Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Paulo A. V. Borges (paulo.av.borges@uac.pt)
Academic editor: Rui Elias
Received: 17 Nov 2022 | Accepted: 15 Dec 2022 | Published: 21 Dec 2022
© 2022 Paulo Borges, Lucas Lamelas-Lopez, Rui Andrade, Sébastien Lhoumeau, Virgílio Vieira, António Soares, Isabel Borges, Mário Boieiro, Pedro Cardoso, Luís Carlos Crespo, Ole Karsholt, Michael Schülke, Artur Serrano, José Alberto Quartau, Volker Assing
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:
Borges PAV, Lamelas-Lopez L, Andrade R, Lhoumeau S, Vieira V, Soares AO, Borges I, Boieiro M, Cardoso P, Crespo LCF, Karsholt O, Schülke M, Serrano ARM, Quartau JA, Assing V (2022) An updated checklist of Azorean arthropods (Arthropoda). Biodiversity Data Journal 10: e97682. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.10.e97682
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The Azores is a remote oceanic archipelago of nine islands which belongs to the Macaronesia biogeographical region hosting a unique biodiversity. The present Azorean landscape is strongly modified by the presence of man and only in small areas, where the soil or climate was too rough, have primitive conditions remained unchanged. Despite the fact that most of the Azorean native habitats are now lost, a large number of endemic species are still present and need urgent conservation. The present checklist of terrestrial and freshwater arthropods of the Azores Archipelago is based on all known published literature. The main goal of this work is to list, as rigorously as possible, all the known terrestrial and freshwater arthropods of the Azores. In this way, we are contributing to solve the ‘Linnaean’ shortfall, i.e. an incomplete taxonomic description of species-level diversity and the Wallacean Biodiversity Shortfall, the incomplete species distribution knowledge.
The checklist includes new records of arthropods at island and archipelago levels that were published in the last twelve years. Compared to the last checklist of Azorean arthropods (
Currently, the total number of terrestrial and freshwater arthropod species and subspecies in the Azores is estimated to be 2420 taxa belonging to 14 classes, 53 orders, 440 families, 1556 genera, 2400 species and 149 individual subspecies.
The most diverse orders of Azorean arthropods are: Coleoptera (585 taxa), Diptera (423 taxa), Hemiptera (338 taxa), Hymenoptera (163 taxa), Lepidoptera (159 taxa) and Araneae (133 taxa).
A total of 276 endemic taxa are currently known (232 species and 44 subspecies), belonging to eight classes and 22 orders. São Miguel, Terceira and Pico are the islands with higher number of endemic species and subspecies. In the Azores, the number of native non-endemic taxa is 793 taxa, totalling 1069 indigenous taxa. Compared to the other nearest Macaronesian archipelagos (Madeira and Canaries), the Azorean arthropod fauna is characterised by a lower percentage of endemism (endemics/indigenous: 26% in Azores, 47% in Madeira Archipelago and 42% in Canary Islands) and a high proportion of exotic introduced taxa (39% in Azores, 19% in Madeira Archipelago and 8% in Canary Islands).
Based on recent IUCN Red-listing of Azorean arthropods, a large fraction of the endemic taxa is under high threat.
Arthropoda, Azores, diversity patterns, Macaronesia
General introduction
In the last years, novel and more effective methodologies to estimate species richness have been developed (
Arthropods play key roles in the ecosystems worldwide (
Given that arthropods play a key role in all terrestrial ecosystems, they should become a priority for conservation aims. Particularly, the conservation efforts should target insular arthropods communities, since islands host high numbers of endangered endemic species (
History of the Azorean arthropod inventories
Before the foundation of the Azorean Biodiversity Group in 2006,
This century, the number of publications, including arthropod species descriptions and new records to islands, has increased considerably. These publications targeted several terrestrial arthropod groups, but particularly Coleoptera (
Over one decade after the latest Azorean checklist of terrestrial arthropods (
The present checklist of terrestrial arthropods of the Azores Archipelago is based on all known published literature (see a list of the published literature until 1992 in
For taxonomic consistency, we evaluated specific data for: Araneae, expert revision by PC and LC using the R package arakno (
For the remaining groups, we compared the nomenclature available in five main taxonomic databases: i) the last Azorean Checklist (
We also made a consultation of GBIF for recent additions and discovered several new species added for Azores, mostly from Museum records and iNaturalist. For now, we do not add these records to the current checklist, but provide the data as a Supplement to this manuscript (Suppl. material
In analytical tables, both in main body of the manuscript and in Supplementary Tables, higher taxa are listed phylogenetically, in a sequence inferred to be from the less to the more derived groups, with closely-related taxa placed near to one another. The families, genera and species names are listed in alphabetical sequence. Synonyms include true synonyms, names resulting from misidentifications and typographical errors. Synonyms can be seen in AZORESBIOPORTAL (https://azoresbioportal.uac.pt/) associated with each species webpage.
Information on the distribution of species and subspecies at island level in the Azores Archipelago is presented using the following abbreviations: COR - Corvo Island; FLO - Flores Island; FAI - Faial Island; PIC - Pico Island; GRA - Graciosa Island; SJG - São Jorge Island; TER - Terceira Island; SMG - São Miguel Island; and SMR - Santa Maria Island.
When no information concerning island occurrence was available, only archipelago occurrence is given (AZ). In most cases, this corresponds to old records, as well as to references to the Azores, as found in “Fauna Europaea”, with no indication to any literature supporting these findings.
Abbreviations of the colonisation status of each species presented in the checklist are as follows:
The native and introduced status of a taxon is only given for the taxa of which there is published information or by taking into consideration the expertise of the taxonomic coordinator.
The Checklist of Azorean Arthropods
Paulo A.V. Borges conceived and coordinated the project.
Many taxonomists contributed with information and shared fieldwork during the last thirty years. The details on these contributions can be seen in the two previous Checklists of Azorean Arthropods (
This work was financed by three main projects:
Azores Islands: COR - Corvo Island; FLO - Flores Island; FAI - Faial Island; PIC - Pico Island; GRA - Graciosa Island; SJG - São Jorge Island; TER - Terceira Island; SMG - São Miguel Island and SMR - Santa Maria Island.
36.77409249464195 and 39.9602803542957 Latitude; -31.39892578125 and -24.85107421875 Longitude.
All terrestrial and freshwater Arthropoda.
The complete list of species and subspecies with the distribution per island is available in Suppl. material
Taxon Dataset in GBIF: The dataset was published in GBIF - Portugal (
Column label | Column description |
---|---|
id | Identifier of the record, unique for the dataset. |
taxonID | Identifier of the taxon, unique for the dataset. |
acceptedNameUsageID | Identifier for the name usage of the currently valid taxon. |
parentNameUsageID | Identifier for the name usage of the direct, most proximate higher-rank parent taxon of the most specific element of the scientificName. |
taxonRemarks | The ABPCODE that connects each species or subspecies to AZORESBIOPORTAL. |
scientificName | Complete scientific name including author and year. |
acceptedNameUsage | Complete scientific name including author and year, of the currently valid taxon. |
parentNameUsage | Complete scientific name including author and year, of the direct, most proximate higher-rank parent taxon of the most specific element of the scientificName. |
kingdom | Kingdom name. |
phylum | Phylum name. |
class | Class name. |
order | Order name. |
family | Family name. |
genus | Genus name. |
specificEpithet | Specific epithet. |
infraspecificEpithet | Infrapecific epithet. |
taxonRank | Lowest taxonomic rank of the record. |
taxonomicStatus | The status of the use of the scientificName as a label for a taxon. |
scientificNameAuthorship | Name of the author of the lowest taxon rank included in the record. |
modified | The most recent date-time on which the resource was changed. |
nomenclaturalCode | The nomenclatural code under which the scientificName is constructed (ICNZ in the current case). |
language | The language of the resource. |
licence | Legal information giving official permission to do something with the resource. |
rightsHolder | Institution owning or managing rights over the resource. |
datasetID | Identifier of the dataset. |
institutionID | Identifier of the institution. |
institutionCode | Name of the institution. |
datasetName | Name of the dataset. |
The complete list of species and subspecies with the distribution per island is available in Suppl. material
Distribution Dataset in GBIF: The dataset was published in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility platform, GBIF (
Column label | Column description |
---|---|
taxonID | Identifier of the taxon, unique for the dataset. |
identificationRemarks | The ABPCODE that connects each species or subspecies to AZORESBIOPORTAL. |
locality | Name of the locality. |
locationID | Identifier of the location. |
establishmentMeans | The process of establishment of the species in the location, using a controlled vocabulary: in the GBIF database, we used the notation: 'endemic', 'native', "Macaronesia", 'introduced', "migrant", "indeterminate". |
occurrenceRemarks | Additional information on the occurrence of the species. |
Checklist of Azorean terrestrial and freshwater arthropods
Species richness patterns
A total of 2420 taxa of terrestrial and freshwater arthropods are listed for the Azores, belonging to 14 classes and 53 orders (Fig.
In comparison with other Macaronesian archipelagos, Azores has the lowest arthropod diversity, a consequence of the combination of several factors, namely: i) recent geological age (a larger fraction of the terrain has less than 1 My); ii) very homogeneous landscape with low habitat diversity; and iii) geographical isolation (see
The most diverse orders of Azorean terrestrial and freshwater arthropods belong to the Insecta and Arachnida (Fig.
Endemism patterns
Oceanic islands frequently harbour lower number of species per unit area in comparison with the mainland, but the proportion of endemic taxa is, in general, higher in the former (
In the case of the Azores, a total of 276 endemic taxa (232 species and 44 subspecies) occur in the Archipelago (Fig.
Concerning the number and proportion of Single Island Endemics (SIE), i.e. the endemic species restricted to a single island, from a total of 122 SIEs, São Miguel and Santa Maria host the larger proportion in relation to the total endemics per island, which is explained by their older geological ages (
In terms of endemic species, Azores Archipelago also harbours lower number of species in comparison with the other Macaronesian archipelagos (276 endemic taxa;
The most diverse orders, in terms of endemic species and subspecies, were Coleoptera (80 taxa), Diptera (48 taxa), Lepidoptera (40 taxa), Sarcoptiformes (27 taxa) and Araneae (26 taxa) (Suppl. material
Finally, some arthropod genera contain a high number of endemic taxa (four or more species and subspecies). Coleoptera genera with higher number of endemic taxa include Tarphius (12 taxa), Drouetius (nine taxa), Trechus (nine taxa) and Calathus (four taxa) (
IUCN Red List Assessments
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List provides data to inform on the health of the world’s biodiversity. It is a powerful tool to provide information and catalyse action for biodiversity conservation and policy change, critical to protecting natural resources. The IUCN Red List for threatened species identifies the conservation status of species including their extinction risk and simultaneously provides information on the health of local to global biodiversity. The IUCN assessments attribute a Red List category to a species following the application of specific criteria and provide information about its range, population sizes, description of habitat and ecology, main threats and conservation actions needed. The use of this valuable information may allow the implementation of more precise, efficient and effective conservation actions and drive policy changes, focused to protect the natural resources and biodiversity.
In the Azores, a total of 260 species were assessed during the last decade (see http://www.maiisg.com), mainly in the last five years. A summary of the IUCN Red List profiles are available for 54 Coleoptera (
Most of the assessed species are endemic; however, assessments were also performed for five native and three introduced species, although their category is “Least Concern” (Fig.
Native forests are the most important habitats for endemic arthropods of the Azores (around 64% of species depend on them: Fig.
Invasive plant species and habitat transformation by exotic tree plantations are some of main threats to native landscapes and endemic species in the archipelago (e.g.
Number of recorded total taxa (species and subspecies) in the Azorean checklists of 2005 (
Taxonomic group | Mumber of taxa (species and subspecies) | ||||
Subphylum | Class | Order | 2005 | 2010 | 2022 |
Chelicerata | Arachnida | Araneae | 121 | 124 | 133 |
Ixodida | 11 | 10 | 11 | ||
Mesostigmata | 24 | 23 | 24 | ||
Opiliones | 2 | 3 | 3 | ||
Pseudoscorpiones | 8 | 10 | 10 | ||
Sarcoptiformes | 113 | 110 | 129 | ||
Trombidiformes | 17 | 19 | 19 | ||
Crustacea | Branchiopoda | Anomopoda | 9 | 9 | 9 |
Ctenopoda | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Haplopoda | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Hexanauplia | Calanoida | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
Cyclopoida | 11 | 11 | 11 | ||
Harpacticoida | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
Ichthyostraca | Arguloida | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Malacostraca | Amphipoda | 14 | 13 | 13 | |
Decapoda | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Isopoda | 39 | 32 | 32 | ||
Ostracoda | Podocopida | 14 | 14 | 14 | |
Myriapoda | Chilopoda | Geophilomorpha | 6 | 6 | 6 |
Lithobiomorpha | 6 | 6 | 6 | ||
Scolopendromorpha | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Scutigeromorpha | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Diplopoda | Chordeumatida | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Julida | 12 | 12 | 12 | ||
Polydesmida | 8 | 8 | 8 | ||
Polyxenida | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Pauropoda | Tetramerocerata | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Symphyla | Symphyla | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
Hexapoda | Collembola | Entomobryomorpha | 43 | 45 | 48 |
Neelipleona | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
Poduromorpha | 26 | 26 | 26 | ||
Symphypleona | 21 | 21 | 24 | ||
Diplura | Diplura | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
Protura | Protura | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
Insecta | Archaeognatha | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Blattodea | 7 | 6 | 11 | ||
Coleoptera | 528 | 531 | 585 | ||
Dermaptera | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||
Diptera | 393 | 406 | 428 | ||
Ephemeroptera | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Hemiptera | 304 | 306 | 338 | ||
Hymenoptera | 131 | 128 | 163 | ||
Lepidoptera | 149 | 151 | 159 | ||
Neuroptera | 7 | 7 | 7 | ||
Odonata | 4 | 4 | 7 | ||
Orthoptera | 14 | 15 | 16 | ||
Phasmida | 1 | 2 | 2 | ||
Psocodea | 36 | 36 | 55 | ||
Siphonaptera | 15 | 15 | 15 | ||
Strepsiptera | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Thysanoptera | 47 | 49 | 49 | ||
Trichoptera | 4 | 3 | 5 | ||
Zygentoma | 3 | 3 | 3 | ||
TOTAL | 2187 | 2203 | 2420 |
Number of recorded endemic taxa (species and subspecies) in the Azorean checklists of 2005 (
Taxonomic group | Number of endemic taxa (species and subspecies) | ||||
Subphylum | Class | Order | 2005 | 2010 | 2022 |
Chelicerata | Arachnida | Araneae | 23 | 22 | 26 |
Pseudoscorpiones | 3 | 2 | 2 | ||
Sarcoptiformes | 27 | 27 | 27 | ||
Crustacea | Hexanauplia | Cyclopoida | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Malacostraca | Amphipoda | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Isopoda | 7 | 2 | 2 | ||
Myriapoda | Chilopoda | Lithobiomorpha | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Diplopoda | Polydesmida | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Pauropoda | Tetramerocerata | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
Hexapoda | Collembola | Entomobryomorpha | 2 | 2 | 2 |
Poduromorpha | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Insecta | Archaeognatha | 2 | 2 | 2 | |
Coleoptera | 66 | 72 | 80 | ||
Diptera | 52 | 48 | 48 | ||
Hemiptera | 18 | 19 | 18 | ||
Hymenoptera | 11 | 9 | 11 | ||
Lepidoptera | 38 | 37 | 40 | ||
Neuroptera | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Orthoptera | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Psocodea | 2 | 2 | 2 | ||
Thysanoptera | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
Trichoptera | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
TOTAL | 267 | 260 | 276 |
Future perspectives
Currently, we are conducting a long-term monitoring of Azorean arthopods in native forests (see
The preservation of the unique biodiversity of the Azores Archipelago is critical and, with this new list of the Azorean arthropod biodiversity, we hope to provide a stimulating context for the learning about biodiversity and to foster collaboration amongst taxonomists and ecologists interested in island ecosystems. In addition, we believe that this work will contribute to support further research and conservation actions aiming to preserve the diversity of the Azores and hope that it will also help all those needing details on the taxonomy and nomenclature of the Azorean arthropods.
This work is dedicated to all those who, in the last decades, were committed in the study of the Azorean biodiversity. We are particularly grateful to all students and colleagues who contributed with information and shared fieldwork during the last thirty years.
We dedicate also this work to Volker Assing, our friend and colleague, an outstanding scientist and a wonderful person. He impressed with his inexhaustible energy, amazing capacity for work, encyclopaedic knowledge and love of life. The best expert on many complex groups of Staphylinidae has left us, our scientific community has been orphaned.
The University of the Azores supported most of the research work of many authors of this manuscript and deserves a special mention as the institution that performs the most relevant research activities in biodiversity in the Azores.
This work was financed by three main projects: FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024; FEDER - AZORESBIOPORTAL –PORBIOTA (ACORES-01-0145-FEDER-000072) and Portal da Biodiversidade dos Açores (2022-2023) - PO Azores Project - M1.1.A/INFRAEST CIENT/001/2022.
MB was supported by FCT - DL57/2016/CP1375/CT0001. Open access was funded by the project FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024 (Thematic Line 1 – integrated ecological assessment of environmental change on biodiversity).
PAVB: Conceptualisation; Methodology; Research (field and laboratory work); Resources; Taxonomic revision; Data Curation; Darwin Core dataset preparation; Formal analysis and interpretation; Manuscript writing.
LLL: Laboratory work; Manuscript writing; Formal analysis and interpretation.
RA: Laboratory work; Data Curation; Taxonomic revision.
SL: Laboratory work; Data Curation; Darwin Core dataset preparation.
All the remaining authors participated in Taxonomic revision, Data interpretation and manuscript revision.
Detailed list of of species recorded in GBIF mostly from Natural History Museums and iNaturalist. In addition to the taxonomy details, we include information on type of record (Preserved specimen, Human observation), the name of the recorder person, the link for the GBIF identifier as occurrenceID, the person that identified the species and date, the island of occurrence and the dataset.
Information on the distribution of species and subspecies at island level in the Azores Archipelago is presented using the following abbreviations: ABPCODE: Code of the taxon in AZORESBIOPORTAL; COR - Corvo Island; FLO - Flores Island; FAI - Faial Island; PIC - Pico Island; GRA - Graciosa Island; SJG - São Jorge Island; TER - Terceira Island; SMG - São Miguel Island; and SMR - Santa Maria Island. When no information concerning island occurrence was available, only archipelago occurrence is given (AZ). In most cases, this corresponds to old records, as well as to references to the Azores, as found in “Fauna Europaea”, with no connection to any literature supporting these findings. Abbreviations of the colonisation status of each species presented in the checklist are as follows: END – Azorean endemics, i.e. species or subspecies occurring only in the Azores, as a result of either speciation events (neo-endemics) or extinction of the mainland populations (palaeo-endemics); MAC – Macaronesian endemic species, i.e. species only known from Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canaries and Cabo Verde Islands); NAT – native non-endemic species, i.e. species which arrived by long-distance dispersal in the Azores and which also occur in other archipelagos and/or on continents; M – migrant species, i.e. butterflies, moths and dragonflies which arrived to the Azores by long-distance dispersal, such as migratory flights, periodically (seasonal migrants) or occasionally (non-seasonal migrants); some of them establish breeding populations (e.g. Monarch butterfly); INTR – introduced species, i.e. species believed to occur in the Archipelago as a result of human activities; some of these species have a worldwide distribution; INDT – indeterminate, i.e. species for which no information is available to decide on the correct colonisation status.
GBIF Darwin Core Dataset - Taxon data.
GBIF Darwin Core Dataset - Distribution data.
Table compiling the total taxa (species and subspecies) of terrestrial arthropods in the Azores Archipelago (AZ), for the islands of Corvo (COR), Flores (FLO), Faial (FAI), Pico (PIC), Graciosa (GRA), São Jorge (SJG), Terceira (TER), São Miguel (SMG) and Santa Maria (SMR).
Table compiling the endemic taxa (species and subspecies) of terrestrial arthropods in the Azores Archipelago (AZ), for the islands of Corvo (COR), Flores (FLO), Faial (FAI), Pico (PIC), Graciosa (GRA), São Jorge (SJG), Terceira (TER), São Miguel (SMG) and Santa Maria (SMR).