November 2022
The first meeting of the Spanish Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (Spain BMS, https://butterfly-monitoring.net/spain-bms) was celebrated in the CENEAM center from 11th to 13th November 2022. Spain BMS was created in 2014, with Doñana Biological Station as funded partner (Photo: Valsaín, Segovia, Spain. Author: Juan Pablo Cancela). Since then, Spain BMS has exponentially grown and currently a total of 211 transects are walked throughout the entire national territory (with the exception of the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja and Catalonia). Its main aim is to assess the abundance of butterfly populations, to establish adequate conservation strategies thanks to the efforts of many volunteers, environmental workers and research people. The methods are standardized and shared with all the others European countries.
In this meeting, preliminary results of Spain BMS during 2022, as well as the current research works using data from Spain BMS. Also we have shared different experiences of volunteers along all the national territory and organized workshops of species identification or learn about the 15-minutes butterfly counts app that provides very useful information.
ICTS-RBD participates through the Doñana monitoring Program of Natural Processes. Technicians from Doñana Biological Station and National Parks Autonomous Agency monitor 12 transects within Doñana Natural Space. Although this area is not a hotspot for these type of insects, data from Doñana are quite interesting in relation to annual phenology (Cover photo: Plebejus argus. Author: Rosa Arribas), migration events (North-South migration of Vanessa cardui) and the presence of rare species in these latitude (Cyaniris semiargus), which inhabit Doñana thanks to microhabitats linked to the emergent aquifer, despite the high sun incidence and the scarce rains.