Responses of butterfly and moth species to restored cattle grazing in semi-natural grasslands Original Research Article

The effects of restorative grazing on the abundance of butterfly and moth species were studied in mesic semi-natural grasslands of SW Finland differing in management history: (1) old continuously grazed, (2) restored (with ca 5 years of reinitiated grazing), and (3) abandoned former pastures. Generalized linear modelling of species abundances and indicator species analysis produced qualitatively similar results. Only three species (Polyommatus icarus, Lycaena hippothoe and Camptogramma bilineatum) were most abundant in old pastures, whereas 12 species (Polyommatus semiargus, Polyommatus amandus, Brenthis ino, Aphantopus hyperantus, Scopula immorata, Idaea serpentata, Scotopteryx chenopodiata, Epirrhoe alternata, Cybosia mesomella, Polypogon tentacularius, Hypena proboscidalisand Cryptocala chardinyi) were most abundant in abandoned pastures. None of the old-pasture species had become more abundant in restored pastures. Three species, Epirrhoe hastulata, Xanthorhoe montanata and Chiasmia clathrata, occurred equally abundantly in abandoned and in restored pastures indicating a slow progress of restoration. Species associated with old pastures differed from species associated with abandoned pastures in their recent distributional changes in Finland. The species of old pastures showed decreasing trends, whereas those of abandoned pastures showed mainly increasing trends in their distribution. In five out of 11 species, the preferred successional stage differed markedly between this study and previous studies conducted in Central Europe. We conclude that (1) ca 5 years of restorative grazing in mesic grasslands has been insufficient for the colonisation of old-pasture species in the restored sites, (2) different management intensities are needed regionally for the maintenance of grassland insect diversity and (3) application of the knowledge on successional preferences of different species in conservation management, even in climatically similar regions, should be made with caution.