UTirana Fluturat News

Fluturat e Shqipërisë
Butterflies of Albania


Sylvain Cuvelier =
Anila Paparisto =

Last update: 30.x.2024

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Tirana University
Faculty of Natural Sciences
Department of Biology
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Introduction Acknowledgements Content General Chapters Monographs Checklist Additions Sources Index Updates  

News

30 Tetor 2024 - Përvjetori i parë i faqes së internetit Fluturat e Shqipërisë
October 30th 2024 - First anniversary
of the website Butterflies of Albania

30.x.2024: Today is our first anniversary!

During our first year, we welcomed 3.044 visitors, from 80 countries and the mean engagement per visitor was 5 min 53 sec (source: Google Analytics).
We regularly received data from individual observations and surveys, photographs, questions about identifications and interesting suggestions.
We are very grateful to all visitors and contributors of this first year.
We hope to see you back on a regular base and welcome your new observations, photographs and potential suggestions.

Country # visitors Country # visitors
Albania
691
Denmark
27
Belgium
298
Portugal
23
U.S.A.
256
Hungary
22
France
208
Kosovo
22
Netherlands
153
Ukraine
18
UK
151
Croatia
17
Spain
140
Serbia
17
Greece
111
Slovakia
17
Finland
106
Canada
13
Italy
93
Belarus
12
Austria
76
Slovenia
12
Germany
72
Northern Macedonia
10
Romania
69
Sweden
10
Turkey
54
Indonesia
9
Poland
46
Estonia
8
Czech Republic
42
Puerto Rico
8
Switzerland
33
Japan
7
Bulgaria
31
Lithuania
7
China
31
Kuwait
5
Russia
29
Norway
5
Fig.: visitors map on 30.x.2024 (Google Analytics).
Table: countries with highest number of visitors on 30.x.2024 (Google Analytics)
.

With the results of the first year, Anila and I are optimistic that:
- we meet our initial goals.
- we will expand the information on the Papilionoidea of Albania.
- we will broaden the information to other Lepidoptera superfamilies.
- and we expect that this website will continue to open new doors for research of the Albanian butterfly fauna.

25.ix.2024: collaboration with the Drilon Tushemisht Waterscape Park Visitor Center in Pogradec.

17.vii.2024: Albanian butterflies receive attention on worldwide news-websites.
https://fr.news.yahoo.com/albanie-splendeur-mis%C3%A8re-papillons-062809772.html?guccounter=1
https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/science-nature/climate-change/20240704-196570/
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/natures-mirror-climate-change-batters-063638024.html

16.vii.2024: contribution of the workgroup to a publication about the delta of Vjosa.
Miho A., Bego F. & Beqiraj S. 2024. Vlerat natyrore dhe biodiversiteti i Deltës së Vjosës – gjendja sot dhe kërcënimet. Natural values and biodiversity of the Vjosa Delta - current situation and threats. Përmbledhje punimesh / Collected works. FShN, UT, Tiranë / FNS, UT, Tirana.
Content: https://fshn.edu.al/Info/delta-vjose
Chapter: https://api.fshn.edu.al/uploads/008_VJOSA_DELTA_Peqini_et_al_Terrestrial_insects_6dfb494cfe.pdf

18.v.2024: the new Atlas is online.
The Atlas 2024 includes the observations up to 31.xii.2023.
We thank Roger Vila (Butterfly Diversity & Evolution Lab, Barcelona, Spain) and Vlad Dincă (Lepilab, Oulu, Finland) for the DNA barcoding support of the 2023 samples.
An article is now in preparation to discuss the key points of the 2023 projects for the Papilionoidea, Zygaenidae and Sesiidae.

We look forward to your 2024 observations and are very grateful for your potential cooperation. Join us!
Different teams are again surveying in Albania during different periods of the year. The first projects have already started.
Without any obligation regarding the form of delivery of your observations, you can find here an Excel form to enter your data and forward it to Albania Atlas project.

21.iv.2024: works in progress on the website.
Ongoing adaptations to the scientific nomenclature are done without taking the website offline.
The figures in "Similar species" of some Monographs still require adjustments.
For more details, please check the status on the webpage, Updates.
The new Atlas is in preparation and will soon be available.

20.ii.2024: vulnerable status for Heteropterus morpheus.
The species was found for the first time in 2023 and is currently only known from one locality in the Has district.
In this habitait, this species is present at the limit of its southern range.
H. morpheus was added to the Red List (2022) as vulnerable (VU).

27.i.2024: latest observations from december 2023.
Butterfly sightings, during winter, are extremely uncommon in Albania. Yet, two sightings from the month of December reached us.
On 08.xii.2023 a Libythea celtis (Laicharting, 1782) was observed at Tarabosh, Shkoder and on 27.xii.2023 a Vanessa atalanta (Linnaeus, 1758) was seen in the center of Tirana. Both butterflies were photographed as evidence of the unusual nature of the sightings for common Albanian species.
This phenomenon is observed all over Europe and was recently well documented in a study using long-term observation data of buterflies and moths from northern Austria showing clear phenological shifts (url).
We are interested in such data for Albania, please inform us about your winter sightings!


Libythea celtis, 08.xii.2023, Tarabosh, Shkoder, Albania (© Artan Trebicka) -- ---- -- ----- Vanessa atalanta, 27.xii.2023, Tirana city, Albania (© Anila Paparisto)

17.i.2024: the Association des Lépidoptéristes de France (ALF) dedicates a web page to our project Fluturat e Shqipërisë.
We are grateful to the ALF, Louis Diringer and Jean-Marc Gayman, for referring to our project.
ALF members are welcome to explore Albania and exchange their observations.
We will be happy to help them preparing their projects.


25.xi.2023: JEE | ES 2023 at the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (Belgium)
15h35: "Fluturat e Shqipërisë" by Sylvain Cuvelier (Grupi i punes Fluturat Universiteti i Tiranes)
Download the program
.


30.x.2023
: official launch of the website Fluturat e Shqipërisë
We wish to inform you of the official launch on October 30th by Prof. Anila Paparisto (Universiteti i Tiranës, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Departement of Biology)
See: Announcement and Reactions.


17.vi - 04.vii.2023
: field research project.
The joint multidisciplinary field research project was a success, temporal and spatial gaps have been covered.
Participated to the field work in different areas: Xhuliana Qirinxhi (AL), Marko Prendi (AL), Anilla Paparisto (AL), Ana Nahirnić-Beskhova (BG), Mohammad AJ Marafi (Kuwait), Zdravko Kolev (BG), Eltjon Halimi (AL), Theo Garrevoet (B) and Sylvain Cuvelier (B).
The team is preparing a publication on the results.



Recent publications

(url) Prendi M., Paparisto A. & Cuvelier S. 2023. Proterebia phegea (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Satyrinae): building bridges between relik populations of Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Greece, and a new record from norther Albania. - Phegea 52(2): 59-64.

Blicher Bjerregård E., Bjerg M., Clausen A., Kaj K., Glintborg S. & Videnkjær C. 2023. Butterflies of Albania: new surveys, four new records and a new checklist (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). — Phegea 51(2): 65–76.

(url) Cuvelier S. 2023. Albania, a country with unexpected, intraspecific genetic variability in butterflies (Papilionoidea: Nymphalidae & Lycaenidae). Balancing on a tightrope between species, subspecies, ESU's and haplotypes. - Lépidoptères 32(82): 32-40.

 


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