Data on the movement behaviour of four species of grassland butterfly

Luke C Evans; Ian Sims; Richard M Sibly; Pernille Thorbek; Tom H Oliver; Richard J Walters

doi:10.1016/j.dib.2019.104611

Data on the movement behaviour of four species of grassland butterfly

Data Brief. 2019 Oct 4:27:104611. doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104611. eCollection 2019 Dec.

Authors

Luke C Evans¹, Ian Sims², Richard M Sibly¹, Pernille Thorbek^{2

3}, Tom H Oliver¹, Richard J Walters^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ School of Biological Sciences, University of Reading, Whiteknights, PO Box 217, Reading, Berkshire, RG6 6AH, UK.
² Syngenta, Jealott's Hill International Research Centre, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG42 6EY, UK.
³ BASF SE, APD/EE, Speyerer Strasse 2, 67117, Limburgerhof, Germany.
⁴ Centre for Environmental and Climate Research, University of Lund, Sweden.

Abstract

This Data in Brief article describes data on the movement behaviour of four species of grassland butterflies collected over three years and at four sites in southern England. The datasets consist of the movement tracks of Maniola jurtina, Aricia agestis, Pyronia tithonus, and Melanargia galathea, recorded using standard methods and presented as steps distances and turning angles. Sites consisted of nectar-rich field margins, meadows, and mown short turf grasslands with minimal flowers. In total, 783 unique movement tracks were collected. The data were used for analysing the movement behaviour of the species and for parameterising individual-based movement models.

Keywords: Movement movement-ecology random-walk behaviour Lepidoptera.