An updated checklist of the European Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea)

By

Wiemers, Martin, 1966-
Balletto, Emilio
Dinca, Vlad
Fric, Zdenek
Lamas Müller, Gerardo Amadeo Guillermo
Lukhtanov, Vladimir
Munguira, Miguel López
Swaay, Chris van
Vila, Roger
Vliegenthart, Albert
Wahlberg, Niklas
Verovnik, Rudi, 1970-

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2018

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

811

Pages

9-45

Subjects

Butterflies , Checklist , Europe

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.811.28712

 

Abstract

This paper presents an updated checklist of the butterflies of Europe, together with their original name combinations, and their occurrence status in each European country. According to this checklist, 496 species of the superfamily Papilionoidea occur in Europe. Changes in comparison with the last version (2.6.2) of Fauna Europaea are discussed. Compared to that version, 16 species are new additions, either due to cryptic species most of which have been discovered by molecular methods (13 cases) or due to discoveries of Asian species on the eastern border of the European territory in the Ural mountains (three cases). On the other hand, nine species had to be removed from the list, because they either do not occur in Europe or lost their species status due to new evidence. In addition, three species names had to be changed and 30 species changed their combination due to new evidence on phylogenetic relationships. Furthermore, minor corrections were applied to some authors’ names and years of publication. Finally, the namePolyommatusottomanusLefèbvre, 1831, which is threatened by its senior synonymLycaenalegeriFreyer, 1830, is declared anomen protectum, thereby conserving its name in the current combinationLycaenaottomana.