Phengaris teleius.

Our previous RSG project was a great success, 1) resulting in a discovery of three new butterflies for Serbia and 2) in establishing network of people working on a butterfly database, research and conservation. A total of 198 butterflies are now known to live in Serbia, but this is still regarded as one of the most understudied countries in the region. Rapid changes in agriculture, people settlements and economy may cause unpredicted loss of butterfly diversity.

Pyrgus cinarae, a new species for Serbia.

The ultimate aim of the project is to make a joint effort in mapping and monitoring butterflies of Serbia. A few trainings, mini grants and joint field surveys should help the community grow during the project. At the same time, we would like to support our contributors by making the insect database available online. This will help in tedious work on butterfly mapping, and provide tools to update national red list of butterfly species and compile atlas of Serbian butterflies in the future. We hope that the improvements of red list status will result in changes to butterfly conservation priorities, and help to conserve most valuable habitats and species.

The monitoring of our most threatened butterflies (Boloria eunomia, Lycaena helle and Phengaris teleius) will continue during this project. At the end, the reports will be sent to the government and communicated to the general public. Mapping of understudied regions will also go on and cover even larger territory of the country, with a help of many volunteers.

Finally, there are video films, texts, posts, info panels and brochures to tell our story to the people. I hope that all of us can learn from each other and help in raising public awareness about butterflies, the fragile indicators of harmed ecosystems. And there is still a lot of space for new ideas! Just contact us if you like to help me and my team.