Three decades of declines restructure butterfly communities in the Midwestern United States

Abstract

Insects are declining worldwide, yet gaps remain in our understanding of how declines are distributed across species within communities. Using three decades of butterfly monitoring data aggregated from the Midwestern United States, we found that no butterfly species increased in abundance from 1992 to 2023. 59 out of 136 species declined (annual mean trend: −1.2 to −6.9% per year) with losses distributed across all functional groups including residents, migrants, rare, and common species. Community composition changed such that abundance is now more even across species, driven by more severe losses in abundance—but not richness—of common species compared to rare species. These widespread declines are likely cascading across ecosystems. Conservation efforts that focus on entire communities could mitigate butterfly biodiversity loss.