Welcome to Lithuania BMS
In this tab, you will find specific information about the Lithuanian butterfly monitoring scheme.
About the Lithuanian BMS
The Lithuanian butterfly monitoring network began collecting transect count data in 2009, later incorporating 15-minute counts and moth trap data collection as well. It currently gathers all data through the eBMS website and ButterflyCount App. This BMS continues to grow thanks to the support of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Entomological Society, along with the efforts of Eglė Vičiuvienė, main coordinator, and Giedrius Švitra, advising expert.
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.
- Contact the BMS through the email [email protected] or through the BMS Facebook group
- Contact the main coordinator, Eglė Vičiuvienė, through [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
If you’re new or would like to keep up with the monitoring scheme’s updates, consider joining other like-minded citizen scientists on social media platforms:
- Lithuania BMS Facebook group: Join a community of 840+ members where you can share butterfly photos and get help with any questions about butterfly monitoring.
- Lithuanian Entomological Society Facebook group: Join more than 12,000 members and share your knowledge on insects of Lithuania.
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
eBMS species identification guide
A field guide to identify the 101 most common butterfly species in Lithuania. This Guide aims to be useful for identifying butterflies in the field in an easy and simple way. Butterflies are divided into families, presenting symbols to mark specific characteristics with which to identify them and with information about ease to see them. Also, this Guide includes an explanation of the methodologies to monitor butterflies (transects and 15-min Counts).
You can download the pdf directly to your device or print it directly (select the booklet option in the printer):
How to print: The order of the pages is organised to print, just select the 'booklet' option and 'both sides' to print your Field Guide. When you have the two sheets printed, fold the sheets down the middle.
Acknowledgments to Giedrius Švitra; Paolo Mazzei, Marco Bonifacino, Raniero Panfili y Daniel Morel (www.leps.it); Izabella Dziekanska, Marcin Sielezniew, Albert Vliegenthart and Chris van Swaay for providing pictures for the creation of the Field Guides. Also, to the designer that created the different butterfly shapes from pictures, Eveline van der Jagt and the edition were done by Cristina G. Sevilleja.
Nordic-Baltic Checklist of Lepidoptera
The following publications taken together provide a list of butterflies and moths found in Lithuania:
- Nordic-Baltic Checklist of Lepidoptera, Leif Aarvik et al. 2017
- Additions and corrections to the Nordic-Baltic Checklist of Lepidoptera, Leif Aarvik et al. 2021
Lithuanian Entomological Society website
The Lithuanian Entomological Society is an independent, voluntary scientific-social organization. Its goal is to unite entomologists working in our country, to raise their creative initiative in solving theoretical and practical tasks of science, to promote the achievements of entomology in society.
On the Society's website, you can find a comprehensive record of the first sightings of many butterfly species over the years. Their website is only available in Lithuanian, but may be easily translated into English with the Google translate tool.
