Entomologica romanica 24: 5-18, 2020 ISSN 2601-7105 online / ISSN 1224-2594 print / doi: 10.24193/entomolrom.24.1 Contributions to the knowledge of the Lepidoptera of Vlăsia Plain (Muntenia, Romania) Valeriu Albu & Sebastian Albu Summary: This study presents the results of an investigation carried out between 1966 and 2013, aiming to record the lepidoptera fauna of the Vlăsia Plain, a region centered on Bucureşti, Romania, and part of the more extensive Valahia Plain. 1251 lepidoptera representing 458 species were collected from forests, steppes, marshy areas and hilly zones situated between Bucureşti and the border of the Carpathian foothills. From these collections, 33 previously unrecorded species were added to the Valahia Plain checklist. Isolated populations of several species previously considered extinct from the area or with a doubtful occurrence, were re-discovered and re-confirmed in wooded habitats near Bucureşti (Lopinga achine and Ancylis upupana), on the hills at Târgovişte (Zerynthia polyxena) and in forest clearings around the city of Piteşti (Brintesia circe). Key words: Lepidoptera biodiversity, European butterflies and moths, Balkan invertebrate fauna, lepidoptera of Romania Introduction illuminated structures and pastures in Dâmboviţa, wooded areas and clearings in Argeş, and a marshy The study of the lepidoptera fauna of the Vlăsia area in Giurgiu. Plain (part of larger Muntenia) began in the late 19th We sampled for lepidoptera during the entire flight century, mainly with the recording of the butterflies season, from March to November. Specimens were and macromoths collected in and around Bucureşti, collected by sweeping vegetation with a standard the country’s capital city (Caradja 1895, Fleck insect net. Larval specimens were reared to adulthood 1900). Gradually, interest shifted to also include either on the plants on which they were found or on micromoth populations in studies by Caradja (1901), alternative food sources, e.g. dandelion (Taraxacum Popescu (1938), and Popescu-Gorj (1964). These officinalis), plantain (Plantgo major), or willow leaves laid the groundwork for the current knowledge of the (Salix spp.). Pupae found on rare occasions were lepidoptera fauna of Bucureşti and its surroundings. retained until eclosion. Sampling events occurred Unfortunately, this activity came to a halt in the mid- throughout the year, temperature and precipitation 1960s and was not resumed until the late 1990s, with permitting. the work of Székely (1998, 2002, and 2011). The We followed the species arrangement proposed present study, which primarily documents species in „The Lepidoptera of Europe- A Distributional collected from 1979 to 1982, attempts to fill this 30- Checklist” (Karsholt and Razowski 1996), with year gap in the monitoring of lepidoptera populations the amendments contained in „Revised higher of Bucureşti and its surroundings. classification of the Noctuoidea” (Lafontaine and Fibiger 2006) and in Fauna Europaea Web Service Material and methods v.2.6 (Karsholt and Nieukerken 2013). The „Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of Rumania” (Rákosy The lepidoptera surveying activities reported in et al. 2003) was used as a benchmark for the species this paper extend over a period of 47 years, from known to occur in our study area. 1966 to 2013. During this time, we investigated 19 sites in four counties situated on the Vlăsia Plain Results (Ilfov, Dâmboviţa, Argeş, and Giurgiu). Table 1 lists these sites and their altitudes along with the number We recorded 458 lepidoptera species out of a total of specimens and species recorded at each of them. of 1251 individuals collected during the entire time Collection sites included electrically illuminated span of the study. Of these, 412 species (89.9%) and structures, forests, and village gardens in Ilfov, 1156 specimens (92.5%) were obtained in the four- Table 1. Sampling sites by county with their respective species and specimen numbers, arranged by increasing altitudes. Many species were caught in two or more counties, which accounts for the higher county species sum (584) than the total species collected (458). County Site Altitude Number of species Number of specimens Giurgiu Călugăreni 58 m 85 (14.6%) 140 (11.2%) Cernica 60 m Pădurea Pasărea 70 m Fundeni 80 m Chitila 90 m Pădurea Andronache 90 m Ilfov Pădurea Mogoşoaia 95 m 362 (62.0%) 905 (72.3%) Otopeni 95 m Ramificaţia Buciumeni 95 m Ciorogârla 97 m Săbăreni 100 m Pădurea Râioasa 100 m Băneşti 182 m Cazaci 210 m Dâmbovița Târgovişte 280 m 103 (17.6%) 162 (13.0%) Cozia 288 m Găieşti 347 m Drăganu 390 m Argeș 34 (5.8%) 44 (3.5%) Transfăgărăşan Rd. 500 m Total 584 1251 Table 2. Number of species collected during this study, year interval between 1979 to 1982. We recorded the with corresponding suprafamily designations. most species from Ilfov (362), followed by Dâmboviţa (103), Giurgiu (85), and Argeş (34), as detailed in Suprafamily Number of species Table 1. Many species were collected in two or more 1 Noctuoidea 134 counties. These species represent 21suprafamilies, as 2 Geometroidea 96 shown in Table 2. The Noctuoidea and Geometroidea 3 Papilionoidea 66 had the highest numbers of species in our sample 4 Pyraloidea 49 with 134 and 96, followed by Papilionoidea and Pyraloidea with 66 and 49, respectively. At the bottom 5 Tortricoidea 26 were Eriocranioidea, Hepialoidea, Tischeroidea, 6 Gelechioidea 16 Choreutoidea, and Thyridoidea with one species for 7 Adeloidea 11 each. We recorded lepidoptera activity from March 8 Bombycoidea 9 to December, with the most species collected during 9 Tineoidea 7 May and June (Fig. 1). This graph shows a steep 10 Gracillarioidea 7 increase in species abundance from March to June, 11 Yponomeutoidea 6 followed by a decrease in July, another small peak in August, and a gradual decrease in abundance from 12 Cossoidea 6 September to December. The only month devoid of 13 Zygaenoidea 6 any records was January. In February 1983 we had 14 Drepanoidea 6 a Saturnia pavonia (Linnaeus, 1758) pupa hatch 15 Pterophoroidea 4 indoors and in December 1980 and 1981 we collected 16 Lasiocampoidea 4 single specimens of Agonopterix alstromeriana 17 Eriocranioidea 1 (Clerck, 1759) and Erannis defoliaria (Clerck, 18 Hepialoidea 1 1759), respectively. 19 Tischeroidea 1 20 Choreutoidea 1 21 Thyridoidea 1 Total 458 6 MONTHLY LEPIDOPTERA OCCURENCE SPECIES SPECIMENS MONTHLY LEPIDOPTERA OCCURENCE SPECIES SPECIMENS 256 241 256 241 AND 162 AND 155 145 141 NUMBER OF NUMBER SPECIES SPECIMENS 162 155 127 145 141 NUMBER OF NUMBER SPECIES SPECIMENS 110 104 127 95 110 79 72 104 66 95 56 79 72 66 38 33 56 20 3810 33 0 1 2 JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH20 APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER 10 0 1 MONTHS 2 JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER MONTHS Fig. 1. Line graph depicting monthly differences in numbers of lepidoptera species and specimens collected during this study. Many species were caught in more than one month, resulting in a higher monthly sum (665) than the total species number for the study (458). Discussion lepidoptera flight activity occurred in June (145 species) and January (0 species), respectively. The During this study, we recorded 458 lepidoptera monthly species abundance curve (Fig. 1) shows an species from the Vlăsia plain. Of these, 421 were increase in lepidoptera flight activity from March to species known to regularly occur in the area, while June and a decrease from September to December, 33 were previously unrecorded from here, as well as similar to that observed in the study of the lepidoptera from Muntenia (Table 3). Four more species were of Bucureşti (Albu and Albu 2016). We observed encountered in places from where they were considered sporadic activity in December, as shown by the extirpated. We rediscovered Ancylis upupana records of A. alstromeriana and E. defoliaria in (Treitschke, 1835) in Andronache forest in 1982. The (1980 and 1981, respectively). The former species last record of this species from Muntenia was prior to overwinters as adult, while the latter flies in the late 1900 (Rákosy et al. 2003). We encountered several fall, making a December detection not unusual, given populations of Lopinga achine (Scopoli, 1763) in the occasional occurrence of warm days during this Mogoşoaia and Andronache forests near Bucureşti in month. The February record of a S. pavonia adult 1981 and 1982 and of Zerynthia polyxena (Denis and hatching indoors is also consistent with personal Schiffermüller, 1775) in the foothills at Mânăstirea observations of wild individuals of this species flying Dealu near Târgovişte in 1982. These two species had in March and April. not been seen from these areas since the beginning of Rákosy et al. (2003) compiled a list of 1916 the 20th century and were considered extinct from here lepidoptera species from the existing literature and (Popescu-Gorj 1964, Rákosy 2013). There are a few museum collections representing the fauna of the entire even more recent records of L. achine from 1997 to Muntenia region, thus also covering our study area. 2004 reported from this area by Székely (2011) and at Adding the 458 species from this study to the 78 non- least one more record of Z. polyxena from Târgovişte duplicated species that we encountered by surveying in 1987 (personal observation). We documented the an urban park in Bucureşti during approximately the occurrence of Brintesia circe (Fabricius, 1775) in same period (Albu and Albu 2016), we arrive at 536 Argeş, a species which had a questionable presence lepidoptera species recorded from the Vlăsia plain in the area (Rákosy 2013). This suggests the presence in the latter part of the 20th century. This represents and persistence of these species in Muntenia, most 28% of the total of 1916 species found by Rákosy likely as localized and isolated populations. (2003). Some species, including Noctua haywardi Our data suggest that the most and least annual (Tams, 1926) were recorded just recently in this area 7 8 Table 3.