New Distributional Data of Butterflies in the Middle of the Mediterranean Basin: An Area Very Sensitive to Expected Climate Change

Butterflies are known to be very sensitive to environmental changes. Species distribution is modified by climate warming with latitudinal and altitudinal range shifts, but also environmental perturbations modify abundance and species composition of communities. Changes can be detected and described when large datasets are available, but unfortunately only for few Mediterranean countries they were created. The butterfly fauna of the Mediterranean Basin is very sensitive to climate warming and there is an urgent need of large datasets to investigate and mitigate risks such as local extinctions or new pest outbreaks. The fauna of Calabria, the southernmost region of peninsular Italy, is composed also of European species having here their southern range. The aim of this dataset paper is to increase and update the knowledge of butterfly distribution in a region very sensitive to climate warming that can become an early-warning area.


Introduction
Large and updated datasets are fundamental tools for investigating the effects of climatic changes and environmental perturbations on biodiversity, mainly of sensitive taxa such as butterflies [1]. Butterflies are known to react to climate warming with latitudinal and altitudinal range shifts [2], but these changes are detectable only if distributional datasets are available. In Europe, some countries (Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and UK) adopted a standardized butterfly monitoring scheme from several years [3], but in the Mediterranean areas only the Catalan Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (http://www.catalanbms.org/) and the Suivi Temporel des Rhopalocères de France (http://vigienature.mnhn.fr/page/suivi-temporeldes-rhopaloceres-de-france) are working.
Models of species distribution in face of changes due to climate warming [4] are based on the actual distribution of species and future scenarios can be distorted when a model is based on few data. The southern range of the European distribution of butterflies is largely underinvestigated and only few data are available for southern Italy, an area with a fauna very sensitive to climate changes [5]. In order to detect changes, it is important to investigate the distribution of both common and rare species, but bibliographic sources only rarely provide punctual and useful data of the former causing an important lack of information. Many data can be collected within private and public collections. This is an expensive procedure, but interesting data can be obtained on the past distribution of common species.
In Italy, the first attempt toward a knowledge of the distribution of the fauna at a national scale is represented by the Checklist of the Italian Fauna [6], with the distribution of species only generalized to large areas (North, South, Sardinia, and Sicily). Successively, the project CKmap supported the mapping of 10.000 species of animals at a national level in a UTM grid square [7]. Among them, the distribution of all butterflies species known for Italy was mapped and the localities georeferenced [8]. These localities were obtained from private and public collections, from private datasets, and from bibliographic resources, but very few were collected in the southern regions, where large territories are not explored. The Calabria is the southernmost region of Italian Peninsula, located in the middle of the Mediterranean Basin. The regional fauna includes European species, having here their southern range limit, particularly sensitive to the risk of local extinctions as a consequence of the expected climate change. Papers devoted to the Calabrian fauna of Lepidoptera are very scarce and only in last few decades the studies were intensified [5,9,10]. Anyway, data are largely insufficient to study changes on a regional scale and data are strictly needed for detecting and mitigating risks such as local extinctions or new pest outbreaks.
The aim of this dataset paper is to provide new distributional data and georeferenced datasets useful for the study of dynamics linked to changes on large spatial and temporal scales in the Mediterranean Basin, a region very sensitive to climate changes that can become an early-warning area [5].

Methodology
In this dataset paper, all unpublished records of butterflies of the author are reported. Data were collected during the years 2005-2012, mainly in the Cosenza Province, covering all the seasons of butterflies' activity. Species are named according to the online database of the European Fauna (http://www.faunaeur.org/). The localities were individuated by two toponyms: the first is the most precise and the second is the most easily recognizable on maps. Latitude and longitude were provided for all localities and grouped in territorial units with similar ecological, geomorphological, and biogeographic features in order to facilitate the individuation of areas that need further investigations. The territorial units individuated are nine [11]: Pollino-Orsomarso Mountains, Catena Costiera Mountains, Sila Mountains, Marchesato Area, Serre Mountains, Aspromonte Mountains, Crati Valley, Tyrrhenian Coast, and Ionian Coast (Figure 1). Data of localities are summarized in Table 1. Species lists were compiled as shown in Dataset Items 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 (Tables).

Concluding Remarks
This Dataset Paper strongly increases the knowledge on the butterfly fauna of Calabria, the southernmost region of the Italian Peninsula, composed of 135 species [10]. New distributional data for 116 species of butterflies are provided, the 86% of the whole regional fauna. The presence of species was recorded for 136 localities, for a total of 815 new distributional records. To date, the most data rich paper for this region provided 745 distributional records for 44 localities [9].
There is a heterogeneous distribution of sampled localities on the regional territory. In fact, Sila and Catena Costiera Mountains appear to be better sampled than others.

Dataset Availability
The dataset associated with this Dataset Paper is dedicated to the public domain using the CC0 waiver and is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/176471/dataset.

Disclosure
The data presented here were collected by the author during several field trips and during several research activities of the author from 2005 to 2012. The data are unpublished and represent an important implementation of the knowledge on the butterfly fauna of Italy.