The region of Dol pri Ljubljani has a landscape of high relief, geological and vegetation diversity. Butterflies are known to be good indicators of environmental change, therefore in our diploma thesis we wanted to examine the changes in butterfly fauna in the time span of almost a decade. Our objective was to make an inventory of butterfly species of specified areas, compare them to previous studies and provide the environmental guidelines, essential for their conservation. We'd collected samples in the period from April to September 2014 in 8 different sample areas and we then compared our findings to data, obtained from a similar study, conducted in 2005/06. We observed 44 different species of butterflies, among which the purple-edged copper (Lycaena hippothoe) and the southern small white (Pieris mannii) are endangered in Slovenia. Compared to the previous study, there is a decline of the number of observed species. Among all species detected in the survey, the common species that occur in all types of meadow habitats predominate. The lowest number of the species was recorded in areas comprising wet meadows. Among species not re-found in our survey, most are inhabitants of dry meadow habitat. Newly observed species were mainly those, common at the forest clearings, hedges and sparse woods. Due to a relatively high diversity of butterflies in the Dol pri Ljubljani region, it is necessary to follow the protection and conservation guidelines in order to preserve them. Based on our discovery of endangered and rare species in the region, we can propose some areas of conservation importance. In these areas all interventions into natural landscape that reduce the habitat of this important class of insects, should be carefully monitored.
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