MIROSŁAW NAKONIECZNY (author of photographs)
ANDRZEJ KĘDZIORSKI (project manager)

University of Silesia,
Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection,
Department of Animal Physiology and Ecotoxicology;
ul. Bankowa 9, 40-007 Katowice
e-mail: miroslaw.nakonieczny@us.edu.pl

Description popularizing the research project

Apollo butterflies' life is a bread and butter issue here. It is hard as the key issue here is a plant known under many names such as: orpine, livelong, frog'sstomach, harping Johnny, life-everlasting, live-forever, midsummer-men, orphan John, witch's moneybags, but to biologists mainly as Sedum telephium ssp. maximum. Nowadays it is harder and harder to find it. The oldest highlanders of the Pieniny Mountains remember the times when on the slopes of Trzy Korony you could see many more Apollo butterflies than nowadays. Today when tourists are lucky they will observe one of the 400 remaining individuals. A few years ago you could see numbers delicately written among the spots on their fragile wings. Numbering the butterflies was not an idea of a mad collector. On the contrary, it saved their life as it rendered them useless for exposition purposes. It was not so long time ago when the population of the butterflies was reduced to mere 20-30 individuals i.e. 2% of the number the screes in the Pieniny Mountains could feed. The entomologists rushed to the rescue of the species in danger. They quickly numbered the butterflies they found and set them free again. Then they started seeking the reasons for such dramatically low population. The first trail led to the only plant which Apollo's choosy children eat. Another led to the butterflies themselves, to their habits, metabolism, habitat preferences and ... their date of birth. The butterfly horoscope said it is easier to survive when you are born in early spring. Another trail led to weather anomalies which occur in Pieniny Mountains. Maybe they tend to happen more often than in the last decades? Tens of questions were asked. Hundreds of ever-hungry caterpillars were fed, dozens of butterflies were released and finally the investigation was closed and its results were presented to the entomologists' society.
Since the desperate distress signal the population of the beautiful butterfly has grown 20-fold. The harmful impact of industry ceased but the climate is still unpredictable. In spite of the fact that the unbearable lightness of being is still yet to come, it seems that it is a bit easier to find a shapely sedum.

Abstract

In 1990 on Polish sites there were only about 30 individuals of Apollo (Parnassius apollo ssp. frankenbergeri) - a rare butterfly inhabiting the Pieniny Mts. The same year due to efforts of prof. Zbigniew Witkowski (Polish Academy of Science) a recovery plan for this subspecies in Pieniny National Park was launched.
The first goal was to clarify the impact of metals on Apollo development. Obtained data confirmed earlier suggestions that giant stonecrop (Sedum telephium ssp. maximum) - a food plant for Apollo larvae - is a good metal accumulator, particularly in case of cadmium and zinc. Since we have proven monophagy of the larvae, no other plants could not be used as possible food source for the caterpillars reared in a semi-natural colony set up for the purposes of the recovery plan.
Studies on larval metabolism revealed better development (growth rate, body weight, fecundity) of the larvae that hatched early (February-March) and pupated in May, in comparison with those that hatched a few weeks later. These results pointed out a strong correlation between larval development and the food plant phenology. Modelling the effects of environmental conditions on the last instar development led to a conclusion that larvae of the males were more susceptible to ambient temperature and rainfalls than were the females. This points out fragility of Apollo to weather anomalies, which occasionally occur in Pieniny.
Biochemical assays on secondary compounds present in the stonecrop revealed lack of toxic cyanogenic compounds, as well as lack of induced synthesis of others (phenoloacids, coumarin, flavonoids and other phenolic compounds) in response to larval feeding. However, activities of detoxifying enzymes (both these present in cytosolic and microsomal fractions of the larval tissues) were elevated in the phase of intense feeding and in prepupa. In turn, among digestive enzymes, high activities of amylase, ł-glucosidase, as well as aminopetidase and carboxypeptidase, accompanied by low activities of trypsin and chymotrypsin, clearly point out limited availability of plant proteins as the source of dietary aminoacids.
In other studies cardiotropic effect of CCAP in Apollo larvae was determined. Its metabolic function (hypertrehalosemic effect) in a insect was identified for the first time. Knowledge of the impact the environmental factors have on P. apollo is valuable not only in comparative studies and analyses of the reasons of the species vanishing in Europe. It also provides some guidelines for rational measures aiming at preservation of Apollo subspecies in the scenic countryside of the Pieniny Mountains.