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Environment alter a concern for Greece's hungry butterflies

In a controlled enclosure in a zoo outside Athens, multicoloured butterflies draw sweet juice from orange slices, devoid of the hazards of an altering climate outside that are threatening populations in Greece and throughout the world.

Warmer temperature levels are making life harder for butterflies in Greece, home to some 237 species. Food is scarcer, blooming durations are much shorter, and specialists now think the butterflies might be getting smaller sized.

The issue is echoed globally, consisting of in Mexico and Britain where varieties of some types have actually decreased sharply.

Environment change is affecting butterflies ... that count on temperature level to perform essential activities such as breeding, reproduction, development, and feeding, said Konstantinos Anagnostellis, an agronomist.

Anagnostellis becomes part of a team in a research task called MEIOSIS - the Greek word for shrinking - by the Greek University of Ioannina. It includes measuring the body weight of more than 50,000 butterfly specimens over a century to design their reducing body size in response to environment change.

Heat forces butterflies to fly to cooler places where there is less food. Worsening wildfires in Greece also lower access to food due to the fact that of the loss to grasslands, Anagnostellis stated.

If these plants are burned, there is a risk of direct mortality for the larvae, and we may not have adult butterflies to recreate, forcing them to migrate to other areas.

(source: Reuters)