Welcome to Greece BMS
In this tab, you will find specific information about the Greek butterfly monitoring scheme. Please note that this butterfly monitoring scheme has its own official website, where you may find additional information.
About Apollo - GRBMS
Apollo, the Greek butterfly monitoring scheme, began operating in 2021 and collects transect and 15-minute count data through the eBMS website and ButterflyCount App. This BMS continues to grow thanks to the support of the Biodiversity Conservation Lab (BCL) at the University of Ioannina and the efforts of Prof. Vassiliki Kati (main coordinator), Dr Konstantina Zografou (coordinator), Dr Olga Tzortzakaki (coordinator), and Konstantina Nasiou (coordinator).
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 [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:
- Butterflies & Moths of Greece & Cyprus Facebook group: Join more than 4,300 users, share butterfly pictures, get help with species identification, and stay up to date with the community's activities!
- BCL-Biodiversity Conservation Lab/Greece Facebook group: Join the group to find out more about the other activities of the Lab leading butterfly monitoring efforts in Greece.
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.
Resources
The Apollo files
This file repository offers detailed guidance for those interested in butterfly monitoring. It includes a guide for where to begin, a manual on the monitoring methods used by this BMS, a species list and more. The suggested reading order is included in the BCL-Apollo website. The files are available in Greek and in English.
European Butterfly Group's Guide to Greek Butterflies
A detailed downloadable PDF by the European Butterfly Group on Greece's butterflies with an extensive bibliography, details of where to go and what to see. It includes some information on Greek butterfly conservation efforts. Please note that the included contact information may be outdated.
Click here to view the PDF
Identification guides
eBMS species identification guides
Epirus
This Field Guide aims to facilitate the task of field identification of the 102 most common butterfly species seen in the Epirus regions. This Field Guide has been done in collaboration between Biodiversity Conservation Lab and Butterfly Conservation Europe. You can download the PDF guide Field Guide Epirus directly to your device or print it directly (select the booklet option in the printer), and it comes in an English and a Greek version:
Corfu
A field guide to identify +75 butterfly species occurring in Corfu, Greece. This Guide aims to be useful for identifying butterflies in the field in an easy and simple way. This Field Guide has been done in collaboration between Corfu Butterfly Conservation and Butterfly Conservation Europe and funded by the Rothschild Foundation for printing. You can download the pdf guide Field Guide Corfu directly to your device or print it directly (select the booklet option in the printer), and it comes in an English and a Greek version (translated by Anne Sordinas):
Automatic species identification by L. Pamperis
You can upload pictures of butterflies to this website to get a first indication of the taxa your butterflies may belong to. This website, created by Lazaros N. Pamperis, compares photos from its repository with the user-uploaded photos to suggest the best taxonomic matches.
Click here to visit the website
You can find instructions on how to effectively use this tool by clicking on this link. The website and instructions are available in English and Greek.
Greek Butterflies App
An app designed for butterfly observation in Greece. Users can find a complete list of butterfly species found in Greece, along with photos. Users can select their favourite photos and export them to PDF to print. While this app has a 'contributions' section, please note that this is not the main data collection method of this BMS. Instead, we suggest using this app as a visual aid for species identification.