Contribution to the knowledge of the Lycaenidae fauna of central part of Kosovo

Abstract

Kosovo has a rich and diverse fauna of butterflies which, recently, is arising a huge interest of biodiversity researchers. In this paper, the results of the research of butterflies of the family Lycaenidae, conducted in the mountains of Ceri, Stermica and Kryeguri, in the central part of Kosovo, are presented. Butterflies were collected in the period May – September 2016 in 11 localities with diverse habitat types. In total 519 specimens that belong to thirty-one species of Lycaenidae have been recorded. The highest taxa richness, 28 species, was registered in the locality 2 (Shannon-Wiener diversity index H' = 4.73) whereas the poorest ,with only 7 recorded species, was the locality 8 (H'= 2.60). Five out of 31 species occurred in all types of habitats in the study area, three species occurred only in one. The commonest and the most abundant species during the survey was Glaucopsyche alexis (Poda, 1761) that occurred in all 11 localities of the survey. In regard to conservation status, all the recorded species are evaluated against the regional (European) IUCN categories in the European Red list of Butterflies. Out of them 29 are classified as Least Concerned (LC), one as Endangered (EN), and two as Near Threatened (NT). Our results show that like all other butterflies, the diversity of Lycaenidae butterflies is influenced by diversity of habitats, climate, altitude, relief and other factors.