Collecting in Europe

This should be a trivial question, but it isn't. Not at all. The problem comes from the many different countries and their own national legislation in their national language. I will give my best to answer this question, but bear in mind that I haven't even read the majority of legislation as I am unable to read it. On the other hand it is good to have a different legislation in each country, as Europe has a divide between the Mediterranean region and the northern countries. Furthermore Europe has a heavily populated central region (Rhine valley, Belgium, Netherlands), and less populated outer regions (Spain, Balkans).

The two most important topics are the treaties and conventions, and the other one being the national legislature.

The two most important conventions in Europe are the Washington Convention (-> CITES) and the Bern Convention. In a convention countries agree to a goal and they sign that they will make laws to apply the agreed goals. And this is the source for the next problem and confusion,... some countries may sign a convention, but never turn the convention into a law that applies within the country...

Anyway, to ratify CITES within the countries of the EU we have the council regulation with the beautiful name of "Council Regulation (EC) No 338/97". It does not have CITES appendix I, II and III, but it has its own Annex A, B and C. Why did they need a new name? Well they moved species between appendix I, II and III and added a few here and there. So to answer your subquestion. Parnassius apollo is on CITES II and could be traded, but in Europe it is within Annex A and cannot be traded in Europe unless it is an old specimen.
eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/ALL/?uri=CELEX:31997R0338

The Bern Convention is the next important one, because even the majority of countries that don't have long lists of protected species (France, Belgium, etc.) based their small lists of protected species onto that convention. The insects are on Appendix II of that convention. www.coe.int/en/web/conventions/full-list/-/conventions/treaty/104 and rm.coe.int/168078e2ff One famous example would be Lycaena dispar.

And then comes the long list of national laws in each country. Most of them actually do have small lists. I can see that Denmark is supposed to not have any insects protected by national law. Also Italy and France like Olivier mentions. Another example, even tough non-EU is Switzerland. The two most extensive sets of national laws are to be found in Luxembourg and Germany. In Luxembourg every Rhopalocera is protected unless the genus Pieris. In Germany most Lepidoptera are protected except a list of about 18 species (when I remember correctly). In Germany all Lycaenidae are protected as every occuring genus of Lycaenidae is protected genus-wide... Germany is also the only country to my knowledge that prohibits specimen of nationally occuring species (like Papilio machaon) that have been LEGALLY caught abroad.

Ok to wrap this somehow up, the following countries have no or only small list of protected Lepidoptera (and Coleoptera? I'm not an expert there!): Albania, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Malta, Romania. Cases like Hungary I cannot comment as I don't understand the national laws and have no source stating that there isn't any national legislature. This list is no legal advise and can contain errors. Read more in depth here: www.insectes.org/opie/pdf/1393_pagesdynadocs4b8fc066cedec.pdf

Lastly, even tough I mentioned that Luxembourg and Germany have the most strict national laws it has always been easy to obtain permits. Also in my whole lifetime I have never been denied a collecting permit for a country when I applied for it.

I wish there was an easier answer to all of this, but 50 years of wild legislation from different political bodies have rendered the situation very complicated. But the same also applies to the US where I get confusing answers from people concerning the trade of live Saturniidae eggs across state borders.

Thanks for the replies. The reason I was asking this question is because if I ever make a trip to Europe, I would be visiting some friends and family in Germany. While there I would visit some of the places I collected insects at during the 1970's. I know that was a long time ago, and I'm sure things have changed since then. i assume butterfly numbers are probably not as numerous now as back then, but I could be wrong. I still speak and read German fairly fluently, so language would not be a problem.

Yes, butterfly populations in W. Europe are collapsing everywhere where agriculture is intensive (pesticides, monoculture...).
But if you go to a mountainous area or in large forests, you will see plenty of butterflies !

This said, in Western Europe, the best countries for collecting (number and diversity of butterfly species) are Southern countries : Spain, South France, Italy. The Alpes ares excellent too (France, Switzerland, N. Italy, Austria).

Poland is also good for collecting, it is free to collect and only few species are protected.
Saying that I haven’t been there nor collect for more then 20 years, but I visit Polish insect forum from time to time.

Paul

Me too! In Ontario-Canada someone decided to protect all 8 species of Papilionidae, which are common as P.rapae except two which are common south in US, but rare here. They got protection for their beauty not for endangered status, same D.plexippus which is common as weed got protection for its international status rather then endangered species.
Note that this non-sense law applies only in one province, rest of Canada is free to collect those Papilionidea.

They make the list and even they don´t make a review of the names they put in the lists,almost every year since last ten years I go to the mountains that make the frontier between Spain and France,I ask for a permit(Aragón community) and in the list they send me of protected species they always repeat the wrong spell in Satyrium pruni,for them is Satyrium runiand they haven´t solved the mistake for years.


Miguel