Prioritizing species for nature conservation should follow objective ecologically and biogeographically meaningful selection criteria. In this study, we test an approach to prioritize butterfly species for nature conservation considering the following parameters: (1) geographical distribution and endemicity, (2) vulnerability and (3) ecological specialization. Following these criteria, we identified 51 species of conservation priority out of the 403 European species assessed, that is 12.7%. This list of species and those included in the annexes II and IV of the Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) had only four species in common. The species selected by both approaches differed significantly in their traits considering their distribution and ecological specialization with the annexes of the EU Habitats Directive including many species that are neither range‐restricted nor have their core distribution within Europe, and furthermore many not threatened ecological generalists. Our results suggest that species prioritization for nature conservation should follow objective criteria, such as distribution and ecological specialization.

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是什么使物种成为自然保护的优先事项？

优先考虑自然保护物种应遵循客观的生态和生物地理意义的选择标准。在这项研究中，我们测试了一种方法，考虑到以下参数，优先考虑蝴蝶物种的自然保护：（1）地理分布和地方性，（2）脆弱性和（3）生态专业化。根据这些标准，我们在评估的 403 个欧洲物种中确定了 51 个优先保护物种，即 12.7%。该物种清单与栖息地指令 (92/43/EEC) 附件 II 和 IV 中包含的物种清单只有四个物种相同。考虑到欧盟栖息地指令的附件中的分布和生态专业化，这两种方法选择的物种在特征上存在显着差异，其中包括许多既没有范围限制也没有在欧洲核心分布的物种，而且还有许多没有受到威胁的生态通才。我们的研究结果表明，自然保护的物种优先排序应遵循客观标准，例如分布和生态专业化。