The journal Polar Biology has released findings from the most extensive study of Arctic Lepidoptera conducted in the last century. This research uncovered that butterflies originating from North America, Chukotka, and the tundra reside in high latitudes. Specialists have published a species registry noting the location and date each was encountered. For six of these species, this marks their first confirmed sighting in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Novaya Zemlya.
For the first time in one hundred years, researchers have compiled the most comprehensive inventory of Lepidoptera inhabiting Kolguyev, Vaigach, and Dolgy Islands, along with the Novaya Zemlya archipelago, encompassing 60 species of moths and butterflies. Researchers from the M.V. Lomonosov Northern Arctic Federal University, the Federal Research Center for Integrated Study of the Arctic, and the University of Turku synthesized and detailed a body of data gathered from previously under-explored territories.
Determining the lineage of Arctic insects will allow scientists to refine the understanding of how insects disperse across the globe. Furthermore, based on the study’s outcomes, its authors have proposed a hypothesis suggesting that the Russian Arctic hosts between 40 and 60 species of Lepidoptera that remain unstudied.
These discoveries have aided in assessing the mobility of the region’s fauna; several species, ones scientists did not anticipate finding at these latitudes, were documented there for the first time. A number of species were identified using molecular tools for genetic analysis.
This technique is relatively new; it involves identifying a species based on its nucleotide sequence, which forms a genetic “barcode” unique to each species, rather than solely relying on structural characteristics.
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