Parnassius apollo ssp. transsylvanicus

[Sebbe]

Search for the critically endangered Apollo Butterfly at Bicaz Chei Quarry.

The Apollo butterfly (Parnassius apollo Linnaues 1758) is a post-glacial relict, considered extinct from the Romanian fauna by most lepideptorologists. The endemic subspecies of the Oriental Carpathians (Parnassius apollo transsylvanicus, Schweitzer 1912) has been recorded for the last time in 1996 at Bicaz Gorge, just across the road of Bicaz Chei Quarry, in the Cheile Șugăului-Munticelu Gorge. The species inhabits rocky areas, gravels, limestone rich meadows and also quarries, where the adults can find the host plants for the larvae (Sedum species) and rich nectar sources for the adults. Due to the fact that in the past decades lepidopterologists had no access granted inside of the limits of Bicaz Chei Quarry, the purpose of the research was exploring the possibility of a remnant population of Apollo butterfly (which was known historically to inhabit multiple areas of Cheile Bicazului-Hășmaș National Park) inside the quarry (if potential host plant species of the larvae are found within the perimeters of the quarry) and to locate suitable habitat fragments in the adjacent areas which could sustain a population of Apollo butterfly for a relocation, in case that a viable population will be found in the proximity of the quarry. Between May and August 2016 a team of 7 persons have been searching for the Apollo butterfly and the habitat types with the host plant (Sedum species), respectively rich nectar sources for the adults (species of Cirsium, Scabiosa, Carduus, Centaurea, etc.) Neither adults nor larvae (caterpillars) were found within the perimeter of the quarry, nevertheless several populations of the potential host plats (Sedum telephium subsp. maximum = Sedum maximum, Sedum hispanicum) have been identified and charted. The search for the butterfly was extended to the territory of the Bicaz Chei- Hășmaș National Park, to the stations where the species has been recorded in the previous decades (Cheile Șugăului – Munticelu Nature Reserve, Suhardu Mic, Piatra Poienii, Cupaș Valley, Cheile Bicazului Gorge, etc.), but without positive results. At the vast majority of this stations only patches of Sedum maximum and Sedum hispanicum were identified, which suggests that most probably the host plant for the Apollo butterfly was S. maximum not S. album which could have been erroneously listed as the host plant in most of the Romanian publications (Rákosy 2013). The fact that Parnassius apollo transsylvanicus might belong to the telephiophagous group of subspecies (those of specialized for feeding on S. maximum, S. fabaria and S. telephium) has already been suggested before in the international literature concerning the species (Pekarsky 1953, in Nakonienczny et al. 2007). A less likely alternative scenario would be that the subspecies in question uses as feeding source for the larvae S.hispanicum, a species which was found in great numbers in the area and which can be easily misidentified for S.album. The less developed vegetation cover from the interior of the quarry can not host a high diversity of day flying butterflies, thus during the three months of the search, we have identified only 39 species of butterflies. However, among these, we identified two vulnerable and protected species of day flying butterflies. Both of these are myrmecophilous species of the genus Maculinea, with a highly complex life cycle. Maculinea arion ligurica has been recorded in areas inhabited by its host plant, Origanum vulgare, and Maculinea alcon xerophila has been identified in the egg stage on its host plant, Gentiana cruciata subsp. phlogifolia.

www.researchgate.net/publication/365715881_Search_for_the_critically_endangered_Apollo_Butterfly_at_Bicaz_Chei_Quarry

[Sebbe]

From 20 to 2? Landmark-based geometric morphometrics reveal negligible wing-shape divergence between 20 subspecies of the Apollo butterfly, Parnassius apollo (Lepidoptera, Papilionidae), in the Carpatho-Pannonian region.

For effective conservation management of endangered taxa, it is important to define operational units for conservation. In the absence of detailed genetic analyses, morphology-based taxonomy is often used as a surrogate. The Apollo butterfly, Parnassius apollo, is one of the most endangered butterfly species in Europe (considered as a flagship species) with 26 subspecies rank taxa described from the Carpatho-Pannonian region (Central Europe), often based on old, one-by-one descriptions. We applied landmark-based geometric morphometrics on wing shape to determine the number of morphologically distinguishable groups in the region, based on 949 males and 477 females from 20 Carpatho-Pannonian putative subspecies (both extant and potentially extinct). We found a single division between the Eastern Carpathian populations (described as two subspecies: ssp. transsylvanicus and ssp. rosenius) and the rest of the populations (including our outgroup from the Swiss Alps). Since P. apollo was not observed in the Eastern Carpathians in the last two decades, and the currently known extant populations in the Carpatho-Pannonian region are all located in the Northern Carpathians, our results support a single conservation unit in the region. We suggest that (i) extensive monitoring is needed to reveal whether the unique Eastern Carpathian populations have really gone extinct and (ii) more taxonomical/phylogenetic studies on Central European P. apollo are needed for establishing the taxonomy of the species and efficient conservation strategies. We emphasize that modern integrative taxonomy is not only important for clarifying taxonomical issues, but also for providing basis for sound conservation management.

link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-024-00602-2