This paper presents an updated checklist of the butterflies of Europe, together with their original name combinations, and their occurrence status in each European country. According to this checklist, 496 species of the superfamily Papilionoidea occur in Europe. Changes in comparison with the last version (2.6.2) of Fauna Europaea are discussed. Compared to that version, 16 species are new additions, either due to cryptic species most of which have been discovered by molecular methods (13 cases) or due to discoveries of Asian species on the eastern border of the European territory in the Ural mountains (three cases). On the other hand, nine species had to be removed from the list, because they either do not occur in Europe or lost their species status due to new evidence. In addition, three species names had to be changed and 30 species changed their combination due to new evidence on phylogenetic relationships. Furthermore, minor corrections were applied to some authors' names and years of publication. Finally, the name Polyommatusottomanus Lefèbvre, 1831, which is threatened by its senior synonym Lycaenalegeri Freyer, 1830, is declared a nomen protectum, thereby conserving its name in the current combination Lycaenaottomana.

Biology Centre CAS Branisovska 31 370 05 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic Biology Centre CAS Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Departamento de Biología Universidad Autónoma de Madrid c Darwin 2 28049 Madrid Spain Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Madrid Spain

Department of Ecology and Genetics PO Box 3000 University of Oulu 90014 Oulu Finland University of Oulu Oulu Finland

Department of Karyosystematics Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences Universitetskaya nab 1 St Petersburg 199034 Russia Zoological Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences St Petersburg Russia

Dutch Butterfly Conservation PO Box 506 6700 AM Wageningen The Netherlands Dutch Butterfly Conservation Wageningen Netherlands

Institut de Biologia Evolutiva Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta 37 08003 Barcelona Spain CSIC Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona Spain

Lund University Department of Biology Sölvegatan 37 223 62 Lund Sweden Lund University Lund Sweden

Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Apartado 14 0434 Lima 14 Peru Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos Lima Peru

Turin University Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology via Accademia Albertina 13 1 10123 Torino Italy Turin University Torino Italy

UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Department of Community Ecology Theodor Lieser Str 4 06120 Halle Germany UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Halle Germany

University of Ljubljana Biotechnical Faculty Department of Biology Jamnikarjeva 111 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia University of Ljubljana Ljubljana Slovenia

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