You have full access to this open access article. Euphydryas aurinia is a declining butterfly inhabiting oligotrophic grasslands in Central and Western Europe. Both methods, besides influences of weather, time of day similarities between morning and late afternoon hours , and progression of season mate locating replaced by maintenance activities , revealed consistent association of behaviours to vegetation structures.
Of the two male mate-locating behaviours, perching occurred near shrubs and woodland edges, and patrolling over centres of inhabited meadows. Female activity concentrated in nectar-rich mid-height sward near host plants. Consequently, male and female activity were partly spatially separated. A habitat for E. Grasslands containing host plants should be dissected by structures such as shrubs, woodlot edges, or taller herbaceous vegetation, emphasising the importance of landscape heterogeneity for insect fauna.
Preserving suitable habitats is the crucial condition for efficient conservation of invertebrates Samways including butterflies Settele et al. Increasingly detailed information on habitat requirements of increasing numbers of specialist butterflies e. Kivinen et al.
Such resources may exist syntopically cf. Courtney and Duggan or disjunctly cf. This distinction is crucial for managing reserves, biological restoration, and recovery programmes. For instance, the finding that behavioural responses to vegetation structure affect the reproductive fitness of individuals, quite accepted in vertebrate conservation Caro , implies that managing vegetation structure may enhance, or suppress, local populations of rare and endangered species Shreeve and Dennis ; Turlure et al.
Euphydryas aurinia Rottemburg, ; Nymphalidae: Nymphalinae is a much-studied butterfly declining across Western and Central Europe and protected by the EU Habitat directive van Swaay et al. It forms multiple genetic lineages across its large Palaearctic range Tolman and Lewington ; Junker et al. In Western and Central Europe, it mainly inhabits humid oligotrophic grasslands Hula et al.
