Butterflies in Gästrikland's meadows and pastures etc.

Göran Sjöberg, Villa Aglais, Box 11056, 800 11 Gävle

In Sweden we have found approximately 120 different butterfly species. Of these, 110 are permanently resident in the country. In Gästrikland 75 species have been found, and nearly 60 of these can be encountered virtually every year without too much difficulty. The most species-rich biotopes here are our meadows and pastures. Usually the richest is a poor meadow, sparsely vegetated with various kinds of shrubs and smaller deciduous trees. In such an optimal biotope in Gästrikland one can find over 40 different butterfly species, that is nearly 70% of the normally occurring species total in the region. It is thus easy to establish that if these areas disappear through overgrowth and forest planting, our butterfly fauna will be severely impoverished.

## Butterfly biotopes

However, the rich meadows and pastures can scarcely be characterized as vital environments for our truly rare species in the region. For that, the biotope is probably too "disturbed" by various kinds of human activities such as grazing, mowing, etc. The sites that harbour truly rare butterflies are almost always unusual biotopes such as low-lying coastal meadows, certain marshes, old power line clearings and actually even some old gravel pits that have been left undisturbed without being "restored" after extraction ceased. The reason these localities harbour rare butterflies is partly that the species can find their often rare host plants here. At such sites one finds for example the turquoise-coloured Donzel's Blue, Veronica Net-butterfly, Kidney Vetch Net-butterfly, Cat's-tail Whistle-butterfly and the blue-gleaming Clover Blue. The last-mentioned species can also be counted among the butterflies found in certain meadows, although several of the very few meadow sites where the Clover Blue was previously found have unfortunately been lost, particularly through the devastating forest planting, surely often with financial support from the state. One can however hope that the new "forestry law" where forest owners themselves take responsibility for how they wish to manage their land will lead to it not being necessary to destroy fine meadows and pastures in the name of the law or conversely be forced to clear old forests that generations have preserved.

Unfortunately the old forests here in central Sweden are largely gone due to the previously completely absurd legislation, which was often also followed up by over-zealous forestry consultants. It is not without reason that one must sit down on a stump and weep when thinking of families who over generations preserved an old-growth forest because they simply thought it pleasant to keep it, but who in the 1960s and 70s and perhaps also in the 80s were forced to fell their own forest merely because the spruces and pines had reached harvesting age according to forestry legislation adopted at the time!

I believe that landowners feel much greater joy and responsibility for their land if they themselves can decide how it is to be managed. Unfortunately it will be a long time before we get any noteworthy "new old-growth forests" again. One also becomes somewhat thoughtful when hearing that agricultural minister K E Olsson thinks it good that a further 50 million kronor have been set aside for purchasing reserves, i.e. 6 kronor per Swede! One does not know whether to laugh or cry. In total, 18 kronor per Swede per year is allocated for nature reserve formation.

Well, back to the meadow butterflies.

## Natural variation

The true meadow butterfly in our country, the Common Meadow Grass-butterfly, probably no longer exists in Gästrikland. I have not seen it here since the middle of the 1960s. It is still common further south, however. Often it can be difficult to find an explanation for why a butterfly species has declined or disappeared. It is not always human progress that is the cause. The attentive nature enthusiast has perhaps noted and wondered why all specimens of one of our most beautiful butterflies, the Peacock butterfly, suddenly disappeared north of Mälaren in the summer of 1987. Even south of Mälaren the Peacock butterfly declined sharply. It was only in 1990 and 1991 that it again appeared in the occasional specimen here up in Gästrikland. It seems however to have difficulty re-establishing itself. I have at any rate not seen any specimen in Gästrikland during 1992. There are however reports of the occasional find the year before. 1992 was otherwise a favourable year for many butterflies due to the early spring without "cold snaps" and the long warm summer. Thus the Nettle butterfly managed 2 generations in Gästrikland. This is the first time I have with certainty noted this during the 30 years I have studied butterflies here. It is therefore surprising that the Peacock butterfly did not manage to achieve any notable population even this summer. What then caused its disappearance? One might perhaps guess that the cause was some human activity. This is however not the case. The cause is simple and can be explained by the extremely poor weather that prevailed in late summer 1987. The Peacock butterfly was then in its sensitive larval period. July and August brought extraordinarily cold and wet weather. Particularly the nights the first week of August were extremely cold with below-freezing temperatures and drizzle at our measuring station in Hille! This abnormal weather for more than a month presumably broke not just the Peacock butterfly but certainly also a hundred other butterfly species in Sweden. This is however entirely natural process for these species, which here in central Sweden are on the northern boundary of their range. Viewed over the whole of the 20th century, for example the Peacock butterfly is slowly moving northward. The opposite applies unfortunately to the Meadow Grass-butterfly. Here it is however more difficult to give any precise reason why it is forced southward. One might perhaps also ask what has happened with the weather since 1987. After that summer nothing has quite been as it was with the weather here in southern and central Sweden. All winters have been very mild with strong warm winds from the southwest. We have also not had any extremely warm summers. Temperatures above 30 degrees have been exceptionally rare. We have "suddenly" acquired a more maritime climate. I conducted in 1987 a special study of the butterfly fauna's species and individual occurrence as a follow-up of corresponding studies at the same site in 1967 and 1977. 1987 was this particularly interesting with regard to the fact that precisely the site where this investigation was conducted in Norra Åbyggeby was the region that received the largest radioactive fallout after the Chernobyl accident in 1986. The weather was however so terrible during July and August that almost all flight activity was absent among the measurers, flies and spinners that the investigation encompassed. I do not however believe the cause was the caesium fallout. This fallout can scarcely have knocked out all butterflies during precisely this period.

Gratifying things also happen in our butterfly fauna. One of our most beautiful butterflies, the Silver-striped Pearl-boundary butterfly, has in recent years spread northward and is now seen here and there in flower-rich meadows and deciduous woodland areas. This species is well worth searching for where it sits on thistles and other nectar-rich plants. With its green and silver-gleaming wing undersides in a beautiful striped pattern, it can rival some of its much more colourful relatives in North America and southern Asia in terms of beauty. Another of our splendid meadow butterflies is the well-known Swallowtail butterfly. This swallowtail is remarkable in that it is the only member of its family that is circumpolar, that is it is found in both Europe and northern Asia as well as in North America. It also flies in Africa north of the Sahara. Moreover it is the only one of the world's approximately 500 species of "swallowtails" found in our country.

The attentive observer has also noted that Sweden's perhaps most beautiful butterfly, the dark blue Aspen butterfly, in the summer of 1992 had its best flight year in at least 30 years. It was particularly common southeast of Gävle where it flew abundantly in July at forest margins and along small roads. Normally it flies rarely in sparse deciduous forests.

## Common meadow and pasture butterflies

What common butterfly species are there then on our meadows and pastures? The first species one sees when one goes out into a fine meadow are usually some of our tawny-brown pearl-boundary butterflies or the similar net-butterflies. The pearl-boundary butterflies we can divide into two categories, large and small. We have four large ones in Gästrikland of which two are common, the Large Pearl-boundary butterfly which is "green" with white spots underneath and the Common Pearl-boundary butterfly which is reddish-brown with beautiful pearl-boundary spots underneath. If one is lucky one can find the Bastard Pearl-boundary butterfly which can only be distinguished from the Common Pearl-boundary butterfly if one looks carefully at the wing markings and counts the black spots. The fourth species is the previously mentioned Silver-striped Pearl-boundary butterfly.

Many find it difficult to see the difference between males and females of these large pearl-boundary butterflies. The males are however always more reddish-brown in ground colour than the females. The females also have somewhat stronger spot patterns and also somewhat rounder forewings. With a bit of luck one can also find the somewhat smaller Great Spotted Pearl-boundary butterfly. It has probably the most magnificent wing undersides of all Swedish butterflies. The underwings of the hind wings are covered with large silver-gleaming pearl-boundary spots!

The smaller pearl-boundary butterflies comprise a whole series of species of which some are common in the meadows. We know well for example the Neat and Brown-spotted Pearl-boundary butterflies and the Moose-grass butterfly. The latter despite its name is not a grass-butterfly but a pearl-boundary butterfly, be it without pearl-boundary spots. Another butterfly closely related to the pearl-boundary butterflies is the common Great Burdock Net-butterfly. It is a highly variable species which to some extent has been favoured by modern agriculture where it can reproduce on small clearings at the edges of meadows and pastures. In other places it has however declined markedly. This has been particularly noted in England where the species largely disappeared in the eighties. Through careful studies of how the butterfly lives it has however been possible to reintroduce it in England. Just south of Gästrikland, at the northern Uppland coast flies the Hawk-wort Net-butterfly, a close relative of the Great Burdock Net-butterfly. Keep your eyes open! It would be nice if we could find this species in Gästrikland as well.

If one on a summer day, on a Gästrikeäng sees a completely brown butterfly without any markings that slowly flutters at grass-top height one can be sure it is a Fragrant Grass-butterfly. Since this butterfly is easy to see and easy to follow it is, like the white Forest White butterfly, ideal for studying if one wishes to get to know more closely a butterfly's habits.

Some grass-butterflies that resemble both the Meadow Grass-butterfly and the Fragrant Grass-butterfly are the White Grass-butterfly and the Mountain Grass-butterfly. Both belong to stony, somewhat drier sites but are in general easy to find even in meadows and pastures. They are both perfectly camouflaged on the underside of their hind wings but are through their small eye-spots easy to determine as members of the grass-butterfly family.

We have two small grasshoppers that are common on Gästrikland's

meadows and pastures, namely the Combed Grasshopper and the Pearl Grass-

hopper. However, the latter species has also declined considerably

in recent years. A species similar to these two is the Brown

Grasshopper. It is, however, considerably rarer and prefers

either wet meadows or dry grasslands, preferably with inclusions

of spruce and pine. A fourth species, the Sedge Grasshopper is tied

to bog habitats and similar damp biotopes.

If you walk across a meadow in July you will almost always see

some small, extremely fast butterflies which, when flying, mostly

resemble large bee flies. They move with lightning speed in the

grass cover a few decimetres above the ground. We have two

common species in Gästrikland, the Common and Large Meadow Skipper.

Early in spring one sees an even faster species which at first you

might perhaps have difficulty believing is a butterfly, if you manage

to see it at all. I am thinking of the little black and white

Cat Whisker. All these small fast butterflies belong to the somewhat

more "primitive" family Hesperiidae. This family has its strong

presence in South America where certain species are as large and

colourful as the Swallowtail whereas others are furnished with

long tail projections on the hind wings.

The largest cohesive group of meadow and pasture butterflies is,

however, the blues. We can include about ten species here. Most

common are the small twin species Common and Chalk Hill Blue. Among

the smaller blues are also notable the brown species Confused and

Brown Blue and of course the very smallest butterfly in Sweden,

Cupido minimus, Little Blue. This little butterfly is, however,

nearly three times as large as the very smallest butterflies on

our planet, namely the extremely small blues on certain tropical

islands.

Among the somewhat larger blues are notable the blue-violet Mazarine

Blue and the incredibly beautiful Silver-studded Blue. Another very

beautiful species is the Large Copper, where particularly certain

females have gleaming blue wings with red spots along the outer

edges of the wings. Other females are, however, mainly brown, a

common colour in many blue females. It is, incidentally, very

common throughout the world that females are brown in species where

males are blue. As far as I can find there are only two exceptions,

the world's most beautiful fritillary from the Appalachians in south-

eastern USA, Speyeria diana, and Damora paulina (sagana) from China,

southern Siberia and Japan. In these fritillaries the males are

brown and the females blue!

The meadow's most brilliant and perhaps also most beautiful species

is the Large Copper. Particularly the male of this species is really

a jewel when it sits glinting in the sun on some high-situated flower.

The males regularly patrol their territories and attack anything that

glints like themselves. The female, as usual, is less brightly coloured

than the male but she too is beautifully gilded. We also have the

Small Copper which in some ways resembles the female Large Copper but

is more brightly coloured than her. This little butterfly is one of

the world's most widespread species and has been taken in such diverse

places as Thule on northernmost Greenland and down in the mountain

regions at the equator in Africa! It is of course also found throughout

North America, Europe and Asia.

A third copper which is enormously beautiful is, however, seen

extremely rarely in Gästrikland. I am thinking of the Purple-edged

Copper. The fourth copper species we have in our landscape is the

Purple Copper. It is a brilliantly coloured beauty that can well

compete with the most splendid tropical species. However, it does not

primarily belong in meadows and pastures but is usually found in bogs

and marshes and damp meadows.

The most eye-catching species in the meadow and especially in those

meadows that are subject to some form of cultivation, are the white

butterflies that most people know as Cabbage Whites. The true Cabbage

White is, however, not particularly common in our landscape. One sees

it quite rarely. The white butterflies that fly over Gästrikland's

meadows are almost always Rape Whites. It has green-coloured wing

veins on the underside and can easily be distinguished from the rare

Black-veined White found here which lacks notable markings on the

underside. In pastures one sees in early summer the beautiful Orange-

tip and somewhat later, in June, occasionally the considerably larger

Hawthorn Butterfly. The latter is the only representative in Europe of

a genus which in Asia's mountain regions houses a whole series of very

interesting species.

Some butterflies are found on almost all types of localities and cannot

without hesitation be attributed to any particular habitat. In my view

the most beautiful and most pleasant species is the Small Tortoiseshell.

This species is probably the butterfly that most people have as their

"first butterfly". For me a newly emerged "Tortoiseshell" warming itself

in the sun on a stone or tree trunk is something of the most beautiful

one can see on our earth. I cannot imagine that any single butterfly on

earth, of which I have had the opportunity to see most, can match in

beauty our Small Tortoiseshell. I shall incidentally describe in the next

issue of Insectifera the world's three species of tortoiseshells.

If I am to express any personal opinion about the status of the butterfly

fauna in Gästrikland's meadows and pastures based on my 30 years of

experience, the overall impression must surely be quite bleak. When I

today visit areas I studied carefully in the early 1960s, for example

the Grindu area and the meadows in Hemlingby and Åbyggeby, it is clear

that there are now significantly fewer individuals of many species, if

one can find them at all. I am thinking of such butterflies as the

beautifully gleaming Silver-studded Blue and the Large Copper. Another

previously easily found species was the distinctly yellow little Scarce

Copper. It certainly mostly belongs in sparse deciduous forest but

previously flew commonly on many meadows and pastures where today it is

rare or absent altogether.

Some species which in my view can be described as characteristic species

for the meadow's diurnal butterflies are the cinnabar moths. They are

admittedly not butterflies but are certainly diurnal flying moths which

belong to the rich meadow fauna. We have several species in our

landscape. Hardly any is any longer common over larger areas in

Gästrikland. The cinnabar moths are entirely tied to our meadows. Through

their way of life where the larva in July spins a cocoon a few

decimetres up on a sturdy grass stalk, survival is negatively affected

by too early mowing and too heavy grazing.

Broad-bordered Cinnabar Moth

Åsah Eriksson

The cinnabar moths are probably the ideal species to indicate whether

a meadow harbours a species-rich and well-composed fauna of insects.

Through their bright warning colours in brilliant red and black, their

very slow flight and their habit of sitting on the tops of various

flowering plants they are very easy to find, if they exist on the meadow.

Our most common species, the Broad-bordered Cinnabar Moth, was previously

common on several meadows in Gästrikland but has unfortunately declined

considerably today. The cinnabar moths are moreover very interesting in

that through their sharp colours they signal that they are extremely

unpalatable. There is also a green, very beautiful metallic-gleaming

species which is somewhat smaller than the red and black species. The

cinnabar moths are also a good example of a phenomenon which is very

common in the tropics, namely "Müllerian mimicry". In brief it comes

down to several different unpalatable species being coloured in the

same way. This reduces the number of attempts that predators, primarily

birds, must make to learn that this type of butterfly cannot be eaten.

This was discovered and described by the German zoologist Fritz Müller.

A similar but perhaps even more elaborate trick which certain insects

have developed to survive better was discovered by the English naturalist

and butterfly collector Henry Bates during his expedition to the Amazon

rainforests in the middle of the 19th century. This phenomenon which is

now called "Batesian mimicry" comes down to certain less common species

almost exactly resembling an unpleasant or poisonous species. On our

meadows and pastures we can, for example, with a bit of luck find a

diurnal flying butterfly which is called the Poplar Hawkmoth.

This Clearwing is a very remarkable butterfly with narrow transparent

wings and a yellow and black-striped abdomen. It resembles our bald-

faced hornet and ordinary wasp so much that an insect-eating bird

scarcely sees through the deception. The prerequisite for this to work

is that the edible species is uncommon and that the inedible species,

in this case the wasp, is common and thus runs much greater risk of

being "tried" by an inexperienced young bird than the rare Poplar

Clearwing.

Butterfly Conservation

Can one then do anything to help butterflies survive in our shrinking

meadows and pastures? The most important thing is of course that the

meadows can be preserved and kept as herb-rich as possible. Mowing must

not occur too early in the summer. The old way of mowing meadows after

grass and herbs have reached their maximum size undoubtedly favours the

insect fauna. One can see this clearly even today in many "less developed"

countries around the Mediterranean where meadows often remain in bloom

for a long time before being mowed. These meadows are often an eldorado

for all manner of insects. One can probably sum this up as the later the

mowing the better for butterflies. These meadows together with the

tropical rainforests are surely the optimal biotope for butterflies on

our earth.

Something one perhaps does not always think about is that our roadside

verges constitute important biotopes for the insect fauna. The road

maintenance workers on for example Öland and Gotland and in Småland are

worthy of all praise. There the majority of roadside verges are generally

mowed first in late summer or autumn. By this means the roadside verges

become important survival refuges in the intensively cultivated landscape.

One truly wishes that our road maintenance workers up here could wait

with mowing the roadside verges until at least the end of summer. This

would surely greatly enrich our fauna. Since we are now on this subject

one would also like to appeal to the road maintenance workers not to use

the dreadful "flail mowers" which make "nature mince" of all the small

creatures that live in the roadside verges. Here it is of course not only

about insects but a whole range of other animal groups such as amphibians,

snails, worms, small rodents and perhaps, if the massacre occurs already

in June, even some bird chicks. Most animals protect themselves against

sudden danger by quickly huddling up and making themselves as small as

possible. This often works well against normal dangers in the form of

predators, a normal hay mower or a scythe but is of course completely

pointless against these new flail mowers. If one used a cutting bar

instead of a flail mower, surely millions of small creatures would survive

the summer just along the roads in Gävle municipality!

Unfortunately I must state that the summer of 1992 many kilometres of our

most beautiful roadside verges in Hille and Åbyggeby were massacred by

these whipping machines already the week before midsummer when the flower display was at its finest. One really wonders if those who do this job have any feeling for nature at all? Do they completely lack a sense of what is beautiful? When one sees that they have gone at 4-5 m high willow stands with these whipping machines and sees the remains of these small trees scattered in the form of wood chips over a large area, one cannot interpret this in any other way than as an expression of pure destructive urge!

Is then nothing being done for small animals by those who have the power to make decisive decisions about how the land shall be used? Yes, one wonders.

Verbally, debaters and decision-makers profess allegiance to the new "fashionable terms" - "biological diversity" must be preserved. A few years ago the expression was that an "ecological perspective" should characterize all decisions concerning nature. The question is what has happened in practice when it comes to insects.

We can take a few small examples. Often nature conservation consists of a cleaning hysteria where the most important thing seems to be creating employment. There are many examples of nature reserves having had the exact opposite effect on the animals they are supposed to protect. In the Nordic region we even have examples of a butterfly that lived unnoticed at a single locality, known only to butterfly enthusiasts, now being extirpated from the country after the area was designated a nature reserve, marked with signs, and "tidied up" with employment programme funds through clearing etc. to make it more accessible to people! The poor butterflies naturally could not survive this "environmental care".

In Sweden it has gone so far that several small butterfly species have "park and nature management" as the reason they are today acutely threatened in the country.

We in the association have also received numerous reports of how the municipality has felled fine stands of aspen - so incredibly valuable for "biological diversity" - to be replaced with the trivial birch. Elsewhere fine deciduous forest stands with willow and aspen have been "thinned out" merely because they looked dark or untidy, or is it to employ the unemployed? One really wonders if those who send out people in the service of "environmental care" have any sense of what is actually good for nature itself. Often one is inclined to believe that it is the "park biotope" with mown lawns and young fresh newly planted trees without a single little rotted twig that is regarded as the ideal nature type not only in city parks but also in the still existing but rapidly shrinking natural forest patches scattered throughout the outskirts of cities. The few remaining small forest areas are veritable eldorados for our youngest city inhabitants. It seems unfortunately to be the case that our small children will soon be the only ones able to experience the excitement and joy of a wild, undomesticated nature!

The best way to save natural diversity is surely to change attitudes among ordinary people regarding protection of life other than just humanity itself. It is of course also important to designate reserves to protect the most valuable natural areas. It is however important to make a distinction between nature protection areas and recreational areas for the public. We have far too many examples of how nature conservation areas have been damaged by being made accessible to the public at the same time they were designated, through walking trails and colorful promotional materials.

Agriculture Minister Olsson believes that it is sufficient, or at least not possible, to allocate more than 150 million kronor to designate nature reserves throughout Sweden. In these times, when surely equally many billions are pumped into mismanaged banks, the allocation hardly seems something to be overly proud of.

Some encouraging things do occur, perhaps due to municipal budget constraints. I am thinking of how Gävle Municipality in 1992 avoided mowing large grass areas every week with ordinary lawnmowers but instead did so once in the autumn and then with a scythe machine, a sort of scything that is. This must be very positive for all small animals. One can only hope that this will continue in the coming years as well.

Perhaps more people can come to see that a flower meadow in the city is just as beautiful as a sterile short-mown lawn. A tip if you want more butterflies in your vicinity is to leave a large part of your lawn unmown. You will be surprised to see how many herbs come up after just one season. A small meadow on your plot during the summer is in my opinion just as beautiful as a lawn. If you then plant a Butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii) and a few Ligularia clivorum you will have your garden full of Small Tortoiseshells, Clouded Yellows, the occasional Red Currant butterfly and perhaps also some of our most beautiful butterflies such as Mourning Cloak and Peacock. Since these plants are extremely nectar-rich you can with a bit of luck also get visits from the colorful migratory butterflies Admiral and Thistle butterfly.

Good luck with butterfly studies and please report your findings to the association. We will place great emphasis on local reports of insect life in Gästrikland. All interesting findings will be published in Insectifera.

Footnote

If you wish to read further about the butterflies of meadows and pastures I would like to recommend Björn Dals extraordinarily pleasant little book "Fjärilar i naturen 1" where with informative text and excellent watercolors he shows most of Sweden's butterflies. Another book which today can only be obtained through antiquarian dealers is Bertil Gullander's old book "Nordens Dagfjärilar". If you then want to go further there is an almost endless selection of books on butterflies, from Wallengeren's extraordinarily interesting "Skandinaviens Fjärilar" from 1853 to the pleasant "Fjärilar i Sverige" by Lars Imby. The latter book is essentially an introduction to butterfly studies and treats, in addition to butterflies, representative species from most Swedish butterfly families. The book however covers virtually all Swedish butterflies and is provided with informative text and beautiful photographs of both living and prepared butterflies.

If you are not satisfied with these books on Sweden's butterflies you now have through the Australian butterfly expert, photographer and "workaholic" Bernard D'Abrera the opportunity to see in a fantastic multivolume work all the world's butterflies depicted in very fine photographs of male, female and underside as well as most subspecies and variations. The images are supplemented with distribution information, host plants, where and when the species was described.

In April 1993 the Holarctic part will be completed, that is Europe, Asia and North America, with the third and final part containing among other things all Blues, Coppers and Skippers. Unfortunately these books are quite expensive but in relation to their content and design I think they are well worth what they cost. The price for the three books on all the butterflies of Europe, North Africa, northern and central Asia and North America in folio format with thousands of butterflies photographed at natural size is approximately 4000 kronor. If you then want to see all of our planet's fantastic butterfly fauna there are furthermore another ten or so similar books by this fantastic Bernard D'Abrera! Below is shown half a page of the books' nearly 600 pages in reduced format. The image shows 4 of the world's nearly 70 species of the Fritillary genus Melitaea. In Sweden we have two species. I think the books provide a new and good perspective on our fauna in relation to our planet's fauna. One can easily become "blinkered". These books are most easily purchased from Classey LTD in England or from APOLLO Books in Denmark.

Speaking of books one should also not forget the Nature Conservancy Board's and LT's book on meadows. It provides many interesting pieces of information about the history of meadows, management, species richness etc., yes virtually everything one might need to know as a meadow lover.