Siewierz Forest District Lepidoptera Collection

Almost 1,3 thousand butterfly species, and more than 13 thousand specimen, constitute the collection of butterflies from the Zawiercie region of the Kraków-Częstochowa Jurassic Highland in Poland. It has been collected for nearly 40 years by a lepidopterologist Włodzimierz Nowakowski, whose life's idea was to update the research of Ludwik and Marian Masłowski, who in the 1920s and 1930s had thoroughly researched the butterflies occurring in this region. The collection is managed by the Siewierz Forest Inspectorate - a unit of the State Forests National Forest Holding. The Siewierz Forest Inspectorate bought the collection on condition that it would not be divided. It took three years to catalog the collection and digitize individual specimens in high resolution, so that they could be made available to recipients around the world without exposing the delicate insects to damage. On a daily basis, this precious collection is hidden from the sun in a specially prepared dark cupboard, divided into dozens of drawers with individual species. This allows the butterflies to retain their initial colors for many years. Protection of nature, including species of plants and animals, is one of the priorities inscribed in the mission of the State Forests National Forest Holding. That is why the preservation of this unique collection of butterflies, representative for our area, is a top priority for foresters of the Siewierz Forest District. The Siewierz Forest Inspectorate is one of the 429 units of the State Forests National Forest Holding, covering an area of over 1000 square kilometres. It stretches, approximately, from the castle in Ogrodzieniec to the vicinity of the airport in Pyrzowice, and from the Rzędkowice Rocks up to the Biała Przemsza River in Sosnowiec. The northern and eastern part of the forest district is located in the Krakow-Czestochowa Jurassic Highland, and its southern and western part in the Silesian Upland. The highest point of the forest district (504 m. above sea level) is Janowski Mountain in Podzamcze, while the lowest is located in the valley of the Biała Przemsza River (220 m. above sea level). The entire area of the Siewierz Forest District is located in the Vistula River basin and, to a lesser extent, in the Warta River basin. In this area we manage State Treasury forests of almost 14 thousand hectares. Although all specimens have been collected only in the Zawiercie district, about 70% of butterflies occurring in Poland can be found there. The collection includes, among others, the common Theclinae, Lycaeninae, Papilionidae, Nymphalide, a species characteristic to the Jurrasic Highland - Charissa pullata, and also a rare specimen in the Zawiercie region, as well as in the Pieniny and the Tatra Mountains - Euphyia frustata. Interestingly, among the species collected by Włodzimierz Nowakowski there are also some rare species such as Iphiclides podalirius. The order Lepidoptera in Poland containns about 3 thousand species, and is predominantly nocturnal. Diurnal butterflies are represented by only ca. 150 species. Among the collected specimens you can find both the common Pieridae, which reproduce several times a year, as well as Nymphalide, most of them also survive the winter as adults and lay eggs in the following spring They live for a year, in contrast to the Geometridae and some Noctuidae, whose life lasts only a few days and only thanks to the reserves accumulated in the caterpillar stage because the adult insects of these butterflies do not have the digestive system. Another interesting butterfly is the Vanessa cardui - which, as soon as autumn begins, migrates to southern Europe, only to return, like some birds, in spring. Insects are beautiful animals of our meadows and forests. It is worth getting to know them better in order to appreciate the surrounding nature. The vast majority of the insects in the collection can be found in the Jurassic Higland region, and some of them exclusively there.