2025/12/01 by Felix Deiß, Axel Ssymank, Steffen Caspari +1 · 1 voice
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Plant and animal studies #Species Distribution and Climate Change
paper · doi:10.1002/ecs2.70502
openalex publication_date 2025/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/12/11 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Abstract Europe's crucial pollinators, namely bees, hoverflies, butterflies, and moths, are experiencing strong population declines, increasingly placing them on the political agenda. Because of their long recording history, well‐known biology, and suitability as indicators of anthropogenic pressures, Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) have partially been used as surrogates for pollinators, forming an important part of future European Union (EU) pollinator monitoring. Before such monitoring is in place, designing effective conservation measures relies on a sufficient data basis. Here, focusing on Germany as a representative Central European country, we assessed the geographical coverage and accuracy for butterfly and moth data in a literature review. We (1) assess the spatial coverage of scientific Lepidoptera data regarding regions and landscape types in Germany, (2) test whether geographic data accuracy is influenced by the journal's ranking and requirements, and (3) identify temporal trends in geographic data accuracy. This resulted in 183 peer‐reviewed studies sampling Lepidoptera in Germany over the last 30 years. Our findings suggest a pronounced spatial bias with a higher concentration of studies in southern and western federal states and important landscape classes, such as non‐irrigated arable land or pastures, being severely underrepresented. Furthermore, we demonstrate that only 38% of the studies provided accurate information on the location of their sampling sites, with gradual improvements over recent years. Our results offer insights into current shortcomings in the scientific data landscape of butterflies and moths, two major pollinator groups, providing important impulses for the implementation of an EU Pollinator Monitoring Scheme in light of the EU Nature Restoration Regulation.