Advisor: Harald Krenn

Diplomprüfung - Thursday, September 15th 2020

Abstract

The present study includes the registration of numbers of butterflies found on the monitoring routes that were established in 2018. The on-site inspections took place in accordance with “Pollard Walks” in the period from April to September 2019 in five areas within the community of Vienna (Botanical Gardens, Steinhofwiese, Himmelwiese, the Lobau and Verschiebebahnhof). Himmelswiese and Lobau are listed as Natura 2000 conservation areas. Each area was inspected eleven times within the period of observation. From the 50 species that were encountered 2 species are in the appendixes II and IV in the FFH directiv (Zerynthia polxena and Lycaena dispar), further 12 species are named in the Red List (Zerynthia polxena, Iphiclides podalirius, Papilio machaon, Hesperia comma, Limentis camillia, Brenthis hecate, Argynnis aglaja, Melitaea athalia, Satyrium spini, Cupido decolorata, Lysandra coridon and Lysandra bellargus) and 7 species are listed in the Vienna conservation area (Zerynthia polxena, Iphiclides podalirius, Brinthesia circe, Minois dryas, Neptis rivularis, Apatura ilia and  Lycaena dispar) regulation. The biggest diversity in species was found in the Lobau. The highest number of individual butterflies was present on the Verschiebebahnhof, an area that is largely undisturbed by the presence of humans. The five most sighted species in descending order were Maniola jurtina, Melanargia galathea, Pieris rapae, Vanessa cardui und Polyommatus Icarus. The desired objective of this monitoring that is designed to run for several years is to recognise a trend in the development of butterfly population.