The Italian Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (ITBMS) is included in European Butterfly Monitoring Scheme network, thank ABLE (Assessing Butterflies in Europe) project it been active since 2019 in our country.
Website of the Italian BMS: Parte la nuova stagione BMS (office.com)
Contact email: for any doubt or question you can write to this email help.itbms@gmail.com
What is the BMS?
The Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is counting butterfly species using a method shared with all of Europe. The project aims to evaluate butterfly population abundances, to establish proper conservation strategies thanks to the efforts of many volunteers. If you like butterflies and spend time outdoor join us in the ITBMS, share your passion for these beautiful insects with all European people, becoming a citizen scientist.
How you can join BMS?
Anyone could be part of BMS is easy…
- Choose a place closest to your home or your office in which establish a fixed walk (transect) or delimit an area for 15-minute Counts.
- Visit our website and register your account.
- Email the national coordinators depending on your home region, share your ideas for the transect.
Northern Italy: Simona Bonelli (simona.bonelli@unito.it, federica.paradiso@unito.it)
Central Italy: Leonardo D’apporto (leondap@gmail.com)
Southern Italy: Stefano Scalercio (stefano.scalercio@crea.gov.it)
- Read the Manual to have all information about the butterfly monitoring method.
- Download our Guides for butterfly identification.
- Start your monitoring, you can count butterflies by transect or using 15-minute Count.
- Upload your visit using the app ButterflyCount available for Apple and Android devices or directly on the website My transect walks.
HELP US TO PROTECT BUTTERFLIES, JOIN THE EUROPEAN BUTTERFLY MONITORING SCHEME NETWORK!
YOUR CONTRIBUTE IT IS PRECIOUS!
Results Italy BMS 
You can find the results from Italian BMS in different Annual Reports summarising the BMS, number of transects, species occurring and more. Download the Annual Report Italy BMS:
- Annual Report 2023: English and Italian version NEW!
- Annual Report 2021 - 2022: English and Italian version
- Annual Report 2020: English and Italian version
Field guides for butterfly identification in Italy
In Italy, there are about 290 species and the lack of identification guides is a problem. The Italian group of butterflies together with ABLE has produced easy Field guides for Italy. We divided Italy into climatic regions and selected the 72 most common species for each area. In the end, we produced 4 different field guides from specific regions: the Po Valley, the Mediterranean area, the Apennines and the Mediterranean islands. We organized the species by family and genus and showed special characteristics to allow correct identification. You can download the guides from here and print them directly (**field guides in Italian)
- Field Guide Padana Plain region (Italian), English version updated 2023
- Field Guide Regione Appennino (IT)
- Field Guide Mediterranean region (Italian), English version updated 2024
- Field Guide Isole del Mediterraneo (IT)
Field Guides of Nature and National Parks:
How to print field guides:
The pdf has 4 pages that you can print in two sheets on both sides.
The order of the pages is organized to print them directly.
When you have the two sheets printed, simply fold the sheets in the center and organize them according to the number of pages.
Collaborators Italian BMS
