Most threatened European species

[The Annoying Czech]

From time to time I (a bit morbidly) wonder which species is facing death more than every else.

I'm not talking about specific islandish or mountain endemics as Corsican Swallowtail or Sudeten Ringlet. I mean species that feel (or felt) very "comfortable" in most of the Europe and disappeared dramatically and in full-area scale. It should be species considered as threatened not only in "Zone of death" (UK, Benelux, Denmark, Germany, Czech Republic... ), but also in Eastern Europe as well as in the Alps.

Although I picked some candidates, I admint I might be totally wrong:


• Apollo. I guess Apollos might be just more visible in the press (for the general public) than actually more endangered than many others. Still, is there any (modern) country that doesn't run some Apollo rescue plan?

• Danube Clouded Yellow. I've read this is the no. 1 adept, with viable populations only in Poland and Romania. Has a very "nice" tombstones in nearly all Central European countries. Moreover, they used to be quite widespread.

• Scarce Fritillary. A first, most sensitive victim of the end of the coppicing era?

• False Ringlet. I never even googled a good photo of this animal. Never documented from my country, not even historically; a couple of places in Bulgaria, Poland... Is there any stronghold for those poor small Ringlets?

• Scarce Heath. One of the most problematic species in both Czech and German literature.

• Violet Copper. As Roger once said, where the hell(e) they are...

• Scarce Large Blue. I myself don't have that big problem with finding them, but they seem to be very rare both in SE Europe and The Alps. Normally I would think of Dusky Large Blue together with SLB, but the fact of being one of the most common Blues in CZE (as well as in part of Germany and south Poland) discharges them from my list.


This is rather a rough draft, and I'd like to see opinions of much-travelled photographers (Guy, Pete...) as well as anyone else.


Marek

[Padfield]

I don't feel competent to speculate at a European level because I'm really not very well travelled - I concentrate on a handful of areas which I study in detail, including particularly the Val d'Aran in the Pyrenees and the Rhône Valley region in Switzerland. In Switzerland, one of the biggest threats comes from creeping development in the mountains, as more and more people want second chalets with lovely views and (more sinisterly) more and more rich speculators pump money into large-scale developments that then remain empty. Osiris blue and tufted marbled skipper suffer a lot from the conversion of once lightly grazed meadows into ugly apartment complexes and luxury chalets, always with impeccably mown lawns even though no one lives there. Wetland butterflies are another group that are generally threatened, on a wide scale. Near me, violet coppers are still thriving but at least one colony I know has gone extinct because of changes in land use, leading to their habitat becoming more drained (a housing estate that sprang up below their site). Large heaths only exist in Switzerland because the single colony is artificially maintained (or rather, its habitat is). In France, large heath and scarce heath (not to mention false ringlet - of which Matt Rowlings has some quite acceptable pictures, Marek) are increasingly isolated and their colonies are very vulnerable if not artificially maintained. And another species you might mention here is alcon blue - the original alcon alcon, as opposed to alcon rebeli. Whereas rebeli is quite safe in its mountain strongholds, alcon seems to be very much at risk.

The 'twitching' mentality is to get a long species list by going to known sites. I like to spend time exploring unknown sites and getting a more complete picture of the distribution of a species. Sometimes this is very encouraging - Oberthür's grizzled skipper is generally considered rare in Switzerland but with a little intensive searching I have found it in several new places. On the other hand, the rosy grizzled skipper is very, very local in Switzerland. Both are still common further south, of course.

I prefer to think local. If we all take care of these species at the local level, they will take care of themselves globally. If we neglect to protect local colonies (and, of course, habitats), even of common butterflies, we might wake up one morning to find some once widespread species has disappeared forever.

Guy

[JKT]

P. apollo is rather numerous on certain parts of the Southern Finland. The area is relatively limited, though. It also seems common in the Alps.

E. maturna is not that rare in South-Eastern Finland. Should be quite common in Russia.

L. helle is relatively common in some parts of central Finland.

The rest I leave to those who know them.