Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Pedro M. Raposeiro (pedro.mv.raposeiro@uac.pt)
Academic editor: Daniel Silva
Received: 03 Sep 2021 | Accepted: 03 Dec 2021 | Published: 18 Feb 2022
© 2022 Pedro Raposeiro, Ana Balibrea, Julie-Camile Riva, Catarina Ritter, Vítor Gonçalves
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Raposeiro PM, Balibrea A, Riva J-C, Ritter CJFR, Gonçalves V (2022) Aquatic macroinvertebrates in Madeira Island (Portugal) streams: diversity and distribution. Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e73909. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e73909
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The Madeira Island (Portugal; 32°24’–33°07’N, 16°16–17°16’W; 796 km2) is an oceanic island located in the North Atlantic, about 980 km south of Portugal and about 700 km west of the African coast. The presence of freshwater invertebrates in oceanic islands has always raised questions concerning dispersal, colonisation and evolution. Therefore, the freshwater fauna of Madeira Island has attracted the interest of many researchers in the past, the first publications going back to the nineteenth century. Initial studies were mainly taxonomic, resulting in a checklist of the Madeira freshwater macroinvertebrates with 240 taxa. As typical from oceanic islands, freshwater invertebrates are characterised by low diversity, with some taxonomic groups absent. Although freshwater Madeiran macroinvertebrates are a well-studied group, geographical information of diversity distribution is still scarce. Therefore, more studies are needed, especially georeferenced data of diversity and distribution of macroinvertebrate assemblages, to provide valuable information for improving knowledge and the development of typologically appropriate monitoring and conservation programmes and restoration strategies for local stakeholders.
The results of the present study revealed 713 occurrences in 40 sampling points in Madeira Island streams. The occurrence data showed 70 different aquatic taxa belonging to 21 orders and 53 families. Amongst our occurrence data, 15 endemic taxa (22.1%) from Madeira Archipelago were found. In addition, different families of Collembola and different taxa of Copepoda (Onychiuridae, Poduridae, Isotomidae, Entomobryidae, Sminthuridae) comprised new records for the Madeira streams. Therefore, further taxonomic and ecological studies on freshwater invertebrates from Madeira Island should be done with a particular focus on these lesser-known groups. Thus, our data increase the geographical data distribution of freshwater macroinvertebrates and their diversity in Madeira Island. This database is an update of geographical information of diversity distribution of Madeira freshwater macroinvertebrates known groups. This information is essential for a better understanding of community composition, diversity, occurrence or spatial distribution, which will help explore different research questions on different research areas, such as community ecology and biogeography.
aquatic insects, oceanic islands, freshwater systems, geographical distribution
The native stream biodiversity in remote oceanic islands is relatively depleted, compared to mainland counterparts (
Since the 19th century, freshwater macroinvertebrates communities in Madeira Archipelago have been relatively well researched through scientific expeditions, monitoring programmes and studies on freshwater ecosystems (e.g.
As in most regions of the world, freshwater ecosystems of Madeira Islands suffer from environmental degradation due to the increasing anthropogenic pressure (
Despite the extensive knowledge of Madeira freshwater macroinvertebrate communities, little is known about species distribution and its georeference in Madeira Island. Therefore, this work aims to provide insight into the freshwater macroinvertebrate’s distribution during a field campaign in Madeira Island streams with georeferenced locations since no similar datasets have been previously published for Madeira.
Aquatic macroinvertebrates in Madeira Island (Portugal) streams: diversity and distribution
Pedro Raposeiro, Ana Balibrea, Julie-Camile Riva, Catarina Ritter, Vitor Gonçalves
Madeira Island is located in the North Atlantic Ocean, 600 km west of the North Africa coast, between latitudes 32˚- 33˚ N and longitudes 16˚- 17˚ W (Fig.
Lying in the subtropical region, Madeira’s climate is influenced by winds from NE and the Canary Islands current. As a result, the Island has a temperate climate, characterised by mild temperatures ranging from 15.9°C in winter up to 22.3°C in summer (average annual temperature of 18.7°C) with relative humidity between 55 and 75% and annual rainfall between 500 and 1,000 mm (
Madeira Island presents a dense hydrographic network, comprising approximately 126 catchments and 200 streams (
This work was funded by FCT– Foundation for Science and Technology (PTDC/CTA-AMB/28511/2017 and DL57/2016/ ICETA/EEC2018/25).
A total of 40 sites (MAD01-MAD40) distributed by 27 permanent streams (Table
Sampling codes, altitude, location and name of the stream of the 40 sampling sites on Madeira Island.
Code | Altitude (m a.s.l.) | Latitude | Longitude | River |
MAD01 | 85 |
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Ribeira dos socorridos |
MAD02 | 409 |
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Rib. Brava |
MAD03 | 450 |
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Rib. da Vargem |
MAD04 | 325 |
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Rib. de São Vicente |
MAD05 | 311 |
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Rib. Grande |
MAD06 | 60 |
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Rib. Grande |
MAD07 | 903 |
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Rib. Brava |
MAD08 | 833 |
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Rib. Brava |
MAD09 | 826 |
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Rib. dos socorridos |
MAD10 | 725 |
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Rib. da Gomeira |
MAD11 | 780 |
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Corgo da Ribeira de Aneis |
MAD12 | 597 |
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Rib. do Cidrão |
MAD13 | 10 |
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Rib. do Machico |
MAD14 | 36 |
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Rib. Juncal |
MAD15 | 187 |
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Rib. Juncal |
MAD16 | 560 |
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Rib. do Fail |
MAD17 | 624 |
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Rib. do Machico |
MAD18 | 791 |
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Rib. Primeira |
MAD19 | 877 |
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Rib. do Machico |
MAD20 | 7 |
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Rib. de Santa Cruz |
MAD21 | 81 |
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Rib. da janela |
MAD22 | 1391 |
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Rib. do Alecrim |
MAD23 | 1135 |
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Rib. da janela |
MAD24 | 1089 |
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Rib. da janela |
MAD25 | 1041 |
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Rib. dos Cedros |
MAD26 | 899 |
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Rib. da janela |
MAD27 | 1003 |
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Rib. da janela |
MAD28 | 1271 |
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Rib. do Alecrim |
MAD29 | 1182 |
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Rib. Frio |
MAD30 | 846 |
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Corrego do Arrochete |
MAD31 | 637 |
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Rib. da Metade |
MAD32 | 686 |
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Rib. das Lajes |
MAD33 | 23 |
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Rib. de S. Roque do Faia |
MAD34 | 42 |
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Rib. Seca |
MAD35 | 103 |
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Rib. da São Jorge |
MAD36 | 121 |
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Rib. da Fonte do Louro |
MAD37 | 21 |
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Rib. de São Jorge |
MAD38 | 517 |
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Rib. de Santa Luzia |
MAD39 | 25 |
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Rib. da Fonte do Bugio |
MAD40 | 22 |
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Rib. da Ponta do Sol |
Benthic macroinvertebrates were collected following the national sampling protocol (
Macroinvertebrates were identified under a stereomicroscope (Zeiss Stemi, Deutschland). Identification was made to the lowest possible taxonomic level using identification keys (e.g.
The data has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 713 occurrences with 70 records (
Madeira Island, Madeira Archipelago, Macaronesia, Portugal.
32.602 and 32.885 Latitude; -17.287 and -16.639 Longitude.
Rank | Scientific Name |
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kingdom | Animalia |
2015-04-28 through 2015-05-02
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License.
This paper presents data from freshwater macroinvertebrate surveys developed in Madeira Island in 2015. The dataset has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 40 events (eventID), 713 occurrences (occurrenceID) with 70 taxa (taxonID). The number of records in the data table is illustrated in the IPT link. This IPT archives the data and, thus, serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section.
Column label | Column description |
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id | Identifier of the occurrence, unique for the dataset. |
locality | Name of the locality where the event occurred. |
continent | Continent of the sampling site. |
country | Country of the sampling site. |
islandGroup | Island group of the sampling site. |
island | Island from the Island Group of the sampling site. |
municipality | Name of the municipality where the event occurred. |
waterBody | Water body of the sampling site. |
eventID | Identifier of the event, unique for the dataset. |
occurrenceID | Identifier of the record, coded as a global unique identifier. |
type | The nature of the resource. |
basisOfRecord | The specific nature of the data record. |
eventDate | Time interval when the event occurred. |
scientificName | The name with authorship applied on the first identification of the specimen. |
taxonID | The identifier for the set of taxon information (data associated with the Taxon class). Specific identifier to the dataset. |
Kingdom | Kingdom name. |
Phylum | Phylum name. |
Class | Class name. |
Subclass | Subclass name. |
Order | Order name. |
Family | Family name. |
SubFamily | Subfamily name. |
Tribe | Tribe name. |
Genus | Genus name. |
specificEpithet | The name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName. |
scientificNameAuthorship | The authorship information for the scientificName. |
namePublishedInYear | The publication year of the scientificName. |
taxonRank | The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName. |
decimalLatitude | The geographic latitude of the sampling site |
decimalLongitude | The geographic longitude of the sampling site. |
geodeticDatum | The spatial reference system upon which the geographic coordinates are based. |
countryCode | Code of the country where the event occurred. |
coordinateUncertaintyInMetres | The indicator for the accuracy of the coordinate location in metres, described as the radius of a circle around the stated point location. |
The multivariate analyses were performed in PRIMER v.7.0 (including the PERMANOVA plug-in) (
The results of the present study revealed 713 occurrences in 40 sampling points in Madeira streams. The occurrence data showed 70 different aquatic taxa belonging to 21 orders and 53 families (Table
Class, order, family and subordinate taxa collected at 40 sampling sites in Madeira Island streams in spring of 2015.
Class | Order | Family | Taxa |
Insecta | Ephemeroptera | Baetidae | Baetis spp. |
Diptera | Simuliidae | Simulium spp. | |
Chironomidae | Orthocladiinae | ||
Tanypodinae | |||
Tanytarsini | |||
Rheotanytarsus spp. | |||
Chironomini | |||
Thaumaleidae | Thaumalea spp. | ||
Dixidae | Dixa tetrica Peus, 1934 | ||
Empididae | Kowarzia spp. | ||
Tipulidae | Tipulidae | ||
Ceratopogonidae | Ceratopogoninae | ||
Forcipomyia madeira Clastrier, 1991 | |||
Limoniidae | Limoniidae | ||
Rhagionidae | Rhagio spp. | ||
Psychodidae | Psychodidae | ||
Ephydridae | Ephydridae | ||
Anthomyiidae | Anthomyiidae | ||
Trichoptera | Hydroptilidae | Hydroptila spp. | |
Oxyethira spinosella McLachlan, 1884 | |||
Stactobia spp. | |||
Hydropsychidae | Hydropsyche maderensis Hagen, 1865 | ||
Psychomyiidae | Tinodes spp. | ||
Polycentropodidae | Polycentropus flavosticus Hagen, 1865 | ||
Glossosomatidae | Synagapetus punctatus (Hagen, 1859) | ||
Limnephilidae | Limnephilus cinctus Hagen, 1865 | ||
Coleoptera | Hydraenidae | Ochthebius spp. | |
Hydrophilidae | Hydrophilidae | ||
Dryopidae | Dryops luridus (Erichson,1847) | ||
Dytiscidae | Agabus spp. | ||
Hydroporinae | |||
Eretes sticticus (Linnaeus,1767) | |||
Meladema lanio (Fabricius, 1775) | |||
Curculionidae | Curculionidae | ||
Chrysomelidae | Chrysomelidae | ||
Odonata | Libellulidae | Sympetrum spp. | |
Heteroptera | Veliidae | Microvelia spp. | |
Velia maderensis Noualhier, 1897 | |||
Collembola | Poduromorpha | Onychiuridae | Onychiuridae |
Poduridae | Poduridae | ||
Entomobryomorpha | Isotomidae | Isotomidae | |
Entomobryidae | Entomobrydae | ||
Symphypleona | Sminthuridae | Sminthuridae | |
Malacostraca | Isopoda | Asellidae | Asellidae |
Ostracoda | Podocopida | Cyprididae | Cyprididae |
Copepoda | Copepoda | Copepoda | |
Gastropoda | Pulmonata | Physidae | Physella acuta (Draparnaud, 1805) |
Lymnaeidae | Galba truncatula (O.F.Müller, 1774) | ||
Radix balthica (Linnaeus, 1758) | |||
Planorbidae | Gyraulus spp. | ||
Planorbarius corneus corneus (Linnaeus, 1758) | |||
Planorbis moquini Requien, 1848 | |||
Ancylus aduncus A.A.Gould, 1847 | |||
Bivalvia | Sphaeriida | Sphaeriidae | Pisidium spp. |
Arachnida | Sarcoptiformes | Hydrozetidae | Hydrozetes sp. |
Malaconothridae | Trimalaconothrus sp. | ||
Trombidiformes | Torrenticolidae | Torrenticola spp. | |
Lebertiidae | Lebertia spp. | ||
Hygrobatidae | Atractides spp. | ||
Sperchontidae | Sperchon brevirostris Koenike, 1895 | ||
Arrenuridae | Arrenurus autochthonus (Lundblad, 1942) | ||
Trombidiformes | Trombidiformes | ||
Unionicolidae | Neumania atlantida (Lundblad, 1941) | ||
Rhabditophora | Tricladida | Dugesiidae | Dugesia gonocephala Girard, 1851 |
Clitellata | Lumbriculida | Lumbriculidae | Lumbriculus variegatus (O.F.Müller, 1774) |
Enchytraeida | Enchytraeidae | Fridericia bulbosa (Rosa, 1887) | |
Haplotaxida | Lumbricidae | Lumbricidae | |
Tubificidae | Tubifex tubifex (O.F.Müller, 1774) | ||
Naididae | Naididae | ||
Arhynchobdellida | Erpobdellidae | Dina lineata (O.F.Müller, 1773) |
The number and percentage composition of families and taxa under different orders are shown in Table
Percentage of total occurrences, number and contribution percentage of families and taxa in the different taxonomic groups.
Taxonomic groups |
% total occurrences |
no. of family |
% of family |
no. of taxa |
% of taxa |
Ephemeroptera |
5.6 |
1 |
1.9 |
1 |
1.4 |
Diptera |
36.5 |
12 |
22.6 |
17 |
24.3 |
Trichoptera |
14.7 |
6 |
11.3 |
8 |
11.4 |
Coleoptera |
2.5 |
6 |
11.3 |
9 |
12.9 |
Odonata |
0.7 |
1 |
1.9 |
1 |
1.4 |
Heteroptera |
0.7 |
1 |
1.9 |
2 |
2.9 |
Collembola |
2.7 |
5 |
9.4 |
5 |
7.1 |
Crustacea |
5.0 |
3 |
5.7 |
3 |
4.3 |
Mollusca |
7.7 |
3 |
5.7 |
8 |
11.4 |
Acari |
14.3 |
8 |
15.1 |
9 |
12.9 |
Platyhelminthes |
1.8 |
1 |
1.9 |
1 |
1.4 |
Annelida |
7.7 |
6 |
11.3 |
6 |
8.6 |
Chironomidae presented the highest frequency amongst aquatic macroinvertebrate families, with five taxa (Orthocladiinae, Tanypodinae, Tanytarsini, Chironomini and Rheotanytarsus spp.) contributing with 17.4% of the total occurrences, 7.7% from the subfamily Chironominae, 5.6% from Orthocladiinae and 4.1% from Tanypodinae. Hydroptilidae family, in the Coleoptera order, was also frequent in Madeira streams contributing with 6.7% of the occurrences and containing three taxa (Hydroptila spp., Oxyethira spinosella McLachlan, 1884 and Stactobia spp.). Baetidae family, in the Ephemeroptera order, although only represented by Baetis spp., was also common (40 sites, contributing with 5.6%), followed by Simuliidae family (40 sites; 5.6%), belonging to Diptera order and represented by Simulium spp. and family Naididae (38 sites; 5.3%) from the Annelida group. Dytiscidae and Planorbidae were the families that showed higher diversity, with 4 (Agabus spp., Hydroporinae, Eretes sticticus (Linnaeus,1767) and Meladema lanio (Fabricius, 1775)) and three taxa (Gyraulus spp., Planorbarius corneus corneus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Ancylus aduncus A.A. Gould, 1847) representing each family, respectively.
Moreover, other taxa also considered most ubiquitous in Madeira streams are Orthocladiinae, Tanytarsini, Hydroptila spp. and Naididae presented in 40, 38, 36 and 34 sites. The mean number of taxa per sample was 18.8 ± 0.9 SE taxa. Sampling sites MAD03, MAD06, MAD16, MAD18, MAD19, MAD30, MAD34, MAD36 and MAD37, showed the highest number of taxa with 24, 23, 31, 25, 31, 27, 22, 24 and 27, respectively. In contrast, MAD01 (10 taxa), MAD05 (8 taxa), MAD06 (7 taxa) and MAD11 (10 taxa) presented the lowest number of taxa.
A total of 23 invertebrate taxa that occurred at only one to three sampling sites were considered rare. These include Diptera taxa as Forcipomyia madeira Clastrier, 1991, Rhagio spp., Psychodidae and Anthomyiidae families. Moreover, three Coleoptera species (Dryops luridus (Erichson,1847), Eretes sticticus, Meladema lanio) and three families and one subfamily of Coleoptera, Hydrophilidae, Curculionidae, Chrysomelidae and Hydroporinae were identified. In addition, a Heteroptera species Velia maderensis Noualhier, 1897; two Collembola families, such as Isotomidae and Entomobrydae; the Mollusca species Radix balthica (Linnaeus, 1758), Planorbis moquini Requien, 1848 and Pisidium spp.; Arrenurus autochthonus (Lundblad, 1942) and Neumania atlantida (Lundblad, 1941), species belonging to Acari group; and three Annelida species Lumbriculus variegatus (O.F. Müller, 1774), Fridericia bulbosa (Rosa, 1887) and Tubifex tubifex (O.F. Müller, 1774) were also considered as rare taxa amongst the sampled streams.
Amongst our occurrence data, 15 taxa (22.1%) were described previously as endemic invertebrates of the Madeira Archipelago. The genus Baetis is represented on the Island by two endemic species, Baetis enigmaticus Gattolliat & Sartori, 2008 and Baetis maderensis (Hagen, 1865) (not distinguished in our survey) and it seems to be the most frequent endemism (present in all 40 sampling sites). Kowarzia and Thaumalea genera (Diptera) are also endemic taxa that are present in 24 and 15 studied sites, respectively. Trichoptera was the order with the higher number of endemisms, including the more common Tinodes spp. and Polycentropus flavosticus Hagen, 1865, present in 16 and 14 sites, respectively and the less frequent Stactobia spp. (7 sites), Synagapetus punctatus (Hagen, 1859) (4 sites) and Limnephilus cinctus Hagen, 1865 (4 sites). Acari species, belonging to Torrenticola, Lebertia and Atractides genera, are also freshwater endemisms very common in Madeira streams, present in 22, 16 and 19 sites, respectively. Other endemic species that occasionally appeared (from 9 to 4 sampling sites) were Ancylus aduncus and Agabus spp. Moreover, the endemic Heteroptera species, Velia maderensis and Coleoptera species Meladema lanio, were considered rare endemisms because they were only present in one sampling site (MAD19 both species). Some of the taxa mentioned above, found in Madeira streams, are shown in Fig.
Some macroinvertebrates found from Madeira streams: A Pisidium sp.; B Baetis sp.; C Meladema lanio; D Limnephilus cinctus; E Torrenticola sp.; F Hydroptila sp.; G Ancylus aduncus; H Velia maderensis; I Planorbis moquini; J Simulium sp.; K Gyraulus sp.; L Tinodes sp.; M Hydropsyche maderensis.
The cluster analysis indicated a split into two significantly different assemblages (Fig.
This study revealed how simple Madeira macroinvertebrate stream communities are compared to typologically similar continental rivers (e.g. mountain rivers), but richer when compared to other remote oceanic islands. We found 53 families of macroinvertebrates in Madeira Island streams, while
The most frequent macroinvertebrate taxa were from the Diptera order, especially the highly mobile taxa with multivoltine life cycle patterns, such as the Chironomidae (Berg and Hellenthal, 1992; Tokeshi, 1995). The dominance of Diptera was also reported to other oceanic islands, such as the Azores (
The most well-distributed taxa on the current survey were Baetis spp., Simulium spp. and Hydroptila spp. The distribution of genus Baetis (represented by two endemic species) does not seem to be affected by local environmental factors because it was found in all 40 sampling sites.
Despite the large distribution of several endemic taxa, changes in the taxa occurence from the upper to lower reaches were observed jointly with a decline in endemic taxa occurrence (Fig.
Even though Madeira aquatic fauna is considered well-studied due to studies done since the middle of the 19th century on different groups of invertebrate inhabiting island freshwaters (e.g.
Due to the complexity and a wide range of freshwater habitats in the Madeira Island and large scale-effects from the Islands’ isolation and biogeographical filters (
This work was funded by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology, the European Union, QREN, FEDER, COMPETE programmes, by funding the CIBIO/InBIO (project UID/BIA/50027/2020 and POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006821) and PMR (DL57/2016/ICETA/EEC2018/25). We thank the reviewers for their comments and suggestions that helped improve the manuscript.
Vítor Gonçalves and Pedro Miguel Raposeiro conceived the study and carried out the sampling campaign. Identification was done by Julie Camile, Ana Balibrea and Pedro Raposeiro. Pedro Miguel Raposeiro, Ana Balibrea and Catarina Ritter wrote the paper with inputs from all authors. All authors agree with the final version of the manuscript.