The National Museum of Natural History, Sofia led the largest lepidopterological field expedition in Europe

Between June 15 and 19, 2026, near the village of Vlahi, above the Kresna Gorge in Pirin, the largest field expedition in the field of lepidopterology took place, bringing together 57 experts from 17 European countries.

The researchers collected data on more than 700 species of butterflies and moths, of which at least 300 species will be sequenced for the first time and their genomes will be used as high-quality DNA references.

As part of the Psyche project, the expedition aimed to support the sampling of some of the species for which genetic data is lacking. Over 11000 butterfly species have been identified in Europe to date, but the genome of only about 10% of them has been sequenced to date. So far, a total of 3500 species have been collected under the Psyche project, of which 1350 species have been sequenced, while the remaining species are currently being processed and are yet to be sequenced.

The organisers from the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Prof. Stoyan Beshkov, Sen. Assist. Dr Stefaniya Kamenova, Assist. Ana Nahirnić-Beshkova, together with PhD student Zdravko Kolev and the museum’s associate Assoc. Prof. Dr Boyan Zlatkov and Dimitar Kaynarov, actively participated in the field activities, identification and processing of the materials.

The expedition created valuable contacts between European specialists from various scientific fields, who exchanged information on the progress of research in the field of biosystematics and evolutionary biology.

The species collected from Bulgaria and their taxonomic identification are a significant contribution to the study of the genomic diversity of butterflies in Europe, as well as an important step towards the establishment of a regional hub for genomic analyses in the Balkans.