Fifteen years of agriwilding substantially restores butterfly and moth diversity in a European rural landscape

This dataset contains a summary of Lepidoptera monitoring data obtained in the framework of the present study titled "Fifteen years of agriwilding substantially restores butterfly and moth diversity in a European rural landscape".

Per land-management type (agriculture, agriwilding, rural nature), the total abundance of each species throughout the monitoring period is given. This means the sum of all different timepoints at which was monitored, is given. For moths, it also shows the sum of the led-light trapping monitoring method and the bait monitoring method.

Additionally, it contains trait data for the observed species. Included traits are body size and national prevalence. Body size is proxied as forewing length (in milimetres, mm) and is hence closely linked to the mobility of species (Ovaskainen et al., 2019; Sekar, 2012; Slade et al., 2013). Forewing length data was based on Cook et al., 2021, Eskildsen et al., 2015, and Sterling & Parsons, 2023. For species that were not determined to species level, the mean forewinglength of the genus or family was calculated based on species described in Sterling & Parsons, 2023 and Waring & Townsend 2020.
National prevalence reflects the total abundance of the species observed across Belgium from 2010 to 2025 (Observations.org). For species that were not determined to species level, this was considered as "NA".