The Disappearance of Butterflies. Josef H. Reichholf

      1  Cover

      2  Title Page

      3  Copyright

      4  Foreword

      5  Acknowledgements

      6  Introduction

      7  Part I: The Biodiversity of Lepidoptera A Review of 50 Years of Butterfly and Moth Research Insects fly towards UV light Urban Lepidoptera: more common than expected Death’s head hawk-moth: a guest that can barely live with us anymore The Fascinating Life of Aquatic Moths Evenings at the pond The hidden lives of the little nymphs How the caterpillar breathes under water Up and away in an air balloon The advantages of living in water A place to live or an ‘ecological niche’ The destruction of the biotopes of the little nymphs The Benefits of Being Attracted to Light Like moths to a flame The red blindness of butterflies The Strange Behaviour of the Purple Emperor Butterflies on drugs Psychedelics in the insect kingdom The Nettle-feeding Lepidoptera: An Instructive Community Nettles: indicators of overfertilization Nettles escape defoliation Maize: damaged beyond repair Cabbage whites: parasites and protection The mass flight of the map butterfly: singularities in the realm of the butterflies Does climate change affect the seasonal morphs of the map butterfly? Nature is too diverse for simple generalizations The Great Migrations of the Butterflies The migratory flights of the painted ladies Small tortoiseshells as travellers Butterfly invasions Poisonous Butterflies and Moths: From the Cabbage White to the Six-spot Burnet Cabbage whites on the Dalmatian coast Whenever it rains in the desert … Which factors affect the reproduction of butterflies, and when? Useful models The need to go slow Poison in the body The Secret Life of Small Ermine Moths The bird-cherry, a tree of the riparian woods Toxins in bird-cherries The life history of the caterpillars of the ermine moth Helpful hungry caterpillars Between parasitism and population explosion Longer-term population cycles Coppice management and its consequences Generations and multiyear cycles of ermine moths Parasitoids on other ermine moths The lifecycles of butterflies and moths Hardy Winter Moths Life at the edge of winter The mastery of seasonal niches Why female winter moths do not need wings Deforestation, poison and the decline of the codling moth and the winter moth The common quaker moth in early spring Brimstones: The First Spring Butterflies Butterfly attacks The problem with early flight Müllerian mimicry The critical factor of spring weather ‘Balance’ in nature

      8  Part II: The Disappearance of Lepidoptera Assessing the Abundance and Occurrence of Butterflies: A Major Challenge Starting