Animal Biodiversity and Conservation. Volume 48.1 (2025) Pages: e0013-

Spatio-temporal patterns in the plain tiger butterfly in the western Mediterranean region, with special reference to the Iberian Peninsula

Blas, L., Gil-Tapetado, D., Stefanescu, C.

DOI: http://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2025.48.0013

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Abstract

The plain tiger Danaus chrysippus is a widely distributed tropical and subtropical butterfly that has expanded its range into the northern Mediterranean in recent decades. This study focuses on its current situation in the Iberian Peninsula, where it was first detected in the early 1980s. Presence records, mainly collated from citizen science portals and Butterfly Monitoring Schemes (BMS), are used to describe the species’ phenology and distribution in the western Mediterranean region, and to assess several hypotheses regarding its summer dispersion. In North Africa and southern Iberia (below 37.5 °N), this species may be present all year, while in the northern Iberian Peninsula (above 37.5 °N) it only occurs seasonally. In both the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic and Canary Islands, the number of records peaks in autumn. During that season, the plain tiger follows an inland dispersal in the peninsula from the coastline using host plants that grow near rivers and other humid zones. The ecological overlap between the western Mediterranean sub-regions suggests that the ecological characteristics of the southern Iberian Peninsula are more akin to those of North Africa than the north of the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands. This leads to a partial separation of ecological niches between the northern region and the rest of the area, which helps explain differences in winter survival conditions. The observations of caterpillars and chrysalids during the winter of 2023-2024 in Catalonia provide the first evidence of winter survival at northern latitudes, a phenomenon potentially being driven by climate warming.

Keywords

Lepidoptera, Danaus chrysippus, Phenology, Dispersal, Species distribution models, Winter survival

Cite

Blas, L., Gil-Tapetado, D., Stefanescu, C., 2025. Spatio-temporal patterns in the plain tiger butterfly in the western Mediterranean region, with special reference to the Iberian Peninsula. Animal Biodiversity and Conservation, 48: e0013-, DOI: http://doi.org/10.32800/abc.2025.48.0013