2 species of butterflies out of 3 have disappeared from at least one department

The biodiversity is in decline. Of the species emblematic as the panda, the tiger or the polar bear are threatened. But also, species much less media. A lot of’insects notably. Fragmentation and disappearance of habitats, pollution and climate change. The reasons are many. And theNational biodiversity observatory (ONB) alerts us today once again. Because a study shows that two butterfly species day living in mainland France out of three have now disappeared from at least one department they occupied in the last century.

This is all the more annoying since butterflies are not only precious pollinating insects, but also a bit like witnesses to the state of the environment in which they live. Markers of insect biodiversity more generally. Just biodiversity…

Butterflies lose their habitat

On average, each species of day butterfly has disappeared from four departments. And all departments have lost at least one species. On average, each department of metropolitan France has even lost eleven species of butterflies. The most urbanized departments being, unsurprisingly, those which have lost the most biodiversity.

The researchers point out that it is the so-called specialist species that suffer the most. Understand, the species that depend on a particular environment. Thus, grassland butterflies. Those dependent on dry lawns like the Hermit. Those dependent on wet meadows like the Melibea. Or those depending on the clearings like the Damier du Frêne. Because these environments, precisely, are also threatened by theurbanizationsoil drying or changes in animal husbandry practices.

Sixteen endangered butterfly species in France

Sixteen species of butterflies threatened with extinction in France, two of which are critically endangered! This is what emerges from the census carried out by the French committee of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) on 253 species of daytime Lepidoptera.

Article by Bruno Scala published on 03/20/2012

An inventory of butterflies (rhopalocera) has been carried out in France and the result is somewhat alarming. On the territory, 16 species would be threatened with extinction, according to the definition of theIUCNwhich regularly draws up the red list endangered species.

The IUCN (or IUCN in English) is indeed an organization which is interested in the biodiversity worldwide. Since 1963, the red list it publishes classifies the different species according to their conservation status. Seven categories were thus established, from “little concern” to “ off “. This list is now a worldwide reference.

More than 250 species of butterflies studied

Created in 1992, the French committee of the IUCN interested in the state of fauna and flora in mainland France and overseas. This time, he focused on insects and more particularly Lepidoptera. Biologists have studied 253 butterfly species. From this study, it appears that 16 of them are threatened – critically endangered, endangered or vulnerable – with extinction while 18 others are near threatened.

This is for Bluestem Skipper (Gegenes pumilio) and melibea (coenonympha hero) that the situation is most alarming in France. These two butterflies are indeed placed in the category “in critical danger », the last before the extinction of the species. The second is present in Europe and Asia, preferentially in the wet areaand it is precisely the growing disappearance of this habitat which is at the origin of the population decline in France. The first lives around the Mediterranean and has not been seen in France since 1997, probably because of theurbanization of the coastline. Its situation is however less alarming because on the scale of theEuropeits status is of little concern.

Butterflies threatened by the disappearance of their habitat

But according to IUCN experts, there are other causes for the decline of the 34 threatened or near-threatened species. The essential climate change is also responsible for this phenomenon. Many caterpillars are confined to a single species of plant. In the same way that these plants must move their range to survive, the caterpillars are forced to follow them and are therefore rarer in certain regions.

Nevertheless, there is also a positive side to this census. Among the 253 butterflies studied, 215 do not have a status of special concern, which means that these populations are doing well.