Delighted to join the European butterfly community in NL this week for #FutureofButterflies with @mncn-bgcg.bsky.social well represented by three talks and two posters - @guim091.bsky.social @adsalbert.bsky.social and @jpcancela.bsky.social also sharing our work on #insect responses to global change

Day 3 of #FutureofButterflies conference and Federico Riva explains a surprising finding that small habitat patches are crucial to butterfly survival in the landscape. So we should still try to conserve them and not just focus on large patches

Constantí Stefanescu summarises the results of 30 years of the Catalunya Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Nearly 60% of species are declining significantly and only 10% increasing #FutureofButterflies

Amparo Mura describes the shocking loss of butterflies in the Picos de Europa in Spain where butterflies have nearly halved in 8 years. Abandonment and climate change are responsible #FutureofButterflies

Erik Ockinger has looked at how butterflies can live in road verges in Europe. They do much better in verges with low traffic and wider verges. Cutting once a year is also slightly better. Horstmann et al 2024 #FutureofButterflies

Day 2 of #FutureofButterflies conference is kicked off by Thomas Merckx to discuss conservation of Lepidoptera in urban habitats. Some moths in urban areas adapt to light pollution and become smaller and less attracted to light!

Cristina Sevilleja describes the amazing growth of the European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme, the biggest insect monitoring scheme in the world. 30 countries are now involved and updates of the Grassland Butterfly Indicator are planned in the next 2 years #FutureofButterflies

Ida-Maria Huikkonen describes the long running Finnish Moth Monitoring Scheme. Overall number of moths has fluctuated a lot but has not declined in the last 30 years. Some declines in south has been compensated by expansion in the north #FutureofButterflies

Chris van Swaay ‘Mr Monitoring’ closes #FutureofButterflies by showing what a long way we have come since the first butterfly book in 1669. Note that they showed parasitic flies that emerged from the pupae, even though they had no idea what was happening!

Good to hear from Albert Vliegenhart that railway stations in NL are trying to enhance habitats around them. Also companies are helping pollinators around power stations by changing mowing. Adds up to 1,400 ha of new habitat. Let’s do this everywhere #FutureofButterflies

More on light pollution and moths from Evert van de Schoot, who found that even dim skyglow reduces moth abundance by 25% in gardens, but streetlights reduce them by 50%. Very worrying in a rapidly urbanising world #FutureofButterflies

Evrim Karacetin from Turkey explains that tree planting is not always a good solution for biodiversity. In the steppes (natural dry grasslands) of Turkey, tree planting can have a serious adverse affect on butterflies and other wildlife, but sparse plantations can be good #FutureofButterflies

Jorge Leon-Cortes describes some vital monitoring of threatened butterflies in Mexico, including the iconic Monarch. Public engagement is important to explain why insects are important to sustaining life on earth #FutureofButterflies