We evaluated whether protected European butterflies can potentially be at risk if transgenic maize is extensively grown in Central Europe. We explored potential consequences of both insect resistant (IR) and herbicide resistant (HR) transgenic maize. IR maize can produce pollen that is toxic to lepidopteran larvae, and this puts butterfly species at possible risk if the presence of young larvae coincides with maize flowering, during which large quantities of maize pollen can be deposited on vegetation. By considering the timing of maize flowering in Europe and the phenology of the protected Lepidoptera species, we found that 31 species had at least one generation where 50% of the larval stage overlapped with maize flowering, and 69 species for which first instar larvae were present during maize pollen shedding. HR maize allows high concentration herbicide treatments on fields without seasonal limitation, which can drastically reduce weed densities. In cases where such weed species are host plants for protected butterflies, reduced host plant/food availability can result, causing population decreases. By using published information, we first identified the important weed species in major maize-growing European countries. Subsequently, we checked whether the host plants of protected Lepidoptera included species that are common maize weeds. We identified 140 protected species having food plants that are common weeds in one or more of the major European maize-growing countries. If HR maize is grown in Europe, there is a potential hazard that their food plants will seriously decline, causing a subsequent decline of these protected species.

中文翻译：

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转基因玉米的种植会威胁到欧洲受保护的鳞翅目吗？

我们评估了如果转基因玉米在中欧广泛种植，受保护的欧洲蝴蝶是否可能面临风险。我们探讨了抗虫 (IR) 和抗除草剂 (HR) 转基因玉米的潜在后果。IR 玉米会产生对鳞翅目幼虫有毒的花粉，如果幼虫的出现与玉米开花同时发生，大量的玉米花粉会沉积在植物上，这会使蝴蝶物种面临可能的风险。通过考虑欧洲玉米开花的时间和受保护鳞翅目物种的物候，我们发现 31 个物种至少有 50% 的幼虫阶段与玉米开花重叠的世代，69 个物种存在一龄幼虫在玉米花粉脱落期间。HR 玉米允许在没有季节性限制的情况下对田地进行高浓度除草剂处理，这可以显着降低杂草密度。如果此类杂草是受保护蝴蝶的寄主植物，则会导致寄主植物/食物供应减少，从而导致种群减少。通过使用已发表的信息，我们首先确定了主要玉米种植欧洲国家的重要杂草种类。随后，我们检查了受保护的鳞翅目宿主植物是否包括常见的玉米杂草物种。我们确定了 140 种受保护物种，它们的食用植物是欧洲一个或多个主要玉米种植国的常见杂草。如果在欧洲种植 HR 玉米，则存在其食用植物严重衰退的潜在危险，从而导致这些受保护物种的后续衰退。