Firefly (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) species from the Atlantic Forest hotspot, Brazil

Abstract Background We compiled a database of firefly species records from the Atlantic Forest hotspot in Brazil and made it available at GBIF. Data were gathered from literature and from several key entomological collections, including: Coleção entomológica Prof. José Alfredo Pinheiro Dutra (DZRJ/UFRJ) and Coleção do Laboratório de Ecologia de Insetos from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (CLEI/UFRJ); Coleção Entomológica do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (CEIOC); Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo (MZSP); Coleção Entomológica Pe. Jesus Santiago Moure from Universidade Federal do Paraná (DZUP/UFPR); and Coleção Entomológica from Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco (UFRPE). This database represents the largest contribution to a public repository of recorded occurrences from Neotropical fireflies. New information This dataset shows the occurrence and abundance of firefly species in the Atlantic Forest hotspot. Firefly species endemic to this biome are also present and considered in the study. These data can assist scientific and societal needs, by supporting future research projects and conservation decision-making.


Introduction
The Atlantic Forest covers seventeen of twenty-six Brazilian States and occupies almost the whole country's coast (Oliveira and Engel 2017).It is recognised as one of the thirty-six hotspots in the world and is a global priority for biodiversity conservation (Esser et al. 2019 ).Unfortunately, the Atlantic Forest also represents the biome with the highest number of fauna and flora species threatened by urban sprawl and land-use change.Landscape modification and climate change are strong drivers of habitat loss and changes in correlated ecosystem services (Maldaner et al. 2021).Due to this, the Atlantic Forest is one of the biomes most threatened by climate change (Scarano and Ceotto 2015).The evident shifts in temperature and precipitation patterns (Pereira et al. 2010) have started to induce responses on several species of plants and animals (Root et al. 2003, Parmesan 2006, VanDerWal et al. 2012).Thus, the Atlantic Forest is one of the habitats highly prone to the adverse effects of climate change, jeopardising its biodiversity and endemic species richness.According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the vulnerability to climate change disruption in a system is extreme (I.P.C.C. 2014).In this scenario, it is important to anticipate the effects of climate change in the ecosystems, in order to decrease its damage by building up possible solutions, aligned with mitigation.These strategies can reduce the vulnerability of species and increase the resilience of natural and human systems, aiming to avoid or minimise these negative impacts (I.P.C.C. 2014).
Fireflies (Lampyridae) are amongst the many organisms threatened by anthropogenic stressors and climate change in the Atlantic Forest (Vaz et al. 2021, Khattar et al. 2022).They are a cosmopolitan family of about 2,200 species worldwide (Branham 2010), with most of its known diversity found in the Neotropics and the Asian Southeast (Lawrence and Newton 1995).This number of species is largely underestimated due to severe taxonomic impediments, in addition to a lack of targeted sampling and experts, especially in the Neotropics (McDermott 1966, Silveira andMermudes 2013).Indeed, Neotropical fireflies need massive nomenclatural and curatorial work, which are of utmost importance to facilitate their research and conservation.
Besides their relevance, fireflies are very charismatic for society (Fallon et al. 2021, Prischmann-Voldseth 2022).They are present in music, poems, paintings and other kinds of arts, being used as a tool to foster conservation of nature through environmental education (Lenko andPapavero 1997, Faust 2004).Furthermore, they play a significant role in the economy of many countries as flagship species in ecotourism (Lewis et al. 2020).In addition, they are sensitive to light pollution and other forms of environmental degradation (Viviani et al. 2010, Owens et al. 2022), being important bioindicators of ecosystems' health (Fallon et al. 2021).Lastly, their medical importance is relevant since they prey on intermediate hosts of waterborne diseases (Viviani 1989).
Even though anthropogenic threats have been investigated, the extent to which climate and land use changes impact fireflies has never been quantitatively assessed anywhere in South America.An important way to protect fireflies from these threats is to protect forest remnants at the Atlantic Forest hotspot, since protected areas act as a shelter for thousands of species.In this regard, mobilising the biodiversity data currently stored in natural history collections and literature can be particularly useful to conduct large-scale analyses in macroecology and conservation, provided that its coverage is adequately assessed and field inventories are conducted to fill in the gaps that are eventually identified (Hortal et al. 2007, Ronquillo et al. 2020).Shortfalls, particularly in species identities and distribution (Linnean and Wallacean shortfalls, respectively, see Hortal et al. (2015)), hampers the elaboration of predictive models that could provide information on the needs for management of firefly populations.In this regard, one of the main concerns about fireflies is the absence of occurrence records publicly available in repositories; therefore making it difficult to obtain any assessment on their status.Thus, this work aims to compile and to make a public dataset of firefly diversity in Brazil, which would be of high relevance to advance our knowledge of this particular taxa, especially when applying predictive models which could be the base for new and expert-knowledge-based conservation and management actions.To do this, we evaluated and gathered data from collections and fieldwork, as well as from a revision of literature.In addition, this dataset will support the project described below, which aims to propose conservation policies for the Atlantic Forest, identifying threats and predicting effects of global change on firefly communities, sustaining and providing a better global perspective on potential firefly extinctions in South America.

Sampling methods
Description: Information on lampyrid specimens included in this study was obtained from scientific collections, literature and unpublished data from fieldwork research over nine years throughout the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.The samples were evaluated from different areas in the Brazilian coast, mainly from the south-eastern and south regions (Fig. 1), which are the most densely inhabited.Our field expeditions were undertaken between 2013 and 2022 and encompassed the Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, Parque Nacional da Tijuca, Parque Estadual da Ilha Grande and Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca, all placed within Rio de Janeiro State.The scientific collections digitised contained records of fireflies sampled from the 1885s to the present.
• Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro -Coleção do Laboratório de Ecologia de Insetos from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (CLEI), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
• Fiocruz/CEIOC -Coleção Entomológica do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Firefly species were analysed under a stereomicroscope and we imaged characters relevant to species identification.All of them were compared to the species-type material and original descriptions, when available.For specimens whose identity could not be confirmed at the species level, we included a morphotype code ("sp1", "sp2" and so on).This code was standardised by the first author, so all specimens with the same code in the database pertain to the same morphotype.Firefly (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) species from the Atlantic Forest hotspot, ...

Literature
Most of the data incorporated into this dataset came from our team, which includes two leading lampyrid taxonomists: Stephanie Vaz and Luiz Silveira.Together, SV and LS have been studying and collecting fireflies since 2010 and helped to build one of the most comprehensive and well-curated firefly collections in the Americas.This work includes: (i) the original descriptions of many of the endemic species covered in this dataset and (ii) monographic reviews which confirmed the endemism (to the Atlantic Forest) of several other species.Quality control: All records were validated geographically and taxonomically.Coordinates were plotted and revised to verify the geographical location and locality.All scientific names were checked for types and matched to the species information.
Step description: Most specimens deposited in collections were preserved in entomological drawers under dry conditions.The information contained on the specimens' labels was collected to build the dataset.Specimens from our fieldwork are preserved in ethanol > 90% since the date of collection (Fig. 3), which better preserves soft-bodied insects, such as fireflies and also prevents DNA degradation.
Ethanol > 90% recipient to preserved specimens from our fieldwork.

Geographic coverage
Description: The samples were collected from different areas throughout the Brazilian Atlantic Forest (Fig. 4).The data obtained from entomological collections was georeferenced by using the information in specimens' labels stored in appropriate drawers or jars.

Taxonomic coverage
Description: The dataset consists in 3010 records, 36 genera and 107 different species.
Additionally, there are 362 records with genus taxonomic status comprising 44 morphotypes which could not be identified at species level with 100% certainty.That means 153 potential species in this dataset representing 7.65% of the species recorded worldwide (see Branham ( 2010)), although it is necessary to bear in mind that the total number of Lampyridae species worldwide is still underestimated (Silveira and Mermudes 2013).
The five most abundant species were from the subfamily Photurinae and Lampyrinae.The full firefly dataset was recorded from 14 ecoregions in the Atlantic Forest.Firefly (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) species from the Atlantic Forest hotspot, ...

Usage licence
Usage licence: Other

IP rights notes:
The dataset in the current work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License.

Description:
The dataset contains information on fireflies (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, obtained from our own fieldwork, specimens deposited in scientific collections and data available in literature.The aims and objectives of this project are to build and compile a dataset tailored to: (i) evaluate the coverage and eventual biases of the distributional data available for Atlantic Forest fireflies; and (ii) develop models to provide further insights on how light pollution, landuse and climate changes may affect the firefly species endemic to the Atlantic Forest.
The specimens have been lumped into a single dataset, forming the basis of S. Vaz 's PhD thesis.This dataset will be used to investigate priority areas for conservation in the Atlantic Forest and assess the connection amongst firefly populations and communities located in different forest fragments.This dataset is published in GBIF under the licence CC BY 4.0 and the metadata can be also consulted at Vaz et al. (2022).If you have any questions regarding this dataset, please do not hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata.

Column description datasetName
The name identifying the dataset from which the record was derived.
occurrenceID An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence).In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the occurrenceID globally unique.Firefly (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) species from the Atlantic Forest hotspot, ... Firefly (Coleoptera, Lampyridae) species from the Atlantic Forest hotspot, ...

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Fireflies distribution in the Atlantic Forest hotspot.

Fieldwork
The surveys at Parque Nacional da Serra dos Órgãos, Parque Nacional da Tijuca, Parque Estadual da Pedra Branca and Parque Estadual da Ilha Grande were conducted following the same protocol.We used Malaise traps (Fig.2) and active search across all habitat types and seasons, to enhance the coverage and completeness of our sampling effort.This fieldwork methodology (Suppl.material 1) increased the overall success of the surveys (seeSilveira et al. (2020)).

Figure 2 .
Figure 2. Typical Malaise trap in the Atlantic Forest.

basisOfRecord
The specific nature of the data record.eventDateThedate-time or interval during which an Event occurred.For occurrences, this is the datetime when the event was recorded.Not suitable for a time in a geological context.year The four-digit year in which the Event occurred, according to the Common Era Calendar.month The integer month in which the Event occurred.day The integer day of the month on which the Event occurred.scientificName The full scientific name, with authorship and date information, if known.When forming part of an Identification, this should be the name in lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined.higherClassificationA list (concatenated and separated) of taxa names terminating at the rank immediately superior to the taxon referenced in the taxon record.kingdom The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified.phylum The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the taxon is classified.class The full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified.order The full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified.family The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified.genus The full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified.specificEpithet The name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName.taxonRank The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName.identificationRemarks Comments or notes about the Identification.identifiedBy A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who assigned the Taxon to the subject.decimalLatitude The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location.Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it.Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive.decimalLongitude The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location.Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it.Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive.
Entomological institutions and their collections are discriminated as provided by GBIF.Museu Nacional/UFRJ institution code holds both Coleção entomológica Prof. José Alfredo Pinheiro Dutra from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (DZRJ) and Coleção do Laboratório de Ecologia de Insetos from Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (CLEI) collection codes in this paper.