ReviewProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2021
The decline of butterflies in Europe: Problems, significance, and possible solutions.
Review in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 80 papers.
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Who cites it
80 citing papers in PubMed.
- West European Hedgehog (Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Biases in butterfly survey effort and patterns of protocol used across biogeographic regions.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2026Review
- Microclimate-based oviposition site selection in butterflies and moths.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Extensive climate-induced range shifts in butterflies across the globe.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Effects of Habitat Types on Pollinators and Seasonal Variations in Plant-Insect Pollination Networks in Nanchong, China.Insects · 2026Article
- Habitat Use Across the Geographic Range ofEcology and evolution · 2026Article
- Predicted decline in common bird and butterfly species even under conservation policy scenarios in Europe.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026Article
- Article
- Climate Change May Expand Geographic Distribution of Asian Butterflies Despite Climatic Niche Contraction.Insects · 2026Article
- Urban Expansion and Butterfly Diversity: The Synergistic Effects of Impervious Surface and Vegetation Cover.Insects · 2026Article
- LepEU: A Consortium to Study the Population Genomics of Butterflies and Moths Across Europe.Evolutionary applications · 2026Article
- Precipitation Drives the Abundance and Distribution ofBioscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Assessing direct effects of insect change on insectivore populations in the United Kingdom.Biodiversity and conservation · 2026Article
- Article
- Article
- Radio telemetry of butterflies: practical insights and critical tag-weight thresholds.Movement ecology · 2025Article
- Amino Acid Frequency in the Proteome Is Not Associated With Realised Thermal Limit nor Dietary Niche Breadth in 35 Lepidoptera Species.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Long-Term Phenological Shifts in Butterfly Species from Transylvania, Romania-A Case Study.Insects · 2025Article
- Trapping is not effective for limiting damage by Vespa velutina in vineyards.Pest management science · 2025Article
20 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
We review changes in the status of butterflies in Europe, focusing on long-running population data available for the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Belgium, based on standardized monitoring transects. In the United Kingdom, 8% of resident species have become extinct, and since 1976 overall numbers declined by around 50%. In the Netherlands, 20% of species have become extinct, and since 1990 overall numbers in the country declined by 50%. Distribution trends showed that butterfly distributions began decreasing long ago, and between 1890 and 1940, distributions declined by 80%. In Flanders (Belgium), 20 butterflies have become extinct (29%), and between 1992 and 2007 overall numbers declined by around 30%. A European Grassland Butterfly Indicator from 16 European countries shows there has been a 39% decline of grassland butterflies since 1990. The 2010 Red List of European butterflies listed 38 of the 482 European species (8%) as threatened and 44 species (10%) as near threatened (note that 47 species were not assessed). A country level analysis indicates that the average Red List rating is highest in central and mid-Western Europe and lowest in the far north of Europe and around the Mediterranean. The causes of the decline of butterflies are thought to be similar in most countries, mainly habitat loss and degradation and chemical pollution. Climate change is allowing many species to spread northward while bringing new threats to susceptible species. We describe examples of possible conservation solutions and a summary of policy changes needed to conserve butterflies and other insects.
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