Laszlo Rakosy

• Professor (Full) at Babeș-Bolyai University

Butterflies and moths have often been suggested as suitable indicators for monitoring environmental effects on biodiversity, land use changes and management practices, and many butterfly monitoring schemes are established and run in Europe. In these monitoring programmes, the field counts are only carried out when certain, standard weather conditio...

Pyralis cardinalis Kaila, Huemer, Mutanen, Tyllinen & Wikström, 2020, was recently described based on material originating from northern Europe to South Korea and Japan. Here this species is reported for the first time from various localities in north-eastern Romania, where it can occur in sympatry and synchrony with the morphologically similar P....

The Cunene region of southern Angola, especially the area around Xangongo, hosts a large number of African baobabs, including several superlative specimens. Our research reports the investigation of the three biggest specimens from Xangongo Grove, named XG-1 (11 stems; circumference 26.34 m), XG-2 (5 stems; 22.70 m) and XG-3 (9 stems; 27.73 m), and...

Cold-adapted species with fragmented distributions are often threatened by environmental change, particularly towards the southern limits of their ranges. Thus, a good knowledge of surviving populations of such taxa represents a fundamental aspect for efficient management and conservation. Here we provide the first reports of Boloria eunomia in Rom...

In memoriam ing. Marin Goia

During recent field surveys, a new Ceylon iron wood (Manilkara hexandra) population was discovered in the Upper Ganga Ramsar Site, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The largest specimen located at Van Khan-deshwar partially collapsed in 2012, which led to a canopy impairment. The rupture enabled direct extraction of samples close to the pith of the main s...

Pyralis cardinalis Kaila, Huemer, Mutanen, Tyllinen & Wikström, 2020, was recently described based on material originating from northern Europe to South Korea and Japan. Here this species is reported for the first time from various localities in northeastern Romania, where it can occur in sympatry and synchrony with the morphologically similar P. r...

Simple Summary This study examines the oviposition preferences (egg-laying) of Eriogaster catax L., an endangered moth found in warmer parts of Europe, typically in semi-natural areas within agricultural landscapes. Although legally protected in Europe, limited information is available on the species’ specific ecological needs for egg-laying. Our s...

Tomares nogelii, a butterfly considered extinct in the European Union (EU) until its rediscovery in 2014, has recently been found in southeastern Romania. These populations belong to the western endemic subspecies, T. nogelii dobrogensis. In this study, we provide a comprehensive description of this subspecies, detailing its life history traits and...

Through its geographical position, varied topography, particular climate and complex cultural history, Romania has managed to sustain enormously rich biodiversity. Traditional practices, which have survived longer than in most other parts of Europe, have allowed the preservation of large areas of natural habitat, little altered by human activity. A...

In this paper, we discuss the evolutionary implications of the correlation between different species of Peucedanum plants and the distribution of Gortyna borelii moth populations in Romania. We highlight geographic separation and isolation among these populations due to anthropogenic landscape fragmentation, which hinders genetic exchange. A geomet...

Parornix atripalpella Wahlström, 1979 has been reported for the first time in Romania. This species is present in 10 European countries, most of them on the western side of the continent

Pseudophilotes bavius hungarica (Diószeghy, 1913) is a Transylvanian endemic of conservation interest. We made observations regarding its oviposition strategy, and established its preference for floral stems of Salvia nutans L. taller than five centimeters. Salvia transsilvanica Schur was also confirmed as a host plant for P. bavius hungarica. The...

We studied the types of sensilla on the pectinated antennae of Ctenoceratoda species (Noctuinae, Hadenini) using scanning electron microscopy. These ultrastructures are described, illustrated and analysed in four distinct species groups of the genus. The group features distinguishing the four lineages of the genus and their taxonomic importance are...

A high-resolution climate archive was reconstructed based on carbon isotope analysis and radiocarbon dating of the Chapman baobab in northeastern Botswana. The Chapman baobab, which exhibited an open ring-shaped structure composed of six stems, collapsed in January 2016 during an intense El Niño event. Two samples belonging to the oldest stems were...

1567 species and subspecies of large Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) was evaluated at national level. 15 species are considerate extinct, 9 are critical endangered, 29 endangered, 66 vulnerable and 270 are near threatened. 100 red-list emblematic taxa. 100 emblematic taxa are discussed in detail and illustrated.

The Natura 2000 network is one of the most important tools for nature conservation in the EU. Therefore, knowledge of the ecology of the species listed on the Habitats Directive annexes is of particular relevance. One of these species is the butterfly Euphydryas aurinia. Much is already known about the ecology of this species at the European level,...

We studied the types of sensilla on the pectinated antennae of Ctenoceratoda species (Noctuinae, Hadenini) using scanning electron microscopy. These ultrastructures are described, illustrated and analysed in four distinct species groups of the genus. The group features distinguishing the four lineages of the genus and their taxonomic importance are...

Check List for all species and subspecies of Lepidoptera reported in Romania from 1850 to present, listed by historical provinces and three time intervals. A synthesis of lepidopterans in Romania.

This article describes the radiocarbon analysis of the large Indian banyan (Ficus benghalensis) at Narora, Uttar Pradesh (UP). It was discovered during floristic surveys in the Upper Ganga Ramsar site in UP and ranks as the tenth largest banyan tree in the world with its 4069 sq. m crown spread. The tree has a unique architecture, with just four pr...

The Omusati region belongs to historic Ovamboland, an area of northern Namibia populated by tribes of the Ovambo group. Four very large African baobabs of Omusati played an important role in historic events of the area, such as the tribal wars and the Namibian War of Independence. The four historic baobabs are the Ombalantu baobab (8 stems; circumf...

A popular science book about the magical life of butterflies. From metamorphosis to migration, from the smallest to the largest, from the most colourful to the most monochrome, from species diversity to species extinction, from colourful meadows to monocultures, and much more about nature and life is included in this book. The text is bilingual in...

Evenimentul de azi, sentimentele și gândirea noastră sunt, din păcate umbrite și tulburate de atrocitățile războiului din Ucraina. Orice subiect aș alege, acesta ar fi eclipsat de tragicele evenimente din Ucraina. Am ales voluntariatul pentru că are legătură cu evenimentele din Ucraina și unicitatea naturii, pentru că acest subiect mă doare și mă r...

Achieving coexistence between humans and large carnivores in human-shaped landscapes is a complex challenge. Addressing this challenge requires the revaluation of the approaches academia uses to foster carnivore conservation and human-large carnivore coexistence. In this forum paper, we provide a brief overview of the three archetypical approaches...

Social systems are attractive targets for parasites. Once infiltrated they could manipulate the host to contribute to their further dispersal. A wide array of parasites causes summit disease driving their host up on a grass blade from where propagules are then dispersed. In ants, previous observations suggested the existence of a social prophylacti...

Several morphological and mitochondrial lineages of the alpine ringlet butterfly species Erebia pronoe have been described, indicating a complex phylogenetic structure. However, the existing data were insufficient and allow neither a reconstruction of the biogeographic history, nor an assessment of the genetic lineages. Therefore, we analysed mitoc...

This report provides an overview of the forest vegetation and the status of its conservation in Romania. Due to a large range of climates and soils, and a long-lasting postglacial vegetation history, the Romanian forests are highly diverse and species-rich ecosystems. Approximately 150 natural types of forest ecosystems have been described. Seven z...

Data on 17 rare species of noctuids (Noctuidae) in the fauna of the Republic of Moldova are given in the present paper. The investigations were carried out during 2012-2020 in 26 sites throughout the Republic of Moldova. The genus Actebia Stephens, 1829 and the species Actebia praecox (Linnaeus, 1758) and Xylena solidaginis (Hübner, 1803) are repor...

Poecilocampa alpina (Frey & Wullschlegel, 1874) is reported for the first time in the Romanian fauna. The specimen was collected from Porumbenii Mari, Harghita County, Romania. According to the distribution area, respectively to the ecological requirements, Romanian population belongs to the subspecies P. alpina canensis. This reported population i...

A distributional checklist of al Lepidoptera of Romania. The checklist provide not only faunistic data for the period 1850-2020 but also an image of the fauna dynamic of the 8 historical province during this time. 369 pp, 192 photos of moths and butterflies.

A richly annotated checklist of all Romanian lepidoptera with notes on chronology (1850 to 2020) and distribution. 192 selected colour photographs of most of the butterfly and moths families illustrate the book.

The article discloses the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating results of the historic Big Tree at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. The research aimed to determine the age, growth and architecture of this renowned African baobab. The superlative baobab is composed of five main stems, three young stems and one false stem. It exhibits an o...

Over the past years, our research on baobabs mainly focused on the largest Malagasy species, namely the Reniala or Grandidier baobab (Adansonia grandidieri Baill.). The biggest A. grandidieri are located in the Morombe area, especially in the so-called Andombiry Forest. This giant forest of Reniala hosts well over 6000 mature individuals, out of wh...

Red List for the butterflies and moths in Romania specifying the categories of threatened for the 8 historical provinces of the country and for Romania in general.

Red List for the butterflies and moths in Romania specifying the categories of threatened for the 8 historical provinces of the country and for Romania in general.

Cultural landscapes, shaped by centuries of traditional low-intensity agricultural practices, have been declining all over the world. In Transylvania (Romania), traditionally mown and extensively grazed grasslands have been part of a diverse landscape mosaic for centuries. In contrast to Western European countries, these species-rich grasslands are...

The widespread use of pesticides, changes in the structure of the landscape due to industrial and agricultural uses, and climate change have massively affected insect populations. The decline in insect biodiversity and biomass is documented in some countries in Europe, Asia, and North America. Romania, compared to Western and Central European count...

Stenoptilia pneumonanthes este pentru prima dată semnalată în România, de la Răscruci, Județul Cluj. Indivizii au fost colectați din teren sub formă de larve și crescuți în laborator. Determinarea s-a făcut cu ajutorul armăturii genitale. Abstract. Stenoptilia pneumonanthes is recorded for the first time in Romania, at Rascruci, Cluj county. The in...

The oak forest from Popeni is situated near the locality with the same name, in Salaj County and it is an unstudied area in terms of lepidopterologic matter. This paper presents the results of investigations on Macrolepidoptera in this area, made during the period of 8.07.2005-31.07.2005, bringing contributions to the knowledge of the butterflies o...

Stenoptilia pneumonanthes este pentru prima dată semnalată în România, de la Răscruci, Județul Cluj. Indivizii au fost colectați din teren sub formă de larve și crescuți în laborator. Determinarea s-a făcut cu ajutorul armăturii genitale. Abstract. Stenoptilia pneumonanthes is recorded for the first time in Romania, at Rascruci, Cluj county. The in...

During recent field surveys, a new Ceylon iron wood (Manilkara hexandra) population was discovered in the Upper Ganga Ramsar Site, Uttar Pradesh (UP), India. The largest specimen located at Van Khan-deshwar partially collapsed in 2012, which led to a canopy impairment. The rupture enabled direct extraction of samples close to the pith of the main s...

Records from Austria, Hungary, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova collected in the last 30 years suggest that Xestia sextrigata (Haworth, 1809) is extending its range towards South-Eastern Europe. Here we report the first genuine record of X. sextrigata from Romania. Older records from the literature are shown to be erroneous.

In this report, we update the European Grassland Butterfly Indicator, present new butterfly indicators for widespread species, woodland butterflies, as well as butterflies in urban environments, in Natura 2000 areas and as climate change indicators. The indicators use field data up to and including the 2018 field season. The method for calculating...

The article reports the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon dating results of the Livingstone Tree, a large African baobab on the right bank of the Zambezi, near Chiramba, Mozambique. In 1858, David Livingstone, who discovered the baobab, carved his monogram on the walls of its inner cavity. In 1996, the historic baobab was uprooted whe...

Din miile de fotografii pe care le-am realizat împreună cu echipa Societății Lepidopterologice Române, în ultimii ani, de când ne preocupă soarta sitului Dealurile Clujului de Est, am ales 150 de poze care surprind aspecte generale precum și particularitățile acestei arii naturale protejate, în speranța că vom reuși să vă convingem să veniți și să-...

The volcanic Comoro Islands, located in the Indian Ocean in between mainland Africa and Madagascar, host several thousand African baobabs (Adansonia digitata). Most of them are found in Mayotte, which currently belongs to France, as an overseas department. These trees constiutute a reliable archive for climate change and millennial specimens were r...

The volcanic Comoro Islands, located in the Indian Ocean in between mainland Africa and Madagascar, host several thousand African baobabs (Adansonia digitata). Most of them are found in Mayotte, which currently belongs to France, as an overseas department. We report the investigation of the largest two baobabs of Mayotte, the Big baobab of Musical...

Papilio demoleus Linnaeus, 1958 has been recorded for the first time in Azerbaijan. The larvae of the butterfly, are an important pest of citruses (Rutaceae).

The article presents the radiocarbon investigation of the baobab of Jhunsi, Allahabad and the Parijaat tree at Kintoor, two old African baobabs from northern India. Several wood samples extracted from these baobabs were analysed by using AMS radiocarbon dating. The radiocarbon date of the oldest samples were 779 ± 41 BP for the baobab of Jhunsi and...

Eriogaster catax and E. lanestris (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) are two cohabiting species with extremely isolated populations. The anthropic impact lead to a decrease in their distributional areas, which led to the inclusion of E. catax in Annexes II and IV of the Council Directive 92/43/EEC. There are few studies regarding the species in question,...

Summary: In Romania, 24 Skippers species have been reported so far, of which 14 found in the foothills zone, 6 found in the lowlands zone, 2 found in the montane zone, one found in the subalpine zone and one found in the alpine zone. The diagnosis, biology and ecology data, distribution density (known area), conservation status have been specified...

The article discloses the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating results of the Big Reniala of Isosa, which is a massive Grandidier baobab (Adansonia grandidieri Baill.) of Madagascar. The investigation of this baobab shows that it consists of 5 perfectly fused stems and exhibits a cluster structure. The calculated wood volume of th...

Traditionally managed agricultural lands in Transylvania repeatedly presented a high biodiversity and valuable insect communities. On the other hand, intensified agricultural landscapes have been somewhat less analysed from the perspective of habitat cover and habitat heterogeneity in the same region. The aim of our study was to document the fauna...

The year 2016 witnessed the fall of a symbol of the botanical world: the historic Chapman baobab of Botswana. This article presents the results of our investigation of the standing and fallen tree. The Chapman baobab had an open ring-shaped structure composed of six partially fused stems. Several wood samples collected from the stems prior and afte...

In agro-ecosystems, environmental monitoring is fundamental to detect and survey changes related to land use change and management practices. Butterflies and moths have often been suggested as suitable indicators for monitoring environmental effects on biodiversity in farmlands. Here, we estimated the required sample size and monitoring effort nece...

Background Habitat quality is one main trigger for the persistence of butterflies. The effects of the influencing biotic and abiotic factors may be enhanced by the challenging conditions in high-alpine environments. To better our knowledge in this field, we performed a mark-release-recapture study with Boloria pales in the Southern Carpathians. Me...

Summary: Three individuals of Schrankia balneorum (Alphéraky, 1880) are reported for the first time in the Romanian fauna. The three specimens were collected from Stanca village, Iasi country, north-eastern Romania. Photos of the adults as well information about the biology and the distribution of the species are given.

Abstract: The European Red List of Butterflies published in 2010 states that only two out of 421 diurnal butterfly species in the European Union are listed as critically endangered. One of them, the endemic Pieris wollastoni, has not been seen for at least 40 years, and may be considered extinct in the world. The other species, the Danube Cloud...

The article reports the AMS (accelerator mass spectrometry) radiocarbon investigation results of the old common ash of Aiton. Five wood samples were collected from the trunk of the tree. The deepest ends of the samples were analysed by AMS radiocarbon. We found radiocarbon dates between 165 ± 20 BP and 240 ± 18 BP, which correspond to calibrated ag...

Panou informativ cu fluturi din Cheile Turenilor (Tureni Gorges-Butterflies and Moths)

Panou informativ cu flori din Cheile Turenilor (Tureni Gorges-Flowers)

In Supplementary Table 1 originally published with this Brief Communication, the authors gave an incorrect GPS easterly coordinate for tree number 12 (Makulu Makete Big baobab); the coordinate '2° 34.584' S, 25° 52.261' E' should have read '22° 34.584' S, 28° 52.261' E'. This has now been amended in the online Supplementary Information file for thi...

The African baobab is the biggest and longest-living angiosperm tree. By using radiocarbon dating we identified the stable architectures that enable baobabs to reach large sizes and great ages. We report that 9 of the 13 oldest and 5 of the 6 largest individuals have died, or at least their oldest parts/stems have collapsed and died, over the past...

Panou informativ cu flori din Cheile Turzii, Turda Gorges Flowers

Panou informativ cu fluturi din Cheile Turzii, Turda Gorges Butterflies

Insect of the year 2018 in Romania and Moldova: Maculinea teleius

We investigated the systematics and biogeography of the West-Palaearctic water cricket genus Velia Latreille based on a phylogenetic analysis of five molecular markers obtained from 79% of all known taxa of the subgenera Velia (s. str.) and Velia (Plesiovelia) Tamanini. The results revealed a sister group relationship between Velia (Plesiovelia) an...

Although Pilemia tigrina is a species of conservation concern, its biology, ecology and distribution in Romania are still poorly known. The data we are adding here contribute to complete the knowledge in the above-mentioned aspects. This is also the first time in 105 years (last known in 1912) that the authors recorded many new occurrences of this...

Herbivores and their predators are affected by changes in land-use and habitat fragmentation. Past studies of tri-trophic herbivore communities have found that increasing land-use intensity leads to declines in community stability. The majority of these studies analysed community stability in highly fragmented ecosystems characterised by intensive...

Here we report a number of species for the first time from various European countries. These are Erioptera (Erioptera) divisa (Walker, 1848) and E. (E.) lutea lutea (Meigen, 1804) from Greece; E. (E.) flavata (Westhoff, 1882) and E. (E.) griseipennis (Meigen, 1838) from Bosnia and Herzegovina; E. (E.) fusculenta (Edwards, 1938) from Austria, Monten...