Diversity of Hesperiidae, Pieridae and Papilionidae Butterflies (Lepidoptera, Papilionoidea) in the mountain massif Shkoza in Kosovo

In this paper we present the results of a survey of three butterfly families: Hesperiidae, Pieridae and Papilionidae, in the Mountain massif Shkoza in central Kosovo, conducted from May to October 2016. Among 29 recorded butterfly species in this survey, 14 (48%) species belong to Pieridae, 10 (24%) to Hesperiidae and 4 (13.7%) to Papilionidae. Recorded species belong to five faunal elements according to Kudrna, Pennestorfer & Lux (2015) (KPS): 14 are Euro-Siberian (ES), 10 are Euro-Oriental (EO), two species are Mediterranean (EM), two are Holarctic (Hol) and one Boreo-Montane. Regarding the IUCN Red list status (van Swaay et al., 2010), three species Carcharodus floccifera (Zeller, 1847), Thymelicus acteon (Rottemburg, 1775) and Parnassius mnemosyne (Linnaeus, 1758) are Near Threatened (NT), while the other 27 are of Least Concern (LC). From our results we can conclude that the massif Shkoza has a well developed butterfly fauna, however further research is needed to have a complete picture of its diversity.