Does the tortoiseshell butterfly, Aglais urticaE (lepidoptera, nymphalidae) shiift to synanthropy in Northeast Asia?

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Abstract

An assumed shift of the tortoiseshell butterfly, Aglais urticae to synanthropy in extremely cold regions (with temperatures close to –60оC) is tested. The tortoiseshell butterfly overwinters at the stage of imago; their cold resistance being fundamentally insufficient for surviving the cold across most of their distribution range in natural shelters located above the snow level and in unheated buildings. The species' resistance to cold from England to northeast Russia is increased from –22 to –29оC, while the average minimum air temperature in January drops from 3.3 to –55.7оC. The objective of the present work was to find out whether well-built, but unheated houses (the village of Seimchan) provide winter indoor temperatures above –30оC, a threshold for the tortoiseshell butterfly. Winter temperatures were measured with loggers in two different houses and compared with the outside temperature obtained from weather station data. During a severe cold weather, it was 11–19оC warmer inside the houses than outside, but the minimum temperatures below –30оC were recorded over half of the winter, and below –35оC over almost its third. Thus, winter (unhea- ted) houses, as well as demi-seasonal ones, and natural shelters such as cracks under the bark, hollows and other cavities located above the snow cover fail to provide the required temperatures. Unheated well-built houses guarantee successful hibernation for the tortoiseshell butterfly only in the milder climatic conditions of western Siberia and in the northeast of the European part of Russia. Wintering above the snow level in primitive shelters can only be possible within the temperature range of –31...–20оC and west of it. The results of the work prove the idea of tortoiseshell butterfly synanthropy to be unsubstantiated and return to the idea of its wintering under the snow cover in shelters such as cavities in litter, under fallen trees, etc. This type of wintering guarantees success, being independent from the climate of northern Eurasia.

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About the authors

D. I. Berman

Institute for Biological Problems of the North, Far East Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences

Author for correspondence.
Email: dberman@mail.ru
Russian Federation, Magadan, 685000

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2. Fig. 1. Location of the Kolymskaya weather station and the village of Seimchan, where temperature regimes in buildings were recorded.

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3. Fig. 2. Temperature “corridors" described by daily minima and maxima in two houses.

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4. Fig. 3. Temperature “corridors” described by daily minima and maxima of air temperatures at the weather station (blue fill) and in the house (red fill).

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5. Figure 4. The ratio of minimum air temperatures inside the house and outside: synchronous (a) and with a shift in air temperatures inside a day ago (b). Solid lines are a regression equation of the form: a – T min in the house = 0.48 T min outside – 11.27 (R2 = 0.51, SE = 4.1 oS, N = 93); b – T min in the house = 0.59 T min outside – 7.02 (R2 = 0.77, SE = 2.8 oS, N = 93).

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6. Fig. 5. The average of the absolute minima of air temperature (according to: Agro-climatic Atlas..., 1972) and the estimated temperature limits (red lines) in which the places of successful wintering of urticaria are different. Wintering to the east of the dotted line – only under snow; to the west of it to the solid red line – under snow or in winter unheated houses; to the west of the solid red line – both previous options and above the snow cover.

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