Vacant niche in alpine habitat: the case of an introduced population of the butterfly Erebia epiphron in the Krkonoše Mountains

Has the currently warming climate affected populations of the mountain ringlet butterfly, Erebia epiphron (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae), in low-elevation mountains?

“…However, the transect counts analyzed in this study covered only the upper parts of the species vertical range in the mountains. Possibly, the current milder and shorter winters with less reliable snow are enhancing the variation in the rate of development of E. epiphron at spatial scales that are much smaller than the four hundred altitudinal metre scale used by Cizek et al (2003).…”

“…Liška & Skyva, 1997;Beneš et al, 2000). E. epiphron, the only true alpine butterfl y occurring there and has been the subject of earlier population ecology and genetic studies (Cizek et al, 2003;Schmitt et al, 2005). The monitoring, target- lished by the artifi cial release of 50 females originally from the Jeseník Mts in the 1930s (Schmitt et al, 2005).…”

Removing an exotic shrub from riparian forests increases butterfly abundance and diversity

“…Blue pan traps are as effective for capturing butterflies and skippers in forests as malaise traps with color panels added and yellow pan traps have been used effectively in other areas (Beneŝ et al, 2000;Cizek et al, 2003). To increase the probability of catching a large representative sample we used both blue and yellow pan traps consisting of Solo Ò bowls (530 ml capacity) supported approximately 30 cm above the ground by a wire loop .…”

Do alien plants on Mediterranean islands tend to invade different niches from native species?

“…Schnitzler and Muller 1998;Callaway and Aschehoug 2000;Chittka and Schürkens 2001), it may coexist with ecologically-similar natives, each possessing an advantage across a different part of the initial niche space (e.g. Dietz and Ullmann 1997;Cizek et al 2003), or it may fill unoccupied niches, either because no native has evolved into them (Vitousek 1988), or because they have been vacated following extinctions, perhaps due to environmental degradation (Shea and Chesson 2002). In reality, these mechanisms may represent points on a continuum.…”