MI8 Mire butterflies

National Butterfly Recording Scheme in Finland (NAFI) collects data on the distribution and abundance day-active butterflies. The scheme is opento all buttefly observers. All records containing data on 1) year of observation, 2) coordinates of the observation site (10 x 10 km), 3) number of observation days and 4) number of observed individuals by species are accepted.

During 1991-2011 altogether 700 volunteers participated in the scheme. As a result 4,3 million butterflies have been recorded from 2092 observation squares. All data collected through the scheme have been stored in the data base of the Finnish Natural History Museum out of which the graphs and data tables at Biodiversity.fi are produced.

Monitoring and data collection is coordinated by South Karelia Allergy and Environment Institute in cooperation with Lepidopterological Society of Finland. Since 2008 it has been possible to report buttefly observations though the Hatikka online data collection gateway operated by Finnish Natural History Museum.

 The number of observation squares in the National Butterfly Recording Scheme

  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Southern Finland
 84 159 187 258 273 296 265 335 296 372
Central Finland
 20 49 69 76 86 104 118 126 107 141
Northern Finland
 38 34 39 71 67 72 80 72 60 58
Total
 142 242 295 405 426 472 463 533 463 571
...continued
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Southern Finland
 366 300 295 269 290 317 290 343 350 438 352
Central Finland
 152 113 163 192 177 148 177 196 171 180 148
Northern Finland
 50 46 68 85 89 63 105 68 81 82 75
Total
 568 459 526 546 556 528 572 607 602 700 575

The number of observation squares with at least one mire species

  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Southern Finland
 22 59 56 81 76 81 59 68 66 75
Central Finland
 8 26 26 37 28 39 43 38 33 38
Northern Finland
 24 21 24 46 32 46 39 36 28 21
Total
 54 106 106 164 136 166 141 142 127 134
...Continued
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Southern Finland
 57 55 45 46 35 50 37 47 31 54 31
Central Finland
 45 34 41 51 38 47 39 39 30 48 29
Northern Finland
 22 16 33 31 41 31 31 24 25 27 27
Total
 124 105 119 128 114 128 107 110 86 129 87

The share of annual mire species squares (indicator A)

  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Southern Finland
 26 % 37 % 30 % 31 % 28 % 27 % 22 % 20 % 22 % 20 %
Central Finland
 40 % 53 % 38 % 49 % 33 % 38 % 36 % 30 % 31 % 27 %
Northern Finland
 63 % 62 % 62 % 65 % 48 % 64 % 49 % 50 % 47 % 36 %
  ...Continued                                 
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Southern Finland
 16 % 18 % 15 % 17 % 12 % 16 % 13 % 14 % 9 % 12 % 9 %
Central Finland
 30 % 30 % 25 % 27 % 21 % 32 % 22 % 20 % 18 % 27 % 20 %
Northern Finland
 44 % 35 % 49 % 36 % 46 % 49 % 30 % 35 % 31 % 33 % 36 %

Total number of mire butterfly individuals

  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Southern Finland
 293 2672 1620 2694 2706 3487 1145 2113 1142 2851
Central Finland
 110 1518 494 1608 685 1352 928 1268 763 1083
Northern Finland
 528 328 529 1020 275 757 395 887 203 935
Total
 931 4 518 2 643 5 322 3 666 5 596 2 468 4 268 2 108 4 869
...continued
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Southern Finland
 1291 1802 976 1166 880 1733 1428 965 664 2084 916
Central Finland
 542 913 645 1488 728 2118 1248 1134 471 1528 807
Northern Finland
 244 250 522 224 424 346 347 273 366 415 293
Total
 2 077 2 965 2 143 2 878 2 032 4 197 3 023 2 372 1 501 4 027 2 016

Number of mire butterfly individuals per observation square (indicator B)

  1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Southern Finland
 13 45 29 33 36 43 19 31 17 38
Central Finland
 14 58 19 43 24 35 22 33 23 29
Northern Finland
 22 16 22 22 9 16 10 25 7 45
Total
 17 43 25 32 27 34 18 30 17 36
...continued
  2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011
Southern Finland
 23 33 22 25 25 35 39 21 21 39 30
Central Finland
 12 27 16 29 19 45 32 29 16 32 28
Northern Finland
 11 16 16 7 10 11 11 11 15 15 11
Total
 17 28 18 22 18 33 28 22 17 31 23

Download data on a spreadsheet from here

 

Links:

National Butterfly Recording Scheme on the web pages of the South Karelia Allergy and Environment Institute.

Literature:

* Saarinen K, Lahti T, Marttila O. 2003. Population trends of Finnish butterflies (Lepidoptera: Hesperioidea, Papilionoidea) in 1991-2000. Biodiversity and Conservation 12: 2147-2159.

* Pöyry J, Luoto M, Heikkinen RK, Kuussaari M, Saarinen K. 2009. Species traits explain recent range shifts of Finnish butterflies. Global Change Biology 15(3): 732-743.