The discovery of the butterfly False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.) in two localities in Istria, between Marušići, Vranjak and Šterna (VL02, VL03) and in the valley of the Mirna Valley near Buzet (VL12) has reconfirmed this species as a member of the fauna of Croatia. At the same time, a review of the collection of the Croatian Natural History Museum has shown that specimens catalogued as C. oedippus from Mt Velebit are either not from Croatia or belong to the species Aphantopus hyperantus. There is an urgent necessity to establish the precise range and size of the population and the degree of threat to it, and to undertake legislative and active measures for the conservation of the remaining habitats of this butterfly in Croatia, since it is one of the most endangered animal species in Europe.Otkrićem danjeg leptira močvarnog okaša (Coenonympha oedippus F.) u Istri na dva lokaliteta između sela Marušići, Vranjak i Šterna (VL02, VL03), te u dolini rijeke Mirne uz Buzet (VL12), ova vrsta je potvrđena kao član faune Hrvatske. Istovremeno je pregledom zbirke Hrvatskog prirodoslovnog muzeja za primjerke publicirane kao C. oedippus s planine Velebita utvrđeno da ili nisu iz Hrvatske ili da pripadaju vrsti Aphantopus hyperantus, tako da su naši nalazi prvi dokumentirani nalazi za Hrvatsku. Hitno treba utvrditi točni areal, veličinu i ugroženost populacija, te poduzeti zakonske i aktivne mjere zaštite svih preostalih staništa tog leptira u Hrvatskoj, jer se radi o jednoj od najugroženijih životinjskih vrsta u Europi

Eduard Kletečki

Mladen Kučinić

Nikola Tvrtković

Otkrićem danjeg leptira močvarnog okaša (Coenonympha oedippus F.) u Istri na dva lokaliteta između sela Marušići, Vranjak i Šterna (VL02, VL03), te u dolini rijeke Mirne uz Buzet (VL12), ova vrsta je potvrđena kao član faune Hrvatske. Istovremeno je pregledom zbirke Hrvatskog prirodoslovnog muzeja za primjerke publicirane kao C. oedippus s planine Velebita utvrđeno da ili nisu iz Hrvatske ili da pripadaju vrsti Aphantopus hyperantus, tako da su naši nalazi prvi dokumentirani nalazi za Hrvatsku. Hitno treba utvrditi točni areal, veličinu i ugroženost populacija, te poduzeti zakonske i aktivne mjere zaštite svih preostalih staništa tog leptira u Hrvatskoj, jer se radi o jednoj od najugroženijih životinjskih vrsta u Europi.The discovery of the butterfly False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.) in two localities in Istria, between Marušići, Vranjak and Šterna (VL02, VL03) and in the valley of the Mirna Valley near Buzet (VL12) has reconfirmed this species as a member of the fauna of Croatia. At the same time, a review of the collection of the Croatian Natural History Museum has shown that specimens catalogued as C. oedippus from Mt Velebit are either not from Croatia or belong to the species Aphantopus hyperantus. There is an urgent necessity to establish the precise range and size of the population and the degree of threat to it, and to undertake legislative and active measures for the conservation of the remaining habitats of this butterfly in Croatia, since it is one of the most endangered animal species in Europe

Kučinić, Mladen

Tvrtković, Nikola

Kletečki, Eduard

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ISSN 1330-0520 original scientific paper / izvorni znanstveni radUDK 595.778:591.524(497.5/1-14)THE FALSE RINGELT (Coenonympha oedippus F.)IS A MEMBER OF THE CROATIAN BUTTERFLYFAUNA AFTER ALLMLADEN KU^INI]1, NIKOLA TVRTKOVI]2 & EDUARD KLETE^KI21Department of Zoology, Faculty of Science, University of Zagreb,Rooseveltov trg 6, 10000 Zagreb, Hrvatska2Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, 10000 Zagreb, HrvatskaKu~ini}, M., Tvrtkovi}, N. & Klete~ki, E.: The False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.) is amember of the Croatian butterfly fauna after all. Nat. Croat., Vol. 8, No. 4., 399–405, 1999, Zagreb.The discovery of the butterfly False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.) in two localities in Istria,between Maru{i}i, Vranjak and [terna (VL02, VL03) and in the valley of the Mirna Valley near Bu-zet (VL12) has reconfirmed this species as a member of the fauna of Croatia. At the same time, areview of the collection of the Croatian Natural History Museum has shown that specimens cata-logued as C. oedippus from Mt Velebit are either not from Croatia or belong to the species Aphanto-pus hyperantus. There is an urgent necessity to establish the precise range and size of the populationand the degree of threat to it, and to undertake legislative and active measures for the conservationof the remaining habitats of this butterfly in Croatia, since it is one of the most endangered animalspecies in Europe.Key words: Coenonympha oedippus, butterflies, threatened species, Istria, CroatiaKu~ini}, M., Tvrtkovi}, N. & Klete~ki, E.: Mo~varni oka{ (Coenonympha oedippus F.) je ipak~lan faune danjih leptira Hrvatske. Nat Croat. Vol. 8, No. 4., 399–405, 1999, Zagreb.Otkri}em danjeg leptira mo~varnog oka{a (Coenonympha oedippus F.) u Istri na dva lokalitetaizme|u sela Maru{i}i, Vranjak i [terna (VL02, VL03), te u dolini rijeke Mirne uz Buzet (VL12), ovavrsta je potvr|ena kao ~lan faune Hrvatske. Istovremeno je pregledom zbirke Hrvatskog prirodo-slovnog muzeja za primjerke publicirane kao C. oedippus s planine Velebita utvr|eno da ili nisu izHrvatske ili da pripadaju vrsti Aphantopus hyperantus, tako da su na{i nalazi prvi dokumentiraninalazi za Hrvatsku. Hitno treba utvrditi to~ni areal, veli~inu i ugro`enost populacija, te poduzetizakonske i aktivne mjere za{tite svih preostalih stani{ta tog leptira u Hrvatskoj, jer se radi o jednojod najugro`enijih `ivotinjskih vrsta u Europi.Klju~ne rije~i: Coenonympha oedippus, danji leptiri, ugro`ene vrste, Istra, HrvatskaINTRODUCTIONKOLAR (1929) was the first to suppose that the False Ringelt, Coenonympha oedip-pus F., lives in Croatia. In a review of the distribution of the species known at theNAT. CROAT. VOL. 8 No 4 399¿405 ZAGREB December 31, 1999Croatian Natural History Museum, Demetrova 1, Zagreb, Croatiatime, as well as in Trebevi} in Bosnia, later disputed by Sijari} (1984), and Strunjan(Strugnano) in the Slovene part of Istria, he wrote that the False Ringelt also proba-bly came to the vicinity of Pula (“Angeblich soll oedipus auch bei Pola vorkom-men”). MLADINOV (1973) in the Catalogue of Butterflies of Croatia of the NationalZoological Museum in Zagreb (today the Zoological Department of the CroatianNatural History Museum) wrote that there were 11 specimens of the False Ringeltwith labels: Velebit, July 1908 and 1912, inv. nos. 5426–5437, all from the Taborskycollection. In the same collection, which the amateur lepidopterologist and citysenator D. Taborsky gave to the then National Museum in Zagreb, there are alsospecimens with dubious finding locations, for example, Erebia stirius Godt. from(Isl.?) Vis! All unconfirmed species from similar collections, without a precise local-ity, are omitted from the list of Croatian butterflies (LORKOVI], unpublished MS).SIJARI] (1978, 1984) and JAK[I] (1988) in their surveys for the former Yugoslaviastate that the False Ringelt lives only in Slovenia. SIJARI] (1984) wrote that Kolar’sdate for Strunjan (UL94) had not been confirmed after 1900. JAK[I] (1988), accord-ing to data from older literature recorded this species for the Dragonja valley (threeUTM squares of 10 x 10 km: UL83, UL93, VL03) as well as for the areas aroundLjubljana and Gorica. ^ELIK & REBEU[EK (1996) confirm only an unnamed localityclose to the mouth of the Dragonja River (UL93), and also cite UTM square UL94;very likely this is the locality Nova Vas near Portoro`, where Z. Lorkovi} and400 Ku~ini}, M. et al.: The False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.)Fig. 1. The distribution (points) of the False Ringelt established in northern Istria(Croatia) together with localities already known in neighbouring Slovenia (circles)according to ^ELIK & REBEU[EK (1996). Only individual squares (UTM 10 x 10 km)of the finds are marked.Schaider found the butterfly in 1980. Since the finds along the Dragonja are right bythe Croatian frontier, and the species is on the list of threatened animals of theworld (GROOMBRIDGE, 1994), we have made an effort to investigate some habitatssuitable for this species in the Croatian part of Istria.MATERIAL AND METHODSOn June 16 and June 24 1999 we had the opportunity to make a tour of the wetflysch-geology valleys in northern Istria and look over potential habitats in the areaof Pula. Adult butterflies were caught by the classical method with an entomologi-cal net. Specimens of Coenonympha oedippus are kept in the Croatian Natural His-tory Museum in Zagreb, inventory nos 9300 – 9306. All entomological collections ofthe Zoology Department of the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb werealso scrutinised, i.e., the Gu{i}, Igalffy and Lorkovi} collections, as well as thosespecimens that were marked C. oedippus in the catalogue of the Central ButterflyCollection (MLADINOV, 1973). The collections of the Zagreb Faculty of Forestry werealso examined, and the Ko{~ec butterfly collection of the Vara`din Municipal Mu-seum. Identification according to morphological characteristics of the wings wasdone according to SCHW. BUND FÜR NATURSCHUTZ (1987) and TOLMAN & LEWING-TON (1997), while checks on possibly disputable specimens were done by makinggenital preparations (M. Ku~ini}) and identification according to HIGGINS (1975)and JAK[I] (1998).RESULTSOn the very first field trip in northern Istria on June 16 (Fig. 1) around the ham-let of Bazuja by the brook of the same name not far from the village of Maru{i}i(VL02) at 245 m a.s.l. we came upon a population of C. oedippus (Fig. 2) on a wetmeadow between cultivated fields. The meadow was partially overgrown with sev-eral bushes and reeds (Phragmites communis), while of other plants, apart from thegrass Molinia caeruleus and the sedges (Carex sp.), there were many Epipactis palus-tris orchids, as well as ribwort plantain (Plantago lanceolata). A large number ofFalse Ringelt imagoes were sheltering from the rain in the reeds and bushes. OnJune 24 we looked in more detail over the area along Bazuja brook and determinedC. oedippus to be distributed over the whole 3 km long valley up towards the sourcebelow the village of Vranjak (VL03). In the same habitat, Heteropterus morpheus Pall.,Artogeia mannii May., Leptidea sinapis L., Colias crocea Geoff. in Four, Melitaea didymaEsp., Melanargia galathea L., Coenonympha arcania L. and C. pamphilus L. were caughttoo. To the east of Maru{i}i towards Zrenje there are six more flysch valleys stretch-ing north-south, all with brooks ending in swallow holes. Going round Jugovskibrook, not far from the village of [tern, we found several specimens of False Rin-gelt, yet by Malinska brook, near ^epi}, we found only the also endangered speciesHeteropterus morpheus. The False Ringelt was found at localities twenty kilometersNat. Croat. Vol. 8(4), 1999 401off, alongside the right edge of the Mirna River valley from Buzet (VL12) to its en-try into the karst canyon towards Istarske Toplice. There were two localities also onflysch and on water meadows, which were already quite overgrown with bushes,for mowing is clearly no longer done.Looking over the Central Collection of Rhopalocera of the Zoological Depart-ment of the Croatian Natural History Museum, it was found that of the 11 allegedspecimens of C. oedippus (MLADINOV, 1973), but only four belonged to the TaborskyCollection (nos. 5436 – 28, 5437). Two were from Moosbrun, Lower Austria, from1906 and 1908, and a third with an illegible label (Au?ay) and with two labels withdifferently marked years of catching (1906, 1908). A fourth, a male, had a labelmarked Velebit (no. 5426) and the date June 9, 1912. This specimen was wronglyidentified: a careful examination of the markings on the wings and the genitalpreparation showed that it belonged to the morphologically similar species Aphan-topus hyperantus L. The other specimens are from the Locke Collection: no. 5429 isfrom Switzerland, and nos. 5430 – 5436 have no locality marked. The False Ringeltwas found neither in other collections inspected nor in a purposeful search in theneighbourhood of Pula. On June 24 one of the last extant swamps, Velika Budava,was searched, but without success.402 Ku~ini}, M. et al.: The False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.)Fig. 2. Photograph of the False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.) from a locality nearBuzet (Istria, Croatia). Photo: B. Jal`i}.DISCUSSIONLooking through the specimens from the collections of the Zoological Depart-ment of the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb it was definitely con-firmed that C. oedippus has never been found on Mt. Velebit, as assumed by SIJARI](1984). Nor was the record of KOLAR (1929) about a possible finding place near Pulaconfirmed, our finds of the species from northern Istria thus probably being thevery first in Croatia.Finds in the last seven years of Coenonympha oedippus and of three species more:Colias erate Esp. (LORKOVI] et al., 1992), Leptidea reali Reiss. (LORKOVI], 1993) andZerynthia cerisy God. (SALA & BOLLINO, 1994), previously unknown in Croatia, haveshown that the Rhopalocera fauna of Croatia is not yet thoroughly known. It can beassumed that during further research three or four more species of butterfly will bediscovered for Croatian fauna. It is essential, however, as soon as possible to mapthe habitats of the most endangered of the known species, especially those relatedto wet meadows, which are most directly exposed to anthropogenic influences.There are no concrete data about how endangered these species really are, or aboutthe population ecology of individual species, especially about the sizes and naturalfluctuations in the sizes of populations. Protection plans, in concert with neigh-bouring Slovenia, should be urgently drawn up for some of the species, such as C.oedippus in Istria, and the rich butterflies fauna of the Kupa valley (LORKOVI] &MLADINOV, 1971) and @umberak (Gorjanci) Mts. These border areas are marked bya good deal of biological diversity thanks to their varied underlying geology andtheir geomorphology, their exceptional biogeographical position and the complexhistory of colonisation. In the Croatian part, because of the relatively suddenchanges in land use (both grazing and mowing have stopped) there have beenabrupt changes in the habitats, which can threaten the survival of species the popu-lations of which are restricted to narrow areas on either side of the frontier.HEATH (1981) determined the status of C. oedippus in Europe as endangered (EN),while GROOMBRIDGE (1994) put the butterfly on the list of the most threatened spe-cies of the world. ^ELIK & REBEU[EK (1996) also consider it an endangered speciesin the fauna of neighbouring Slovenia. The species is only known from some iso-lated localities in Slovenia, and is extinct in Germany, Styria, the Czech Republicand Slovakia. It is endangered because of land drainage and grassland improve-ment in its primary habitats, which are natural and semi-natural wet lowland Mo-linia meadows on the edges of bogs and streams (HEATH, 1981). Accordingly, inCroatia this species needs legislative protection and an urgent conservation plan.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWe thank Branko Jal`i} and Mladen Vajdi} for help in field research assisted byScientific Research Project no. 183005 of the Ministry of Science and Technology; cu-rator Martina [a{i} for kindly letting us see the collection of butterflies of the Zoo-logical Department of the Croatian Natural History Museum, Zagreb, curator An-Nat. Croat. Vol. 8(4), 1999 403tica Bregovi} for being able to see the Ko{}ec Collection of the Vara`din MunicipalMuseum and doc. dr. B. Hra{ovec for a view of the collection of the Faculty of For-estry, Zagreb.REFERENCES^ELIK, T. & REBEU[EK, F., 1996: Atlas ogro`enih vrst dnevnih metuljev Slovenije. Slov. ent.dru{tvo [tefana Michielija, Ljubljana.GROOMBRIDGE, B. (ed.), 1994: IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN Gland, Switzer-land and Cambridge, UK.HEATH, J., 1981: Threatened Rhopalocera (butterflies) in Europe. Council of Europe, Natureand Enviroment Series 23, Strasbourg.HIGGINS, R., 1975: The classification of European butterflies. Collins, London.JAK[I], P., 1988: Privremene karte rasprostranjenja dnevnih leptira Jugoslavije (Lepidoptera,Rhopalocera). Jugosl. ent. dru{tvo, posebna izdanja 1, 1–217, Zagreb.JAK[I], P., 1998: Male genitalia of butterflies on Balkan peninsula with a check-list. Franti{ekSlamka, Bratislava.KOLAR, H., 1929: Verbreitung von Coenonympha oedipus F. in Europa. Verh. Zool.-Bot. Ge-sellschaft Wien, 78, 105–108.LORKOVI], Z., (unpublished manuscript): Fauna Rhopalocera Hrvatske s osobitim obzirom nafaunu Plitvi~kih jezera. Arhiv Hrvatskog prirodoslovnog muzeja u Zagrebu.LORKOVI], Z. & MLADINOV, L., 1971: Lepidoptera iz doline gornjeg toka rijeke Kupe I. Rhopa-locera i Hesperidae. Acta entomol. Jugosl. 7 (2), 65–70.LORKOVI], Z., SILADJEV, S. & KRANJ^EV, R., 1992: Die Einwanderung von Colias erate (Esper,1804) nach Mitteleuropa in den Jahren 1989 und 1990, ihre Überwinterung, Polymorphis-mus und Genetik. Atalanta 23 (1–2), 89–102.LORKOVI], Z., 1993: Leptidea reali Reissinger 1989 (= lorkovici Real, 1988), a new European spe-cies (Lepid., Pieridae). Nat. Croat. 2 (1), 1–26.MLADINOV, L., 1973: Lepidoptera (Rhopalocera) zbirke Hrvatskog narodnog zoolo{kog muzejau Zagrebu. HNZM 7, 1–125.SALA, G. & BOLLINO, G., 1994: Allancastria cerisyi Godart, 1822 in the Balkans new subspeciesand critical notes on the existing populations (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae). Atalanta 25(1–2), 151–160.SCHWEIZERISCHER BUND fÜR NATURSCHUTZ, 1987: Tagfalter und ihre Lebensräume, Arten-Gefährdung – Schutz, Schweiz und angrenzende Gebiete. K. Holliger, Basel.SIJARI], R., 1978: Prilog poznavanju rasprostranjenja vrsta roda Coenonympha (Lepidoptera) uJugoslaviji. Acta entomol. Jugosl. 14 (1–2), 59–62.SIJARI], R., 1984: Vrste roda Coenonympha u Jugoslaviji. Glasnik Zem. Muz., NS 23, 1–106.TOLMAN, T. & LEWINGTON, R., 1997: Butterflies of Britain & Europe. Harper Collins, London.404 Ku~ini}, M. et al.: The False Ringelt (Coenonympha oedippus F.)SA@ E TAKMo~varni oka{ (Coenonympha oedippus F.) je ipak ~lan faunedanjih leptira HrvatskeM. Ku~ini}, N. Tvrtkovi} & E. Klete~kiIako je jo{ KOLAR (1929) pretpostavio da mo~varni oka{ (Coenonympha oedippusF.) `ivi u Hrvatskoj, a MLADINOV (1973) ga navodi za planinu Velebit, on je dosadbio izostavljen iz popisa leptira Hrvatske (LORKOVI], rukopis; SIJARI] 1978, 1984;JAK[I], 1988). Pregledom sredi{nje zbirke danjih leptira Zoolo{kog odjela Hrvatskogaprirodoslovnog muzeja utvr|eno je da su podaci koje je objavila MLADINOV (1973)neto~ni, a pregledom ostalih entomolo{kih zbirki da nema dokaznih primjeraka ovevrste za Hrvatsku. Kako je mo~varni oka{ zabilje`en u susjednoj Sloveniji za dolinuDragonje (^ELIK & REBEU[EK, 1996) koja je neposredno uz granicu s Hrvatskom, aleptir se nalazi na popisu najugro`enijih `ivotinjskih vrsta Europe (GROOMBRIDGE,1994), u lipnju 1999. godine obi{li smo u Istri dio vla`nih livada na kojima bi onmogao `ivjeti. U dva terenska istra`ivanja prona|en je ovaj izrazito stenotopi~nileptir u fli{noj dolini uz potok Bazuja izme|u sela Maru{i}i (VL02) i Vranjak(VL03), uz Jugovski potok nedaleko sela [terna, te na dva lokaliteta uz desni rubdoline Mirne izme|u Buzeta (VL12) i kr{kog kanjona prema Istarskim Toplicama.Osim {to je ovim nalazom pove}an broj poznatih vrsta danjih leptira Hrvatske,on bi trebao biti poticaj za budu}a istra`ivanja to~nijeg rasprostranjenja, ekologije istupnja ugro`enosti mo~varnog oka{a u Hrvatskoj. Zbog relativno naglih promjenau gospodarenju (prestanak ispa{e i ko{nje livada), dolazi do nagle izmjene stani{ta imogli bismo uskoro ostati bez ove u Europi ugro`ene (EN) vrste, pa su ovakva is-tra`ivanja nu`ni preduvjet ukoliko `elimo zadr`ati sada{nju biolo{ku raznolikost.Vrstu bi odmah trebalo zakonski za{tititi, a nakon provedenih istra`ivanja izraditi iprovesti potrebni akcijski plan za{tite njenih stani{ta, {to bi trebalo koordinirati sasusjednom Slovenijom.Nat. Croat. Vol. 8(4), 1999 405

Močvarni okaš (Coenonympha oedippus F.) je ipak član faune danjih leptira Hrvatske

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