Welcome to Cyprus BMS
In this tab, you will find specific information about the Cypriot butterfly monitoring scheme.
About the Cyprus BMS
The Cypriot Butterfly Monitoring Scheme began collecting transect and 15-minute count data in 2019 and continues to grow and support butterfly conservation, thanks to the efforts of the scheme's coordinators, Özge Özden and Elli Tzirkalli, with support from Near East University.
The Cyprus BMS is closely associated with the Cyprus Butterfly Study Group (CBSG), a group of scientists, amateur entomologists, and butterfly/natural history enthusiasts devoted to the study and conservation of the butterflies of Cyprus.
Getting started - Contact us
Are you new to butterfly counts? Do you need help identifying butterflies?
Please contact the coordinators before starting a transect, they can help you place your transect and give advice on butterfly monitoring.
Please contact Elli Tzirkalli ([email protected] ) or Özge Özden ([email protected])
If you have problems or suggestions specifically regarding the eBMS app or website, please contact eBMS by writing [email protected].
Join the community
While the monitoring scheme itself does not have its own social media site, you can join other like-minded citizen scientists and keep up with Cypriot butterfly conservation news on the Cyprus Butterfly Study Group Facebook group:
Cyprus Butterfly Study Group
Supporting materials and resources
Below are field guides and other useful resources to help you identify the butterflies present in your geographical area. If you are instead looking for materials about broader butterfly group identification or about butterfly count methodologies, please visit the materials tab.
Field Guides
ABLE Cyprus Butterfly Field Guide: A field guide to identify 48 of the most common butterfly species in Cyprus. This guide is easy and simple to use in the field. Butterflies are divided by families and include symbols denoting specific characteristics with which to identify them. This guide also includes an explanation of the methodologies to monitor butterflies (transects and 15-min Counts).
Click here to download the PDF field guide to your device or to print it (select the booklet option in the printer).
Acknowledgements for photography permissions and allowing us to create the Cyprus Field Guide: Christodoulos Makris, Christos Zoumides, Hasan Bağlar, Kelebek Gözlemi, Akturk Pilanci, Elli Tzirkalli; Paolo Mazzei, Marco Bonifacino, Raniero Panfili and Daniel Morel (www.leps.it); and Chris van Swaay.
Resources
http://www.cyprusbutterflies.co.uk/: Website by Eddie John in which you will find a checklist of Cypriot butterfly species, a list of the website’s author's main publications on the butterflies of Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean, links to butterfly photography and other relevant websites, and more.
- European Butterfly Group's Guide to Cypriot Butterflies: A detailed downloadable PDF by the European Butterfly Group on Cyprus' butterflies with an extensive bibliography, details of where to go and what to see. It includes some information on Cypriot butterfly conservation efforts. Please note that the included contact information may be outdated.