The ARVe project is a collective research scheme that aims to accurately determine the distribution of butterflies in the Veneto region (north-east Italy)
Everyone can contribute
Why this project?
The ARVe project was born to fill a notable gap in the knowledge of the biodiversity in the Veneto region (North-East Italy).
As a matter of fact, the communities of butterflies and skippers in Veneto are poorly known in terms of species composition, and the geographical distribution of the species is known only very roughly. To date, faunistic studies were published only on limited areas, such as Monte Baldo, part of the Lessini Mountains, Colli Euganei and other small territories.
Up to now, faunistic research on these insects has been quite neglected both at the national and the regional level, yet rhopalocerans are recognised as useful biological indicators for a correct management of the environment and are doubtless among the most popular subjects for environmental education.
What are we aiming at?
The ARVe project wants to
- produce a complete and up-to-date checklist of the species living in Veneto
- build a database of validated faunistic records, which will allow to produce a detailed distributional atlas for each of the species
- evaluate the conservation status of the butterflies and skippers of Veneto, by mean of a list of regional endangered species
- identify areas of prime value at the regional scale with respect to the rhopalocerans communities, whose managament deserves prioritarious attention
How is ARVe working?
Following previous experience with regional or local investigations on other animals (amphibians, reptiles, birds), we choosed to set up a collective research project based on the voluntary cooperation of a network of people sharing the common goal of contributing to the knowledge and conservation of the natural environment.
Anyone who shares these aims is invited to participate by collecting records and making them available to the common database.
How to join?
Contributors are not required to have particular knowledge or expertise with butterfly identification, recording or field work. Detailed instructions for contributors are given in the file “ARVe - indicazioni per collaboratori”.
Mid-term results (including preliminary cartographic outputs) are made available to the participants at the end of each year. In addition, contributors will be given the opportunity to contribute to the production of the Atlas (printed book), either helping with texts, data analysis, or photos. You can reach ARVe secretariat here.
Which kind of data do we need?
All records for any species of butterflies and skippers within the Veneto region (administrative boundaries) will be useful the project. There is no backward temporal limit.
As far as possible, we ask our contributors to register records based on field observations or by photos taken in the field (if necessary, on specimens temporarily captured and then released). For several species, which are difficult to recognize in the field, the submission of photos is mandatory for the acceptance of the record.
Sampling of voucher specimens should be considered only for species whose identification is very difficult or impossible without careful laboratory examination or dissection.
We also digitized data from all available literature and from the most important public and private entomological collections.
What about data submission and validation?
Contributors are asked to compile data in a standard spreadsheet, which is then submitted via email to the project coordinators, together with supporting photos.
Each single record will be critically evaluated against known ecology, distribution, phenology, and identification problems.
Identification of all submitted photos will be checked by one or more of the project coordinators.
Detailed recommendations for collecting and submitting records are given in documents available through the Italian section of the site.
Preliminary results
At the end of the second year of the project (2011), we were able to collect over 45 000 records, accounting for 190 species of Rhopalocera.
We enjoyed the participation of over 180 people and institutions.
Preliminary distributional maps are shown below (click to enlarge)
Contacts
Marco Uliana
c/o Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia, S. Croce 1730, 30135 Venezia
email: info@farfalleveneto.eu
