SYKTYVKAR, April 2. /TASS/. Commercial catching of insects, especially of butterflies, poses a significant threat to Arctic species. Northern butterflies are regularly presented at entomological fairs, including abroad, Andrey Tatarinov, a leading researcher at Institute of Biology (the Komi Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Urals Branch), told reporters.
"Over recent years. we can see the commercial insect collecting, because butterflies, especially from the northern regions, are valued very highly. Demand creates supply, and merchants in the Polar Urals are very-very numerous. This is a significant threat. No one will tell you about the volume, which is a trade secret of those merchants, but the fact remains that our butterflies regularly appear at entomological fairs, including foreign ones, despite all the existing restrictions, and this suggests that the catching is very intensive. For example, several dozen entomological merchants of the kind come to the Polar Urals every year, and butterflies are very expensive, some dozens dollars per tundra butterfly, and some butterflies may be even more expensive," he said presenting a report on the previous year's monitoring of rare plant, animal and fungal species in the Komi Region.
Threat to dragonflies and beetles
The problem is both with butterflies and other types of insects. "The same problem is with beetles and dragonflies - they are large, beautiful, spectacular species that are popular with collectors. They are very rare and valuable," the expert said, answering a question from TASS.
There is no clear legislative acts regulating the catching of insects outside specially protected natural areas, therefore the catchers may not be considered poachers, the scientist added. "The Soviet Union outlawed entomological collections, but by now that law has expired. Many foreigners used to come, nowadays there is no such inflow. However, this is a very serious problem that we need to address. It refers not only to the Red Data Book species, catching which is illegal. Many butterflies are not protected, but they are no less valuable. If we don't undertake measures, very soon they will become rare, and we will have to protect them," the scientist said.
"Commercial catching may be clearly evident in certain areas of the Polar Urals, in the area of the Chum - Labytnangi railway line, and eventually this will lead to disrupted diversity of species," he added.
According to Svetlana Degteva, the Komi Scientific Center's director, the Edletsky Nature Reserve has been organized recently in Komi's Vorkuta District to preserve rare species of butterflies. "The populations are quite stable now. However, threats in this reserve do exist, because it is open for visits of not only groups of tourists, but also of groups of collectors who catch rare species for sale," the director said.