Reconciling biodiversity conservation with agroecosystems is a challenge for sustainable food systems. Organic rice production is increasing in Italy, promoting natural and agro-biodiversity. Rice fields can be considered wetland surrogates, crucial as biodiversity hotspots, and thus represent natural or semi-natural habitats within intensively farmed districts. The ecological role and value of rice fields increase when combin...

Citizen science is increasingly used to document biodiversity in urban ecosystems while simultaneously promoting public engagement with nature. However, how institutional coordination relates to participation levels and the resulting representation of urban biodiversity remains poorly understood, particularly in European cities. The City Nature Challenge is a global annual bioblitz that engages citizens in recording urban biod...

Among European wild pollinators, bumblebees ( Bombus Latreille, 1802) are of particular interest, and many species have shown documented declines in abundance and distribution. Studies have employed both lethal and non-lethal sampling methods, but for species of conservation concern, it is especially important to use approaches that allow research without compromising populations. Developing reliable, non-lethal methods for ac...

Aim To examine how butterfly population trends respond to climate change and urbanisation at a continental scale, and whether responses differ between urban and rural environments. Location 869 sites across 12 European countries, spanning six bioclimatic zones. Time Period 1976–2021. Major Taxa Studied Butterflies (Lepidoptera). Methods We analysed long‐term monitoring data from > 8400 populations of 145 species representing a...

The ongoing decline of insects is reported in many regions around the world. Loss and degradation of habitats, pollution, and climate change are among the main threats to butterflies. In Europe, many butterfly species are responding to climate change with range shifts. Identifying potential climate refugia is considered a key strategy to counteract the negative effects of climate change. However, several factors influence the...

Insects and plants share a close relationship; plants provide feeding opportunities, ecological niches, and shelters for insects, while insects, in turn, facilitate pollination for plants. Management actions might positively or negatively affect insect species richness and/or abundance, in particular, forest practices can significantly influence insect communities. In this study, we investigated the effects on plant and moth c...

The detection of local extinctions is often hindered by the lack of long-term monitoring schemes, and thus relies on time series of presence data. Recently, citizen science has repeatedly shown its value in documenting species occurrences. We investigated the effectiveness of unstructured citizen science records in reducing the perception of local extinctions in butterfly populations across Italian National Parks. We addressed...

Understanding how species respond to human activities is paramount to ecology and conservation science, one outstanding question being how large‐scale patterns in land use affect biodiversity. To facilitate answering this question, we propose a novel analytical framework that combines environmental niche models, multi‐grain analyses, and species traits. We illustrate the framework capitalizing on the most extensive dataset com...

Climate change represents a threat to narrow-ranged mountain species living in low-altitude massifs. We studied the disjunct Apennine population of Lasiommata petropolitana (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae) in the Gran Sasso and Monti della Laga National Park. We quantified the altitudinal shifts undergone in the last decades (1964–2021) in the Alps and Apennines and estimated the local extinction risk due to climate change. We also...

Alien species introduction is a global phenomenon involving different invasion patterns and is characterized by niche conservatism or shift. We describe the spatial distribution of Cacyreus marshalli Butler, [1898] (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae) in its native (southern Africa) and invaded (Europe) ranges. C. marshalli is the only alien butterfly in Europe, introduced by the trade of ornamental Pelargonium plants, and might threaten...

Polyommatus exuberans is an evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) of the lycaenid butterfly Polyommatus ripartii . This ESU is known to survive at only two sites in the Susa Valley (NW Italy). Lack of correct management, reforestation and frequent wildfires severely threaten this ESU (listed as endangered species in the most recent IUCN Italian Red List). Although the taxonomic rank of this taxon is still debated, current thre...

Endemics co‐occur because they evolved in situ and persist regionally or because they evolved ex situ and later dispersed to shared habitats, generating evolutionary or ecological endemicity centres, respectively. We investigate whether different endemicity centres can intertwine in the region ranging from Alps to Sicily, by studying their butterfly fauna. We gathered an extensive occurrence data set for butterflies of the stu...

Lycaena dispar Hawort (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae), a protected butterfly, is declining in Europe, but it thrives in rice fields in northern Italy. Here, agrochemical usage could threaten its long-term survival. We investigated, by micronucleus (MN) assay, the genotoxic effect of glyphosate, a common herbicide, on L. dispar larvae. Micronuclei (MNi) are DNA fragments separated from the main nucleus and represent the result of gen...