Successful Conservation of a Threatened
            <i>Maculinea</i>
            Butterfly

Thomas, J. A.; Simcox, D. J.; Clarke, Ralph T.

doi:10.1126/science.1175726

Cited by 247 publications

(220 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…This condition can lead to speciation, but if fragmentation increases in the face of anthropogenic disturbance and habitat loss, the risk of local extinction may also dramatically increase. The case of Maculinea arion in the United Kingdom remains emblematic: the species went extinct in 1979 because modest changes in grazing regimes and vegetation structure caused the host ant to be replaced by unsuitable congener species, unable to support the parasite's caterpillars (Thomas et al 2009).…”

Section: Host Ants' Diversification In Maculinea Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This species became extinct in the Netherlands in 1964 (Tax 1989), in the UK in 1979 (Thomas 1995) and in Belgium in 1996 (Goffart 1997;Thomas et al 2009). It shows serious range contractions all over Europe, especially in its northern parts (Wynhoff 1998).…”

Section: Maculinea Arion: the Genetic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In the past few decades, all Maculinea species have experienced severe declines over most of their ranges (Thomas 1995;Wynhoff 1998;Thomas & Settele 2004;Thomas et al 2009). Consequently, they have attracted wide public attention, owing to their extraordinary life history and endangered status.…”

Section: The Case Of Maculinea Butterfliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, butterflies represent a good indicator group for other insect taxa (Thomas 2005;van Swaay et al 2010). More and more frequently, local extinctions have occurred even in nature reserves, where species are supposedly not facing any resource shortages (New et al 1995;Bonelli et al 2011), so that many early attempts to conserve declining butterfly species have failed because of our inadequate understanding of their biology and causes of decline (Thomas et al 2009). Among Lepidoptera, many taxa of conservation concern include entities which significantly diverge in molecular, morphological (i.e.…”

Section: Basic Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The history of M. arion's extinction in the UK demonstrates that a detailed ecological, demographic and genetic understanding of (threatened) species is crucial for a successful conservation strategy (Thomas et al 2009). …”

Section: Maculinea Arion: the Genetic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The “Evolutionarily Significant Unit” concept and its applicability in biological conservation

Casacci

Barbero

Balletto

2013

Italian Journal of Zoology

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Although most conservationists claim to protect "species", the conservation unit actually and practically managed is the individual population. As resources are not unlimited, we need to focus on a restricted number of populations. But how can we select them? The Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU), first conceptualised by Ryder in 1986, may offer some answer. Several definitions have been proposed for the ESU, but all make reference to units "whose divergence can be measured or evaluated by putting differential emphasis on the role of evolutionary forces at varied temporal scales". Thus, an ESU might be fully identical with a "species", or a "species" could be composed of multiple ESUs. On the other hand, an ESU might comprise single/multiple populations exchanging a degree of gene flow, such as meta-populations. In an attempt to show strengths and weaknesses of ESU concepts, we present here, among several others, some case studies on the myrmecophilous butterflies of the genus Maculinea. In particular, we analyse the apparently everlasting debate about Maculinea alcon and M. rebeli, whose separation into separate species has been accepted by many authors, on mainly ecological criteria, but has not been fully supported by molecular analyses. We also discuss how the tight association with host ants may have driven selection for increasingly more strictly adapted Maculinea populations, arguably deserving specific taxonomic identity. Finally we discuss how current DNA analyses may fail to detect critical information on differences between taxa recently originated by the action of separate adaptive processes, which non-molecular studies can sometimes reveal. We conclude by discussing some current and often conflicting taxonomic trends, in their relationships with conservation policies.

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Section: Host Ants' Diversification In Maculinea Populationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Maculinea Arion: the Genetic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Case Of Maculinea Butterfliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Basic Conceptmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Maculinea Arion: the Genetic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

The “Evolutionarily Significant Unit” concept and its applicability in biological conservation

Casacci

Barbero

Balletto

2013

Italian Journal of Zoology

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Using macroecological species distribution models to estimate changes in the suitability of sites for threatened species reintroduction

Bellis

Longden

Styles

et al. 2021

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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1. Species reintroductions often aim to establish populations of threatened taxa over the long-term. However, climate change may jeopardize reintroduction efforts by altering the conditions of a recipient site beyond the tolerances of the focal species. To aid the selection of recipient sites that will retain their suitability under climate change, species distribution models (SDMs) have been proposed as a method of locating areas with a greater likelihood of facilitating species persistence. 2. We applied SDMs to predict macroclimatic suitability changes for 13 threatened plant and invertebrate species considered for reintroduction at four lowland raised bog sites undergoing restoration. We estimated suitability based on current and projected future conditions under two greenhouse gas concentration scenarios-one low (RCP2.6) and one high (RCP8.5)-using three general circulation models, for the period 2041-2060. 3. When considering current predicted suitability, our models indicated that nine species were viable candidates for reintroduction to at least one of the restoration sites. But when accounting for potential future changes in suitability, the number of candidates was reduced to seven species, based on the RCP8.5 climate change scenario. While three of the sites received consistently similar predictions of suitability across species and scenarios, the most northerly site, Red Moss, received divergent suitability predictions for some species. This site is predicted to remain suitable for Metrioptera brachyptera and Genista anglica under at least one scenario despite substantial losses forecast across the rest of their U.K. ranges, suggesting that it could act as a macroclimatic refuge as climate change advances. 4. The findings presented here made a valuable contribution to the reintroduction planning process, by facilitating the prioritization of reintroduction efforts towards species with a greater likelihood of establishing long-term populations at the prospective recipient sites. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Single Species Studies: Benefits and Limitations

2013

Lepidoptera and Conservation

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Successful Conservation of a Threatened Maculinea Butterfly

Cited by 247 publications

References 22 publications

The “Evolutionarily Significant Unit” concept and its applicability in biological conservation

The “Evolutionarily Significant Unit” concept and its applicability in biological conservation

Using macroecological species distribution models to estimate changes in the suitability of sites for threatened species reintroduction

Single Species Studies: Benefits and Limitations

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