Annotated checklist of Albanian butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea and Hesperioidea)

Abstract The Republic of Albania has a rich diversity of flora and fauna. However, due to its political isolation, it has never been studied in great depth, and consequently, the existing list of butterfly species is outdated and in need of radical amendment. In addition to our personal data, we have studied the available literature, and can report a total of 196 butterfly species recorded from the country. For some of the species in the list we have given explanations for their inclusion and made other annotations. Doubtful records have been removed from the list, and changes in taxonomy have been updated and discussed separately. The purpose of our paper is to remove confusion and conflict regarding published records. However, the revised checklist should not be considered complete: it represents a starting point for further research.


Introduction
The Republic of Albania is situated in the Balkan Peninsula, in south-eastern Europe. It is predominantly a mountainous country with a Mediterranean climate, lying entirely within the Mediterranean 'hotspot' zone of biodiversity (Cuttelod et al. 2008). Its fauna and flora is exceptionally rich (MMPAU 2007, Radford et al. 2011, Marka et al. 2012, undoubtedly due to its geographic position, the diversity of its landscape, its complex geology and altitudinal range (from sea level up to 2753 m on Korab peak), but the country has unquestionably been understudied. This may, in part, be attributed to its political isolation from the rest of Europe during the communist regime. In recent years, however, the situation has changed dramatically, and Albania has become more accessible to outsiders.
As in other European countries, the butterflies of Albania have been studied in more detail than other insect groups. However, there is a considerable disparity between the number of species that have been recorded. Many of these differences can be attributed to doubtful and undocumented records, along with changes in taxonomy and nomenclature. The number of species recorded from Albania varies from 167 (Rebel and Zerny 1931) to 180 (Misja and Kurrizi 1984). These differences are also demonstrated in the most recent lists of species compiled by Fauna Europaea (2012) and the Red Data book of European butterflies (Van Swaay and Warren 1999).
As a result of this confusion, and with the prospect of new surveys, we present a revised checklist of butterflies for Albania, compiled from available literature and personal records. An updated list is essential for further faunistic studies, and provides a foundation for butterfly conservation in Albania. We discuss the species we have excluded but mentioned in previous lists and provide, where necessary, annotations for some species we have included.

A review of the published records
The first comprehensive overview of the butterfly fauna for Albania was compiled by Rebel and Zerny (1931), who listed 167 butterfly species for the country, providing personal records for most of the species. In some instances, most notably Pontia chloridice (Hübner, 1813), the list is based on material collected by other researchers or on previously published records. After World War II, research continued, including a German expedition in the 1960s. However, the published results from this survey included only butterflies from the family Hesperiidae (Alberti 1965) and the genus Erebia (Popescu-Gorj 1971), and added no new species to the list compiled by Rebel and Zerny (1931). Moucha (1963aMoucha ( , 1963b, who visited the country in 1959, also provided no new additions to the list. The first local entomologist to publish a list of butterfly fauna was Murraj (1972), and he also compiled an identification key for the 93 listed species. Among these Carterocephalus palaemon (Pallas, 1771), Heteropterus morpheus (Pallas, 1771), Muschampia tessellum (Hübner, 1803), Coenonympha glycerion (Borkhausen, 1788), Melanargia lachesis (Hübner, 1790) and Melitaea aurelia Nickerl, 1850 were the first records for the country. They were not, however, included in any of the subsequent lists or faunistic reports. An updated list of butterfly species for Albania was collated by Misja and Kurrizi (1984), listing 180 species. Several new findings for the country were added, including Danaus chrysippus (Linnaeus, 1758) (published also as new for Albania by Luquet and Misja (1989)), Euphydryas maturna (Linnaeus, 1758), Satyrus actaea (Esper, 1781) and Pseudochazara mamurra (Herrich-Schäffer, 1852).

Annotations to the list
The status of the following species is clarified. They are numbered according to their order in the checklist: Rebel and Zerny (1931) listed Pyrgus bellieri Oberthür, 1910 for Albania. This is a western Mediterranean species whose presence in the Balkan Peninsula is highly doubtful. Alberti (1965) noted that the record is confirmed by dissection of the genitalia, thus it would be important to check its presence at Mt. Beshtriq (Mt. Pashtrik). At present most of the Pasthrik mountain is situated in Kosovo, not in Albania. 8. Spialia orbifer Spialia sertorius (Hoffmannsegg, 1804) was listed for Albania by Misja and Kurrizi (1984). The Red Data book of European butterflies (Van Swaay and Warren 1999) lists both S. sertorius and S. orbifer for Albania. The south-eastern limit of S. sertorius in Europe is the northern Adriatic coast and Krk island in Croatia (Jakšić 1988, Habeler 2003, thus its presence in Albania is highly unlikely.

Muschampia tessellum
The species is listed for Albania only by Murraj (1972), and confirmation of this record is needed. It is known to occur in neighbouring northern Greece (Pamperis 2009) and from the Republic of Macedonia (Schaider and Jakšić 1989); therefore, its presence in the south-eastern part of Albania is possible.

Carterocephalus palaemon
The species is listed for Albania only by Murraj (1972) and requires confirmation. It is known from southern Serbia (Popović and Đurić 2011) and was recently discovered in Macedonia (Verovnik and Micevski 2008), thus its presence in the mountains of northern Albania is plausible.

Heteropterus morpheus
The species is listed for Albania only by Murraj (1972), and confirmation of the record is required. It is known to occur in the northern part of Montenegro  and in all probability is present in the mountainous parts of north-west Albania.

Pontia edusa
Its sister species Pontia daplidice (Linnaeus, 1758) is mentioned in several recent and historical lists (Rebel and Zerny 1931, Murraj 1972, Misja and Kurrizi 1984. The separate species status of P. edusa, which occurs in Eastern Europe, was not widely accepted until recently. P. daplidice is now credited as only flying in western part of Europe, not reaching the Balkan Peninsula. However, recent records from Cyprus indicate the possibility of a much wider distribution of P. daplidice in Europe (John et al. 2013).

Colias hyale
Records from this far South in the Balkan Peninsula are doubtful, and possibly refer to C. alfacariensis. Nevertheless, the species does occur in central Serbia (Popović and Đurić 2011), and due to its migratory habit could potentially reach the northern part of Albania.

Lycaena candens
This species is listed for Albania only in Fauna Europaea (2012). However, the historical records for L. hippothoe made by earlier authors (Rebel and Zerny 1931, Murraj 1972, Misja and Kurrizi 1984 should, in all probability, be referred to as L. candens. It is highly unlikely that L. hippothoe is found in Albania, as the closest confirmed records are from northern Bosnia (Lorković and Mihljević 1988) and north-western Serbia (Popović and Đurić 2011).

Aricia artaxerxes
Apart from its inclusion in Fauna Europaea (2012), the presence of this species in Albania has not appeared in any published record. During our surveys, we found the species on the north-western slopes of Mt. Grammos in 2012, confirming its presence in Albania.

Polyommatus eros
Only the subspecies P. eros eroides (Frivaldszky, 1835) is known to occur in Albania. The nominate subspecies could potentially be found in the calcareous high mountains on the border with Montenegro, where it is known from the Durmitor Mts. . Based on molecular studies, Polyommatus eroides has recently been downgraded to subspecies rank, due to a lack of genetic differentiation from P. eros (Vodolazhsky and Stradomsky 2008, Wiemers et al. 2010).

Melitaea aurelia
The species is mentioned for Albania only by Murraj (1972), and confirmation of the record is required. It has recently been found in the Republic of Macedonia (Micevski et al. 2009), also near the Albanian border on Mt. Galičica (Krpač et al. 2011). Its presence in Albania is very probable.

Hipparchia semele
The exact distribution of this species in the southern and eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula is unknown, and the presence of two additional morphologically, almost indistinguishable, species, H. volgensis and H. senthes, makes identification difficult. Both these species have been recorded for Albania (Beshkov 1995, Abadijev andBeshkov 1996). The presence of H. semele in the mountains of the north-western part of the country is likely, and needs to be checked by future surveys.

Pseudochazara amymone
Although its status as a species is questionable, we follow the decision taken by Van Swaay et al. (2010), to treat it as a separate species. Its presence in southern Albania was recently reported by Eckweiler (2012). However, it was first reported from Albania as P. mamurra by Misja and Kurrizi (1984).

Pseudochazara mniszechii
Based on external morphology and genitalia, the taxon Pseudochazara tisiphone (Brown, 1980) from northern Greece and Albania is considered to be conspecific with P. mniszechii (Hesselbarth et al. 1995). It was originally described by Brown (1980) as a subspecies of P. cingovskii (Gross, 1973) from Greece, and is listed as such for Albania by Van Swaay and Warren (1999). The first detailed records for Albania are mentioned in Tshikolovets (2011) Misja and Kurrizi 1984), who did not consider C. rhodopensis as a separate species. C. rhodopensis was also observed during our survey on Mt. Grammos in 2012.

Discussion
In comparison with countries in other parts of Europe, the butterfly fauna of Albania is very rich. Greece, which has been more intensively studied over the years, hosts 235 species of butterflies (Pamperis 2009 Montenegro, which in terms of landmass is much smaller, is the least studied of Albania's neighbouring countries, with around 160 recorded species (Sijarić 1984).
There are several additional species listed for Albania in the available literature that have not been included in the current checklist: Melanargia lachesis (Hübner, 1790), listed by Murraj (1972), and Satyrus actaea (Esper, 1781), recorded by Misja and Kurrizi (1984), are both exclusively western European species; therefore, their presence in Albania is highly unlikely. Two species, Euchloe penia (Freyer, 1852) and Nymphalis vaualbum ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775), are listed only in the Red Data book of European butterflies (Van Swaay and Warren 1999). Both of them are remarkable species, and their occurrence in Albania, in all probability, would have been published separately. However, we can find no reference to them in the available literature. Therefore, they are currently not listed for Albania, but their presence cannot be entirely ruled out.
Certainly, the list of Albanian butterflies is far from complete. There are several species that are known to be present just across the border in neighbouring countries, and are likely to occur in Albania. Apatura metis Freyer, 1829 is one obvious example. It is known from north-western Greece (Mairiaux and Hutsebaut 1997) and Skadar Lake in Montenegro (Jakšić 1988) near the border with Albania. Another interesting species that is expected to be found in Albania is Cacyreus marshalli (Butler, 1898), which has been recently been reported from the Croatian coast (Kosmač and Verovnik 2009) and Greece (Anastassiu et al. 2010). We hope that our contribution will initiate more interest in the diverse butterfly fauna of Albania and trigger further butterfly studies in this country.