Session

The Habitats Directives was adopted in 1992 and aims to protect habitats and wild flora and fauna throughout Europe, especially by enabling the creation of protected areas as part of the Natura 2000 network. Grasslands are essential habitats for most invertebrates protected at European level, i.e. under the Habitats Directive, particularly for butterflies. But also, invertebrate taxa of other taxonomic groups rely heavily on the maintenance of grasslands, such as the orthopteran Saga pedo, which is also present in Italy. In 2023, the ‘Species Monitoring’ project was initiated in close collaboration with the Office for Nature of the Autonomous Province of Bolzano, with the aim of monitoring the species included in the Habitats Directive. In South Tyrol the protected species Phengaris arion, Parnassius apollo and Euphydryas aurinia are present and they are typical for open habitats, i.e. extensively managed pastures or hay meadows, in combination with sufficient nectar resources for the adults and host plants for the larvae. Monitoring is performed on specific areas and distribution maps are currently being updated for these three butterfly species. A rare species of snail can also be found in humid calcareous alpine grasslands: Vertigo genesii, included in Annex II of the Habitats Directive. This species is currently known in Italy only from the province of Bolzano. The region therefore has a major responsibility for protecting this species and a long-term monitoring on at least 20 occurrence sites has been initiate in 2024. With this poster we show the monitoring efforts for the protected invertebrate species that rely on the maintenance of mostly extensive and diverse grasslands in South Tyrol.