Abstract
This paper presents an updated checklist of the butterflies of Europe, together with their original name combinations, and their occurrence status in each European country. According to this checklist, 496 species of the superfamily Papilionoidea occur in Europe. Changes in comparison with the last version (2.6.2) of Fauna Europaea are discussed. Compared to that version, 16 species are new additions, either due to cryptic species most of which have been discovered by molecular methods (13 cases) or due to discoveries of Asian species on the eastern border of the European territory in the Ural mountains (three cases). On the other hand, nine species had to be removed from the list, because they either do not occur in Europe or lost their species status due to new evidence. In addition, three species names had to be changed and 30 species changed their combination due to new evidence on phylogenetic relationships. Furthermore, minor corrections were applied to some authors’ names and years of publication. Finally, the namePolyommatusottomanusLefèbvre, 1831, which is threatened by its senior synonymLycaenalegeriFreyer, 1830, is declared anomen protectum, thereby conserving its name in the current combinationLycaenaottomana.
Highlights
Butterflies constitute one of the best-known groups of insects and have become important models to study speciation, community ecology, biogeography, climate change, and insect-plant interactions
Diversity is high in the tropics, especially the Neotropics, and only 496 species are found in Europe according to the present checklist
The updated species list of European butterflies includes 496 species, which belong to 110 genera in 21 subfamilies and six families (Tables 2 and 4; Fig. 4)
Summary
Butterflies constitute one of the best-known groups of insects and have become important models to study speciation, community ecology, biogeography, climate change, and insect-plant interactions. The skippers have previously been thought to represent the sister group to the butterflies and were often placed in a separate superfamily Hesperioidea, but the molecular results indicate that the family Papilionidae is the sister to the remaining butterflies, which include the small Neotropical family Hedylidae with only 36 species. Apart from the latter family, all butterfly families are represented on all continents except Antarctica, most species of Riodinidae are confined to the Neotropical Region. Diversity is high in the tropics, especially the Neotropics, and only 496 species are found in Europe according to the present checklist
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