Biodiversity Data Journal :
Taxonomic paper
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Corresponding author:
Academic editor: Rodolphe Rougerie
Received: 08 Jul 2015 | Accepted: 13 Jul 2015 | Published: 17 Jul 2015
© 2015 Marko Nieminen
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Nieminen M (2015) Melampyrum sylvaticum as a pre-diapause host plant of the scarce fritillary (Euphydryas maturna) in Finland. Biodiversity Data Journal 3: e5610. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e5610
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The scarce fritillary Euphydryas (Hypodryas) maturna (L.) is included in the Habitats Directive's Annexes II and IV(a). Therefore, it is crucially important to be able to define the habitat and breeding places of E. maturna in a correct and unbiased way.
Data on a previously unknown pre-diapause main host plant, the small cow-wheat (Melampyrum sylvaticum L.), of Euphydryas maturna in Finland is presented.
Euphydryas maturna, Finland, Habitats Directive, host plant, Melampyrum sylvaticum, scarce fritillary
The scarce fritillary Euphydryas (Hypodryas) maturna (Linnaeus, 1758) is a high-profile species within the European Union, as it has been included in the Habitats Directive's (Council Directive 92/43/EEC of 21 May 1992 on the conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) Annexes II and IV(a). Based on the Annex II, special conservation areas (i.e. Natura 2000 areas) need to be designated for E. maturna. The Annex IV lists species in need of strict protection, and those species and their breeding and resting places are protected by national legislation, which also applies to Finland. Therefore, the ability to define the habitat and breeding places of E. maturna in a correct and unbiased way is crucially important for both protecting the species effectively and not making uninformed administrative decisions which may be economically very costly. Euphydryas maturna is a wide-spread species in SW Finland, and it has been assessed as Least Concern by the IUCN criteria in Finland (
The species of the tribe Melitaeini, to which E. maturna belongs, feed mainly on plants containing secondary plant metabolites called iridoids (
Records of host plants used for oviposition by Euphydryas maturna females and/or for feeding by pre-diapause larvae.
Species | Locations | References |
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Fagus sylvatica | Europe |
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Fraxinus angustifolia | Carpathian Basin and SE Europe, Hungary |
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Fraxinus excelsior | Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Russia, Sweden |
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Fraxinus ornus | Carpathian Basin and SE Europe |
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Ligustrum vulgare | Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary |
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Lonicera | Russia |
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Melampyrum sylvaticum | Finland | This study |
Melampyrum pratense | Finland |
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Plantago lanceolata | Komi Republic |
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Populus alba | Russia |
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Populus tremula | Europe, Russia |
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Salix caprea / Salix | Europe, Russia |
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Spiraea | Russia |
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Syringa vulgaris | Russia, Sweden |
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Veronica longifolia | Finland, Komi Republic, Krasnoyarsk area, Omsk area, Novosibirsk Province |
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Viburnum opulus | Finland, Germany, Sweden |
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Viola arvensis | Komi Republic |
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Viola canina | Komi Republic |
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Larval groups of E. maturna were systematically searched from an area of ca. 3.5 km2 within the municipalities of Sipoo and Pornainen in southern Finland (coordinates of the midpoint of the study area: 60.45072N, 25.30928E). All larval groups were georeferenced with GPS and photographed, and a sample of each host plant was collected for identification. Plant samples were identified by Henry Väre (Finnish Museum of Natural History, Helsinki). Fieldwork was made by MN and Kari Nupponen between August 27 and September 11 in 2014.
Totally 167 larval groups were located, all on Melampyrum spp. (Fig.
Euphydryas maturna habitat in a commercial, thinned pine-dominated forest with ca. 30-year old trees, and in a clear-cut edge. This kind of forest habitat is probably suitable after thinning for several years, but longer than spruce-dominated forests (Fig.
Due to the dry conditions in July and August, many or even all host plants had withered especially in open rocky areas. Therefore, reliable identifications based on plant morphology were possible for 121 samples. Of the identified samples, 30 plants (25%) were M. pratense and 91 plants (75%) M. sylvaticum. In addition, three larval groups have been found in the same area in the autumn of 2013, all on M. sylvaticum (Jari-Pekka Kaitila, personal observations).
The regional host plant use of E. maturna is highly variable throughout its range (Table
The use of M. sylvaticum as a host plant (Fig.
Some leaves of Vaccinium myrtillus had been eaten within some larval webs. Even though I could not confirm that E. maturna larvae had eaten them, it is, however, likely because other herbivorous larvae were not observed and Melampyrum individuals were almost completely dry in and around these larval nests. Therefore, larvae may have used V. myrtillus to rescue themselves from starvation. The same explanation may apply to the odd observations of larvae feeding on e.g. Fagus, Populus and Salix regularly referred to in the literature (e.g.
I thank Kari Nupponen for help in the field work and collecting information on host use in Russia and adjacent areas, Henry Väre for the identification of host plant samples, and Jari-Pekka Kaitila for his observations on M. sylvaticum as a host plant of E. maturna in the same area in 2013. The field work was financed by Lemminkäinen Infra Oy.