The ecology and conservation of Thestor brachycerus brachycerus (Trimen, 1883): an aphytophagous miletine butterfly from South Africa

Abstract

The existing knowledge of the biology and ecology of the butterfly genus Thestor is summarised, and the conservation status of the Critically Endangered Thestor brachycerus brachycerus reviewed. The biotopes of two hitherto unknown littoral colonies are compared with the known inland fynbos site. The size of the extant populations is recorded as a future monitoring baseline. The relationship between habitat structure and territorial behaviour of males is explored. Female oviposition substrates are recorded, and it is inferred that the larvae are aphytophagous. No correlation was detected between vegetation composition and the presence of butterfly populations. A requirement for low level male perching sites to engender territorial and thence mating behaviour was assessed as a key habitat resource. The commonest ant found in pitfall traps both within and outside the butterfly colonies was Anoplolepis custodiens, a known associate of Thestor butterflies. Future research should focus on determining the ant associations and food resources of all larval stages.

Outcomes of the Southern African Lepidoptera Conservation Assessment (SALCA)

“…New locality found; ecological research continuing; population stable (Lawrence, 2015). (Bazin & Edge, 2015).…”

“…In view of LepSoc Africa's success in finding new localities for Critically Endangered or Endangered taxa (e.g. Garvie et al, 2014;Bazin & Edge, 2015;Coetzer, 2015;Lawrence, 2015;Morton, 2016), searches were also continued for the taxa assessed as Extinct during SABCA. Focused searches for butterfly taxa assessed as Data Deficient due to insufficient information during SABCA were carried out to try to obtain new information to be able to upgrade the status of the taxon to an appropriate Red List category.…”

“…The South African universities are being persuaded to get more involved in butterfly conservation (a mainstream research topic in Europe) by encouraging some Honours and Masters students to make threatened butterflies the main focus of their research (e.g. Bazin & Edge, 2015;Adams, 2017). Armstrong et al (2013) outlined the necessary actions by conservation practitioners in terms of spatial biodiversity planning, environmental impact assessments (EIAs), protected area expansion, biodiversity management plans for species, and implementation of sustainable utilisation, biodiversity monitoring, environmental education, urban conservation and research.…”

The ecology and conservation of butterflies and moths

“…Several papers were concerned with population trends (Swengel and Swengel 2015a, b; including monitoring approaches or conservation at very different spatial scales such as South Africa (Edge and Mecenero 2015) and the vineyards of Washington State in the USA (James et al 2015). Autecological studies are always welcome; Edge and Bazin (2015) contributed an indepth study of the Knysna skolly Thestor brachycerus brachycerus, Č elik et al (2015) a paper on the habitat quality determinants for the false ringlet Coenonympha Oedipus, whilst Tjørnløv et al (2015) focussed on oviposition site selection in the marsh fritillary Euphydryas aurinia. Maes et al (2014) highlights the value of a neglected biotope, the ecotone, and examines the requirements of an ecotonal species, the ilex hairstreak Satyrium ilicis, concluding that a resource-based approach is most appropriate for this butterfly.…”