Lithuania Fauna & Flora FDC

Lithuania FDC
Name: The Red Book of Lithuania - Grassland Fauna and Flora
Date of Issue: 09 October 2009

Denominations:
1.55Lt: Machaon (Papilio machaon)
The day-flying butterfly Machaon (Papilio machaon) belongs to the family Papilionidae or the Swallowtail.

Every year in Lithuania two generations of machaons evolve: first generation flies during the months of May and June, the second during July and August, sometimes even till the middle of September. The Machaon butterflies are met in Europe, North Africa, in the tropical areas of Asia, North America. In Lithuania they are found all over the country, more frequently in the Southern regions of the country.

Machaons can mostly be noticed in the open, subject to the sun warmth slopes of rivers and lakes, grassy fields, more rarely in the upland bogs. They feed on leaves and trusses of the plants belonging to the family Apiaceae. Machaons do not avoid cultural territories, they can be found in the forest openings, roadsides, gardens, pastures, and forest cuttings. In Lithuania this species is under protection since 1989.

1.55Lt: Marsh Gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe)
The Marsh Gentian (Gentiana pneumonanthe) – is a flowering plant from Magnoliophyta division.

The period of blossoming of this flower is July–August, sometimes – up to October. The Marsh Gentians are spread throughout almost all Europe, Caucasus, and West Siberia and south of East Siberia. In Lithuania this flower was found in southeast regions: Alytus, Ignalina, Marijampolė, Šalčininkai, Varėna, etc.

The Marsh Gentians grow alone, less frequently in small groups, in boggy meadows or meadows with temporarily excessive moist, also peaty clearings of woods, borders of marshes. This is extremely rare plant and it extinguishes every year due to drainage of marshes, climate change, cultivation of meadows. This species is included into the list of the protected plants of Lithuania since 1962.