Scientists from Altai State University helped to compile a genetic passport of a pest butterfly - nun moth

A large international team, which included researchers from Altai State University, Professor Roman Yakovlev and Junior Researcher Svyatoslav Knyazev, studied in detail the genetics and distribution of the nun moth.

The nun silk moth (Lymantria monacha) is a butterfly of the family of moths, which is one of the most (along with the gypsy moth) malicious pests of forestry, first of all, its caterpillars damage coniferous trees, often causing catastrophic defoliation of trees, especially in Europe. During the study, the genetic characteristics of 253 nun moth specimens from dozens of points of the range from Western Europe to Japan were studied.

The results of the scientists' research were published in the well-known journal Zoologica Scripta, which is in the first quartiles of Scopus and Web of Science.

"Such studies are necessary because they allow us to predict the spread of the pest in future decades (taking into account climate change trends) to higher (northern) latitudes. Such expensive projects are only possible with the involvement of international teams, which was once again proven in a recently published work," comments the co-author of the article, Professor at the Institute of Biology and Biotechnology Roman Yakovlev.

Let us add that researchers from Altai State University, Professor Roman Yakovlev and a junior researcher Svyatoslav Knyazev, completed their part of the work within the framework of the State Assignment of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation FZMW-2023-0006 “Endemic, local and invasive arthropods (Arthropoda) of the mountains of Southern Siberia and Central Asia: a unique gene pool of a biodiversity hotspot.”