Portuguese Butterfly Monitoring Scheme

What is it?

The Portuguese Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is part of eBMS (European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme) and was launched in May 2019 with the support of ABLE - Assessing Butterflies in Europe and Butterfly Conservation Europe. The monitoring scheme consists of regular counts of diurnal butterflies on predefined paths, or transects, following the same padronized methodology used in all of Europe. This is all done by volunteers, according to the tennets of citizen science, generating huge volumes of data and allowing the detection of trends in the conservation status of butterflies and their habitats.

How to take part

, 1 - Choose the path (the transect) where you will perform the counting.
The transect should be about 1 km in lenght and easy for you to visit (near your house or workplace, for instance). The regularity and frequency of the visits are very important for the quality of the data. You can start by drawing the path of the transect on Google Earth, marking the sections that correspond to different habitats or landscapes. You can count on TAGIS's to help to choose the transect and split it in sections.

2- Send an image or KMZ file of the transect and its sections to the email [email protected]
So that together we can choose the best route for your transect and how to divide it into sections.

3 - After defining the path of the transect you should register on the eBMS platform (www.butterfly-monitoring.net) and upload your transect.

4 - Counting butterflies using the fixed transect method
During the visit voluntaries should register the data on the register sheet (download here), or in a field notebook. Once at home you can upload your data to the eBMS platform (www.butterfly-monitoring.net)

In the Portuguese Butterfly Monitoring Scheme manual you'll find all the information, as well as a description of the methods to build the transect and to count butterflies.

You can also download the Guide for the Common Butterflies of Continental Portugal. This guide ilustrastes 60 common species of the Portuguese territory and is a great help for those trying to identify butterflies and intending to participate in the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.

For more information visit:
[email protected]

Section of a transect passing through a Portuguese oak wood. In Serra da Carregueira, Belas

Example of a transect in Amora, Seixal, with the 5 sections in diferent colours