differ in their contribution to the overall genetic diversity. By ranking the species for their contribution to genetic diversity and identifying the traits linked to the emergence and maintenance of diversity, we have developed a valuable tool for prioritizing populations as targets for monitoring and conservation action. The dataset constructed also represents a valuable resource for testing biogeographical hypotheses

On the floristic identity of Amazonian vegetation types

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via the DOI in this recordData availability statement: Presence/absence data for the 8224 tree species found across the 1584 Amazonian communities were extracted from the NeoTropTree database (available at http://www.neotroptree.info/data). Bioclimatic variables and altitude were obtained from WorldClim 1.4 data layers (available at: http://www.worldclim.org/download). Soil variables were obtained from the Harmonized World Soil Database v 1.2 (available at: http://www.fao.org/soils‐portal/soil‐survey/soil‐maps‐and‐databases/harmonized‐world‐soil‐database‐v12/en/). Soil Water Storage capacity was obtained from the International Soil Moisture Network (available at https://ismn.geo.tuwien.ac.at/en/).The Amazon forest is far from uniform, containing different forest types and even savannas, but quantitative analyses of this variation are lacking. Here, we applied ordination analyses to test the floristic differentiation among Amazonian vegetation types using data for virtually all known tree species occurring in the Amazon (8224), distributed across 1584 sites. We also performed multiple regressions to assess the role of climate and substrate in shaping continental-scale patterns of community composition across Amazonia. We find that the traditional classification of Amazonian vegetation types is consistent with quantitative patterns of tree species composition. High elevation and the extremes of substrate-related factors underpin the floristic segregation of environmentally “marginal” vegetation types and terra firme forests with climatic factors being relatively unimportant. These patterns hold at continental scales, with sites of similar vegetation types showing higher similarity between them regardless of geographic distance, which contrasts with the idea of large-scale variation among geographic regions (e.g., between the Guiana Shield and southwestern Amazon) representing the dominant floristic pattern in the Amazon. In contrast to other tropical biomes in South America, including the Mata Atlântica (second largest rain forest biome in the neotropics), the main floristic units in the Amazon are not geographically separated, but are edaphically driven and spatially interdigitated across Amazonia. Two thirds of terra firme tree species are restricted to this vegetation type, while among marginal vegetation types, only white-sand forests (campinaranas) have a substantial proportion of restricted species, with other vegetation types sharing large numbers of species.Instituto SerrapilheiraConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e TecnológicoDivision of Environmental BiologyNatural Environment Research Council (NERC)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível SuperiorLeverhulme Trus