Scientists have discovered four species of butterflies new to Russia on Kunashir Island; it was previously believed that they lived in Japan and Southeast Asia, Vitaly Spitsyn, senior researcher at the Central Museum of Biological Diversity of the Federal Center for General Research on the Arctic named after Academician NP Laverov of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (FITSCIA), told .
“Specimens of four new species for the Russian fauna were collected: the Chibidokuga erebid hypenodes and three representatives of the bear subfamily Lemyra imparilis, Lemyra infernalis and Cyana hamate. In addition to Kunashir, the distribution range of these species also includes Japan, China, the Korean Peninsula and some areas of Southeast Asia,” Spitsyn said.
Butterflies look different but they are all quite big and bright.
“The bears are very bright, beautiful. One has a red belly, the other has a yellow belly. These are tropical species. One of them lives as far as Thailand, the other in China, Korea, Japan,” the agency's interlocutor added.
How to catch butterflies
To attract the attention of butterflies active at dusk and night, Arkhangelsk scientists used various types of UV lamps, both mercury-tungsten arc (MAT) and mercury-arc fluorescent (MAF) lamps, as well as several different types of UV LED lamps, which give slightly different luminescence. Butterflies respond to UV light, but the UV wavelengths that attract different lepidopteran species can be of different lengths. The power of the light source is also important: the brighter the light, the more it attracts butterflies. However, some species only fly in dim light; A UV LED light is needed to catch them.
Arkhangelsk entomologists also use bait consisting of various sweet fermented ingredients such as fruit juices and vinegar. At the same time, an “individual approach” is needed in the production of baits for different types of butterflies.
“Most of the butterfly species we discovered have always lived in Kunashir. The same bears do not tend to fly long distances. They were simply not detected before because entomologists mainly worked in coastal habitats, and therefore, they could not fully study the forest fauna. Butterflies are an interesting group, from the point of view of habitat selectivity and behavior. Suppose, if in front of you is a small, uniform patch of forest located on a hillside, say 100
