TY - JOUR T1 - Facing the heat: thermoregulation and behaviour of lowland species of a cold-dwelling butterfly genus <em>Erebia</em> JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/024265 SP - 024265 AU - Irena Kleckova AU - Jan Klecka Y1 - 2015/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2015/08/10/024265.abstract N2 - Understanding the potential of animals to quickly respond to changing temperatures is imperative for predicting the effects of climate change on biodiversity. Ectotherms, such as insects, use behavioural thermoregulation to keep their body temperature within suitable limits. Behavioural thermoregulation may be particularly important at warm margins of species occurrence where populations are sensitive to increasing air temperatures. In the field, we studied thermal requirements and behavioural thermoregulation by microhabitat choice and by switching among daily activities in low-altitude populations of the Satyrinae butterflies Erebia aethiops, E. euryale and E. medusa. We compared the relationship of individual body temperature with air and microhabitat temperatures for the low-altitude Erebia species to our data on seven mountain species, including a high-altitude population of E. euryale, studied in the Alps. E. aethiops and the low-altitude population of E. euryale kept lower body temperatures than the other species and showed signs of overheating. Adults of a lowland species E. medusa seemed well adapted to warm climate of a subxerotherm locality. Temperature-dependence of different daily activities also differed between the three lowland populations and the mountain species. Overall, our results suggest that lowland species and populations of Erebia butterflies are likely more severely threatened by ongoing climate changes than mountain species. Because of the ability of butterflies to actively search for appropriate microclimate and different requirements of individual species, we highlight the importance of sustaining habitat heterogeneity to protect individual species and entire assemblages. ER -