Day of the butterflies

Day of the butterflies at Mals

In September 2014, at the 14th International Symposium on Zygaenidae (a butterfly family) on the Isle of Mull in Scotland (UK), the international research community decided to consider the municipality of Mals as the future and next venue for this very symposium. The decisive factor for this decision was and is the widely known “Miracle of Mals” – which speaks out against the use of pesticides. This is because the main topic of the symposium is to be the importance of raminets as bioindicators, whose occurrence is an indication of an intact habitat. The municipality of Mals sees this decision as a distinction and confirmation that it is on the right path to becoming a municipality of clean air, public health and biodiversity. The municipality of Mals will proclaim the first Mals Butterfly Days between 11.09. and 25.09.16. During these two weeks, everything will be under the sign of butterflies. The population is to be extensively informed about butterflies and learn to appreciate and love the butterfly as a symbol of purity, freedom and joie de vivre, as an “ally” of all efforts to preserve the beauty and diversity of our Alpine landscape. The South Tyrol Museum of Nature will make a substantial contribution with a special exhibition on butterflies, and the European butterfly research association Societas Europaea Lepidopterologica (S. E. L.) will be present with representatives of its nature conservation committee and renowned researchers. Representatives from other municipalities from the Alpine region, which have also chosen the butterfly as a symbol for their communities and thus document their positive attitude towards biodiversity, will be represented with delegations (e.g. Bordano in Friuli, which has been considered the “village of butterflies” for years and has had almost all its houses painted by artists and butterfly lovers).