Movements of a Specialist Butterfly in Relation to Mowing Management of Its Habitat Patches.

ABSTRACT: Over the centuries, mowing and grazing have been crucial for sustaining populations of grassland insects and their overall diversity in Europe. While long-term positive effects of mowing have been studied in more detail, little is known about the direct impacts of mowing on adult butterflies. Here, we explore how different habitat management (mown, recovered after mowing and unmown) affects movements and population estimates of the endangered specialist butterfly Phengaris teleius. The results showed higher dispersal probability from mown (22%) and recovered meadows (16%) than from the unmown ones (9%). However, mowing shortened the average dispersal distances (mown = 102 m, recovered = 198 m, unmown = 246 m) and reduced butterfly population size. In contrast, a larger area of the h

SUBMITTER: Popovic M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10045459 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature