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- Title
LIFE HISTORY AND PLURIVOLTINISM OF Scolitantides orion (PALLAS 1771), (LEPIDOPTERA, LYCAENIDAE) FROM ROMANIAN SOUTHERN DOBROGEA, IN CAPTIVE BREEDING ON Hylotelephium telephium, SOZOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS.
- Authors
BĂRCĂ, Valentin; NICULAE, Marilena
- Abstract
Scolitantides orion (Pallas, 1771) (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae), is a Palaearctic species, spanning across Eurasia, in localized, locally threatened populations. It has a characteristic biology, being stenophagous on a few Crassulacean species, and facultative myrmecophylous. In Europe, it is declining, severely in some areas - mainly due to habitat loss, being red listed and legally protected in Fennoscandia and Central Europe. In Romania, it is not listed and endangered, but some of its populations are sharply declining due to multiple causes. Besides its own conservation concerns, it is interesting as a model for ethological, physiological and ecological studies. As it shares the food-plant with Parnassius apollo - another critically endangered species in some places, any knowledge gained about its biology and ecology could prove essential for conservation. The knowledge about the phenology and voltinism of this species -from other parts of Europe is scarce and contradictory, and no data are available about its ecology, phenology or voltinism in Romania. The aim of the experimental work presented herein was to investigate the life history and voltinism of this species under conditions in Southern Romania in captive breeding, with the larger scope of gaining knowledge about the biology and logistics involved in the conservation, (re)introduction and propagation of endangered lepidopteran species which use Crassulaceae as host/food plants. Under our conditions, and feeding exclusively on live Hylotelephium telephium (Crassulaceae), Scolitantides orion typically developed 4 generations/year, with an average generation turnover of 42-55 days, and a diapausal length of about 185 days. Such a long diapause and other personal data describing anomalous 5th generations more frequent during the last years, with unusually warm and excessively long autumns, suggested the perspective of more efficient mass breeding of this and similar lepidopteran species to obtain larger adult numbers for (re)introduction conservation programs.
- Subjects
LEPIDOPTERA; PALEARCTIC; APOLLO butterfly; CRASSULACEAE; WILDLIFE reintroduction; WILDLIFE conservation
- Publication
Oltenia, Studii si Comunicari Seria Stiintele Naturii, 2018, Vol 34, Issue 2, p123
- ISSN
1454-6914
- Publication type
Article