Southwards range expansion by the palaearctic small copper, Lycaena phlaeas (Linnaeus, 1761) (Lepidoptera, Lycaenidae) , to Yakushima in the northern Ryukyus

Abstract

In recent years in Japan, not a few southern butterflies have expanded their ranges northward. Around 2006, however, the palaearctic Lycaena phlaeas chinensis (C. Felder, 1862) moved southward to Yakushima, and the species seems to have become an established resident there. The present paper reports its expansion processes, and discusses the cause of this southward expansion.