New contributions to the butterfly fauna of Mt Velebit and the neighbouring area of Lika (Croatia)

Abstract

During the last eight years several surveys were undertaken to improve the knowledge of the butterfly distribution in Croatia. In this paper we provide additional data for Mt Velebit for some taxa with poorly known distributions like Pieris (napi) balcana Lorković, 1970 as well as the first records for Carterocephalus palaemon, Gegenes pumilio, Lycaena tityrus, Polyommatus escheri, Neptis rivularis, and Charaxes jasius. with the review of recently published data and our contribution, the number of species found on Mt Velebit has increased to 153 in all, which makes Velebit a mountain with a relatively great diversity of butterfly species. additionally, we include records of some species of conservation concern for the neighbouring area of Lika, for Polyommatus damon, P. ripartii, P. admetus, Lycaena dispar, Phengaris alcon (humid meadow ecotype) and Euphydryas maturna. u hrvatskoj su zadnjih desetak godina poduzeta dodatna istraživanja u svrhu poboljšanja znanja o rasprostranjenosti danjih leptira. u ovom radu su za planinu Velebit uz nove podatke za vrste slabije poznatog rasprostranjenja kao što je Pieris (napi) balcana Lorković, 1970 dati su i prvi podaci o nalazima vrsta Carterocephalus palaemon, Gegenes pumilio, Lycaena tityrus, Polyommatus escheri, Neptis rivularis, and Charaxes jasius. s novim nalazima i uz pregled podataka publiciranih u zadnjih osam godina, ukupni broj zabilježenih vrsta na planini Velebitu dosegao je 153 vrsta što čini Velebit jednom od planina s najraznolikijom faunom danjih leptira. Dodatno, u susjednoj Lici opisani su nalazi Polyommatus damon, P. ripartii, Lycaena dispar, Phengaris alcon 'ekotip vlažnih travnjaka' i Euphydryas maturna, redom vrsta od interesa za zaštitu.

Molecular data do not confirm the Grecian anomalous blue Polyommatus (Agrodiaetus) aroaniensis (Brown, 1976) as a member of the Croatian fauna

“…Analyzed specimens belonging to the subgenus Agrodiaetus were collected in the period from 2011 to 2015 in several localities in Croatia (Tab.1, Fig.1) as described in Koren & Lauš (2013, , and Tvrtković et al (2015), with two additional specimens from Gacko in the south-eastern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Taxonomic identification by wing morphology was done according to Lafranchis (2004) and Tolman & Lewington (2008) for P. admetus and P. damon samples and in accordance Fig.…”

“…The main goal of the present paper is to evaluate the credibility of the published findings of P. aroaniensis by additional analyses of the available voucher specimens (Koren & Lauš, 2015), as well as to confirm the identification of P. ripartii in Lika region including the source of Zrmanja river (Koren, 2010;Koren et al, 2011;Tvrtković et al, 2015;Koren & Lauš, 2015) and on the Dinara Massif (Mt. Dinara, Mt.…”

New data on the distribution of little-known Pyraloidea species from Croatia (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea)

“…Between the Mediterranean and Eurosibirian-Northamerican biogeographic zone, lies the mountainous karst area of Central Croatia. Some parts of it belong to the Croatian part of the European "Alpine biogeographical region" (EEA, 2012) and present a broad transitional zone of Continental and Mediterranean faunal elements (TVRTKOVIC et al, 2015).…”

Contribution to the knowledge of the Croatian Pyraloidea fauna. Species reported from Biokovo Natural Park (Insecta: Lepidoptera)

“…During our research, only three published papers that include Pyraloidea species from Mountain of Biokovo were discovered (MANN, 1869;NEUSTETTER, 1956;PLANT & SLAMKA, 2016). However, the Pyraloidea fauna of other mountains in Croatia is also poorly studied, as most of the recent studies were devoted to Rhopalocera or Macrolepidoptera in general (KUGINIC et al, 1995;MIHOCI et al, , 2011TVRTKOVIG et al, 2012TVRTKOVIG et al, , 2015KOREN & LAUS, 2013;KOREN et al, 2015, etc.). Yet, the Croatian mountains have great potential in floral and faunal biodiversity, as well as in endemism.…”

“…This can be seen in the example of Rhopalocera. The number of recorded Rhopalocera species from Mountain of Velebit counts 153 (TVRTKOVIG et al, 2015) and from Mountain of Dinara 130 species (TVRTKOVIG et al, 2012). On Mountain of Biokovo 102 species were recorded (MIHOCI et al, 2011).…”