For all who more or less know the butterflies of NW Europe, but find the diversity of the Balkans overwhelming, there is a masterclass on "Eastern continental and Balkan butterfly species" by Rudi Verovnik on 11th February at 15h CET. For more details see butterfly-monitoring.net/epic-butterfly

Our latest Activity Report for 2025 is now available on our website. It gives updates on several major projects as well as a report on our Partner meeting in December. We have made good progress but are aware of the huge challenges ahead www.bc-europe.eu/documents/69...

Liever dan de wetenschappelijk goed onderbouwde #graslandvlinderindex pleit #lto voor de opslag van koolstof in bodems als maat voor natuurkwaliteit. Vandaag een goed stuk over bodems met @frantecol.bsky.social op de correspondent: decorrespondent.nl/16694/koolst...

“We cannot withdraw from the fact that over 1 million species of plants and animals face extinction.” IPBES remains committed to its mandate to provide the most credible science and evidence about biodiversity to all decision makers and actors. — @davidobura.bsky.social , @ipbes.net Chair

New information on one of the rarest butterflies in Europe: the Nevada Grayling Pseudochazara williamsi. It's distribution is now reduced to only four mountains in Southern Spain, but it is still suffering from habitat loss.

Work to do! A new Red List of Butterflies of Germany has been published. Almost 45% of butterfly species are threatened. More and better nature conservation is needed! Fast!

Our friends at the University of Florence have been looking into the aesthetic appeal of European butterflies and does this bias the species we choose to protect. You can help their research by completing a simple online survey. Many thanks in advance www.unveiling.eu?fbclid=IwZXh...

Cristina is our wonderful co-ordinator of the European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Under her guidance the scheme is expanding rapidly and more and more people are getting involved. Do join in and help us monitor butterflies

The EU has published rules for the Pollinator Monitoring Scheme. Butterflies, moths, bees and hoverflies will all be monitored by every Member State. Target to reverse decline in Pollinators by 2030 and increase pops. A big step in conserving biodiversity environment.ec.europa.eu/news/better-...

Prachtig en letterlijk GROOTS fragment dat te groot was voor opname in de film ‘Gemeenschap van leven’ van Rik van der Linden, maar absoluut de moeite waard is. Ga er even rustig voor zitten en laat de woorden van Matthijs Schouten op je inwerken: vimeo.com/1091805641

In the new Butterfly Red List, sp that live solely on mountain tops are especially threatened as they need to move uphill as their habitats get warmer, but are running out of space. In mountains of S Spain, 3 endemic sp are now Endangered : Agriades zullichi; Polyommatus golgus; P. violetae.

The new European Butterfly Red List shows that butterflies are under increasing threat across Europe, with the number of species at risk of extinction up from 37 to 65 (73%) in the last 10 years. See our Press Release www.bc-europe.eu/documents/68...

Van alle vlindersoorten die alleen in Europa voorkomen is 40% bedreigd! Actie voor bescherming is nodig, en wel nu!

The new European Butterfly Red List is published today, with worrying findings. Over 1/4 (28%) of Europe’s 442 species are threatened with extinction or are close to being so. The situation is far worse for our 148 endemic species, 40% are now threatened or nearly so www.bc-europe.eu/webpage.php?...

It would be very disappointing if the German government do not adopt the Grassland Butterfly Indicator just because it is going down. They should be taking up the challenge of reversing the decline of pollinators not ignoring this crucial issue to humanity

Check out our new website, packed with new features, including updated project and EU policy pages + butterfly species pages with all known hostplants courtesy of Harry Clarke and downloadable country lists. Big thanks to Peter Eeles @ukbutterflies.bsky.social for all his help www.bc-europe.eu

📣 New research, including @savebutterflies.bsky.social #citizenscience data, shows winners & losers across >1200 insect species in Britain since 1990. Urbanisation identified as major driver of decline for moths, ladybirds & hoverflies www.nature.com/articles/s41... 🌍 🦋🐞🦗🪲🐝

Annie MG is alive! 💚

We steunen onze collega! Dit onderzoek is goed uitgevoerd en zal worden voortgezet. De waarheid laat zich niet weg werken 🦋 We fully support our colleague! This study has been well conducted and will continue. The truth cannot be worked away🦋 www.vlinderstichting.nl/actueel/nieu...

The White-letter hairstreak (S w-album, Iepenpage) was always very rare in NL, but is now widely distributed over N and C NL. This is partly as we now know how to spot the species, but also true expansion.

Please share. We are hiring domestic/international #PhD students to work on citizen science, insect migration/conservation at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. If interested, please email me. You can find more about our research interests here. shawanchowdhury.com.

Join us in counting farmland butterflies! We're looking for people to conduct 15 minute observations, comparing field types + middle vs margins: www.agroecology-transect.net/news/butterf... Protocols will soon be available in additional languages, e.g. Bulgarian, Hungarian, Serbian etc. Are you in?

Steekmierkoningin zoekt nieuw onderkomen

Working on monitoring of butterflies all over Europe needs discussion, inspiration, energy and good food. Last weeks meeting with the co-ordinators of the monitoring schemes was finished with a lovely evening with paella for everyone.

Die "Krefeld-Studie" hat das Insektensterben international in den Fokus gebracht. 🐝🦋🐞🐜 Aber wie ist die aktuelle Situation & wirken Schutzmaßnahmen? Sehr lesenswertes Interview von @thomaskrumenacker.bsky.social mit @thoerren.bsky.social (Entomologischer Verein Krefeld) in der @szde.bsky.social.

Following that last repost, Large Blue life history plate from F W Frohawk's Natural History of British Butterflies (1925) & his iconic image of a larva being picked up by a Myrmica ant. Frohawk was the first to establish the larvae spend the latter part of their development in ant nests

It was just announced on his facebookpage that Tristan Lafranchis has passed away 😞 A big loss for amateur lepidopterists in Europe, his accessible #butterfly ID-books have opened a world to a lot of us. As you can see, mine are heavily used. His legacy will surely live on. 🦋

A very smart Ichneumonid wasp searching for a not so well hidden caterpillar of Maculinea nausithous

Butterflies vulnerable in NL: Grayling (H semele, heivlinder). Still widespread and abundant in the 1990s in coastal dunes and dry heathland, but since then we lost half of the distribution (occupancy) and 75% of the butterflies. 30-35 kg N/ha/jr speeds up succession of open sandy habitat.

Butterflies increasing in NL: Brown argus (A agestis, bruin blauwtje). Used to be restricted to coastal dunes and some inland sites, but spread inland more and more, esp. after dry summers (bad for grasses, good for Geranium). 2024 was a poor year.

What happened to the butterflies in NL in 2024? @chrisvanswaay.bsky.social made a wonderful thread about it. There is good news and bad news, unfortunately 🦋

An important discovery of new population of the Endangered Euchloe bazae in southern Spain by our partners in @asoczerynthia.bsky.social . www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Join the CurveBend Project! We're hiring 8 PhDs and 2 Postdocs to promote biodiversity restoration and a nature-positive future through collective action at the landscape scale in the Netherlands, Argentina, Kenya and Tanzania. shorturl.at/nOdhb #JobAlert #PhDpositions #PostdocJobs #Biodiversity

Lost habitat has been restored to spread and establish a more balanced butterfly metapopulation. Works great for the vegetation, however the ants don't colonize it as fast as we want them to do. There are challenges ahead!🐜🐜🐜🦋

The one butterfly species which managed to disappear three timesfrom NL. It needed help to do that: loss of habitat through agricultural intensification, major disturbances of habitat and finally mowing in the flight period. We, as human beings, can do better!

Artikel 21 van de Grondwet: "De zorg van de overheid is gericht op de bewoonbaarheid van het land en de bescherming en verbetering van het leefmilieu". #leefbaarheid #gezondheid #milieu #natuurbescherming Het sloopkabinet: nos.nl/artikel/2547...

Het is heel erg onwaarschijnlijk dat Nederland het klimaatdoel van 55 procent emissiereductie in 2030 haalt meldt het Planbureau voor de Leefomgeving. www.pbl.nl/actueel/nieu...

Migratory insects need special conservation attention. shawanchowdhury.com/2024/12/05/m... #ecology #conservation #insect

Butterflies extinct in NL: Marsh Fritillary (moerasparelmoervlinder, E aurinia). Once widespread throughout the country on moist flowerrich grassland, however declining since mid 19th century. Map shows last year per 5km square with the species retreating to west until last were seen in 1982.

The purple-edged copper is gone from NL but you can still find in close to the border in Germany and Belgium🦋

Last summer, this butterfly species, the Dusky Large Blue Maculinea nausithous, was found to have gone extinct in NL for the third time! This time due to accidental mowing in the flight period in 2020, with less individuals each subsequent year until 5 in 2023 and none in 2024.

My first post on bluesky! The value of sowing small meadow areas in cities🦋