At least 25 ant taxa had been reported from Kamchatka in publications extending back more than a century, but the historical lists disagreed about which species were present. The researchers reviewed 14 literature sources containing substantial information about ants in the region and divided records into two reliability categories. Twelve species were classified as reliable because they were supported by at least two independent sources, including sources published within the previous two decades. These species belonged to four genera: Camponotus, Formica, Leptothorax and Myrmica.

The other 13 reported species and the genus Lasius were classified as questionable. Their records came from either single or dated sources and were contradicted by more recent work. The study noted that disagreements in older lists could reflect incorrect collection information, taxonomic revisions or misidentifications, but the evidence did not establish which explanation applied to each disputed record.

Manual fieldwork in 2016 at eight localities found nine ant species from sea level to approximately 1,000 metres above sea level. The ants occurred in lowland meadows, stone birch forests, larch and birch forests and the dwarf-pine zone. No ants were observed in alpine tundra or plantless habitat above 1,200 metres. Larch and birch forests at intermediate elevations contained the largest number of species, whereas low-elevation stone birch forests contained only three observed species. Among the nine field-collected taxa, three had Holarctic, three trans-Palearctic and three East Palearctic distributions.

For the genetic component, the researchers generated mitochondrial COI barcodes for 47 specimens and combined them with 10 previously published sequences, producing a dataset of 57 sequenced specimens. High-quality barcodes distinguished all nine species with a clear barcode gap. Interspecific raw genetic distances ranged from 2.3% between Formica candida and F. gagatoides to 22.5% between Camponotus herculeanus and Leptothorax acervorum.

Genetic variation within most species was low. Six of the nine species had only one COI haplotype, while Formica lemani and Myrmica displicentia had two each. L. acervorum was the exception: its seven sequenced specimens each had a different haplotype, two haplogroups were detected, and within-species raw distances ranged from 0.15% to 2.13%. One specimen belonged to a haplogroup previously known only from North America. The authors presented a long-term refuge in Kamchatka and long-distance dispersal of the species’ small sexual castes as possible explanations, not established causes.

Comparisons with the Barcoding of Life Data System showed that every Kamchatka haplotype except one had not been recorded elsewhere in the database at the time of the analysis. The exception was the sole haplotype found in Formica lugubris, which also occurred in Finland. Closely related sequences were found for the three Holarctic species in North America, or in both Europe and North America, indicating a closer genetic association across Beringia than between western and eastern Palearctic populations for those taxa. By contrast, the East Asian Myrmica species M. displicentia and M. kamtschatica had their closest available matches in unidentified Myrmica specimens from the Russian Far East.

A separate morphometric analysis examined 110 Formica specimens to determine whether Kamchatka workers that resembled F. fusca or F. lemani represented one or both species. The analysis included 34 Kamchatka workers, 33 European F. lemani and 43 European F. fusca. A published discriminant placed the Kamchatka workers between the European reference groups: 68% produced negative values, as European F. fusca, and 32% produced positive values, as European F. lemani. These values were results of the composite discriminant and did not directly measure the presence or absence of pronotal setae.

The study classified the Kamchatka ants as F. lemani, with the qualification that a future treatment of the taxa as one species would give priority to the older name F. fusca. Specimens assigned to both morphologies occurred in the same nests, and no nest contained only workers with the F. lemani pattern. All but one sequenced colony shared the same COI haplotype, while the remaining sequence differed by one nucleotide, or 0.15%. All three available Kamchatka gynes had discriminant values and a shiny first tergite consistent with F. lemani; in F. fusca, that tergite is covered by dense pubescence and appears matt. Two of the gynes shared nests with workers assigned the F. fusca pattern. Previous work using nuclear microsatellites, mitochondrial COI and Cyt-b had also not separated the two taxa, leaving their taxonomic relationship unresolved.

The authors cautioned that the checklist of 12 reliable species is conservative because Kamchatka is large and most of it remains poorly explored. The study was also geographically and temporally limited: field sampling covered eight localities in one year, while the DNA analysis represented nine species and 57 specimens. Its clearest conclusions are therefore the separation of reliable from questionable records, documentation of nine species across the sampled habitats, the distinct barcodes among those nine taxa and the limited genetic diversity observed within most of them.

Subject of Research: Taxonomic, ecological and mitochondrial genetic assessment of ants in Kamchatka

Article Title: Ants of Kamchatka: checklist, DNA-barcoding and key ( Hymenoptera , Formicidae )

Article References: Schär, S. (2024). Ants of Kamchatka: checklist, DNA-barcoding and key (Hymenoptera, Formicidae). Alpine Entomology, 8, 19-28. https://doi.org/10.3897/alpento.8.114185

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/alpento.8.114185

Keywords: Kamchatka ants, species checklist, DNA barcoding, COI haplotypes, Formica taxonomy, Leptothorax acervorum, Myrmica, ant biogeography, field survey, Ants, Kamchatka, checklist

The Urban Biodiversity Project surveyed six sites within the city’s Municipal Ecological Green Belt, or Cinturón Ecológico Municipal, from August through November 2023. The sites were Guatemala Country Club, Pamplona Ecological Park, Jungla Urbana Ecological Park, Los Montañistas Park, Siwan Raxché Ecological Park and La Península Municipal Plant Nursery. The survey was based on the IUCN Urban Nature Indexes.

Researchers made observations during morning and night hours to search for vertebrates and actively collected invertebrates and plants. Target animal groups included diurnal Lepidoptera, arachnids, bees and wasps, birds, reptiles and amphibians. Field methods comprised transect surveys, entomological nets, round plots for vegetation and non-systematic sampling. Preserved specimens were deposited in the USCG Herbarium and the Biological Collections of the School of Biology at Universidad de San Carlos in Guatemala City.

The researchers also consulted the Guatemala Biodiversity Portal and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility for records from literature, preserved specimens and observations. They selected records with voucher specimens and ancillary data, used only research-grade iNaturalist records and verified entries, discarding records with incorrect identifications or locations. Previous studies were also reviewed to compile species records within Guatemala City’s municipal limits.

Information from biodiversity portals and specialized scientific literature was used to classify species as native, migratory or introduced. Protection and extinction-risk status was identified from CITES, the IUCN Red List and Guatemala’s List of Threatened Species, known as LEA. Records were organized using Darwin Core fields, while scientific names were curated against the Guatemalan Catalog of Taxonomic Authorities for vertebrates and the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy for other groups.

The resulting checklist contained 463 invertebrate species in 112 families, 348 vertebrate species in 77 families, 90 fungal species in 29 families and 787 plant species in 132 families. Researchers observed or collected 308 species, or 18% of the checklist, during the 2023 surveys. A further 694 species, representing 41% of the total, were represented only by observation records, including 173 arthropods that are often difficult to identify without specimens.

At least 113 species, or 7% of the documented total, had some degree of protection or extinction risk under international or national lists. Thirty-two of these were observed or collected during the field survey. The recorded examples included the yellow-naped Amazon, Amazona auropalliata, classified as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and Endangered on the LEA; Bombus mexicanus, classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN and included on the LEA; and the lizard Corytophanes percarinatus and butterflies Catasticta nimbice and Dircenna klugii, each classified as Endangered on the LEA.

The checklist has clear limits because it synthesizes records generated by the field project, earlier studies and digital biodiversity platforms rather than providing a definitive count of the city’s species. At least 20 species recorded by earlier work in the Municipal Ecological Green Belt were not found during the Urban Biodiversity Project or on biodiversity platforms. The authors note that earlier studies used methods targeting different groups, including dung-beetle sampling and Sherman-type traps for small mammals, as well as a greater sampling effort and areas outside municipal limits. They do not establish why those species were absent from the new records.

The field survey itself was restricted in duration, did not cover every taxonomic group and omitted some green spaces, including cemeteries, gardens and plazas. The authors also note that many specimens in national natural-history collections remain inaccessible digitally, so consulting physical collections remains important. Community-science platforms such as iNaturalist and eBird complement field sampling by documenting conspicuous groups, while specimen collection and examination support more accurate identification of difficult taxa. The project’s results were used to estimate Urban Nature Indexes used in monitoring and evaluating conservation measures and the impact of consumption at the city level.

Subject of Research: Urban biodiversity checklist for Guatemala City based on field surveys and digital records

Article Title: Contribution to the knowledge of urban biodiversity in Central America: A checklist to the species of Guatemala City

Article References: Castillo-Cabrera, F. J., Roldán, R. A., Barrios, M., Burgos-Barrios, C. L., Grajeda, A. L., García, M. J., Cruz, H., Morales-Mérida, J. R., Tenez, D., Vásquez, M., Agreda, E. O., Velásquez, I., Eufragio, A., Barahona-Fong, R., Yurrita, C. L., & Orellana, K. S. (2025). Contribution to the knowledge of urban biodiversity in Central America: A checklist to the species of Guatemala City. Neotropical Biology and Conservation, 20(1), 59-66. https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.20.e135435

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neotropical.20.e135435

Keywords: urban biodiversity, Guatemala City, species checklist, biodiversity surveys, Municipal Ecological Green Belt, iNaturalist, GBIF, CITES, IUCN Red List, conservation status, Contribution, knowledge

The authors compiled records from published catalogues, Red Lists, other literature, Palaearctic catalogues, GBIF and additional online databases. They also examined arthropod holdings at the Natural History Museum of Crete, the Laboratory of Forest Entomology collection at the Forest Research Institute, and a private collection. Existing European and Mediterranean assessments guided the initial selection of species, after which the saproxylic status of Greek members of genera containing saproxylic species was checked separately. The synthesis was a review and national catalogue rather than a new field survey, so its totals reflect the evidence available to the authors across historical and modern sources.

Saproxylic beetles are defined here as species dependent on dead or dying wood, wood-rotting fungi or other organisms associated with decaying wood. The authors assigned broad trophic categories principally from the framework used in the Italian Red List, with some simplifications. Where published information was unavailable, a category was inferred from the typical ecology of the relevant genus, an approach that introduces uncertainty for some poorly studied species. Endemic species were assigned to nine broad Greek regions, with those restricted to one administrative division treated as local endemics and those recorded in two or more divisions treated as more widely distributed endemics.

Xylophagous species formed the largest trophic group, with 632 species, followed by saproxylophagous species with 254, mycetophagous species with 246 and predatory species with 231. Seventy species had no trophic assignment, while 84 were classified as having trophic flexibility across more than one category. The paper notes that trophic classification within saproxylic beetles is debated and that assignments for some species remain uncertain.

Endemism was concentrated in southern Greece. The checklist identifies 112 endemic species, representing 7.2% of the 1,548 recorded species, with Cerambycidae and Ptinidae containing the largest numbers, at 21 endemic species each. Crete contained 32 endemic species and the Peloponnese 36, including 26 endemics restricted to Crete and 22 to the Peloponnese. The authors associate Crete’s distinctive fauna with the island’s long-term isolation, dating back approximately 5.5 million years. They identify Pleistocene glacial refugia, mountain isolation and habitat specialisation as possible contributors to the Peloponnesian pattern, but the underlying ecological mechanisms remain uncertain.

Conservation assessments remain incomplete. Of the 1,548 species, 867 had not been assessed in either the European or Greek Red Lists. Among 681 assessed species, 42 were classified as threatened: one Critically Endangered species, 24 Endangered and 17 Vulnerable. Another 457 were Least Concern, 62 Near Threatened and 119 Data Deficient. After invasive and Data Deficient species were excluded, the threatened proportion was 7.5%, compared with 17.9% for Europe. The authors caution that the Greek assessment included many common, widespread and mobile species in families such as Buprestidae and Curculionidae, which can lower the overall proportion classified as threatened.

Endemic species had a less favourable assessed profile. Of 45 assessed endemics, 64%, after correction for Data Deficient species, were classified as threatened, compared with 36.6% in the European assessment and 53% in the Mediterranean assessment. The authors note that many endemics are known from only a few localities or their type locality, so assessments based heavily on distribution data may overestimate their risk. More broadly, the scarcity of taxonomic, distributional and ecological information limits interpretation for both endemic and unassessed species.

Land-use change was the main group of pressures identified in the Greek Red List assessments. These included housing and urban development, roads and railways, crop production, livestock farming, logging, tourism and recreational activities, fire, renewable-energy development, tree plantations, invasive organisms, climate change and pesticide or herbicide use. Species can be associated with more than one pressure, so totals for individual threat categories exceed the number of threatened species. The loss of old trees and dead wood was a particular concern, including the documented association between carob trees and the endangered endemic longhorn beetle Trichoferus bergeri. National data on dead-wood volume remain sparse.

The review identifies Crete, the Peloponnese, Pindos, Olympos and the Aegean as priorities for surveys, alongside work on less-studied beetle groups, species classified as Not Evaluated or Data Deficient, population genetics, species-distribution modelling and open databases. The authors also recommend measuring the effects of logging, wildfire, agricultural intensification and climate- or land-use-driven distribution shifts. Among 22 native species classified as threatened in the Greek Red List, 20 were reported within the Natura 2000 network, one was outside it and the distribution of the remaining species was insufficiently known.

Subject of Research: A review and first national checklist of saproxylic beetle diversity, endemism and conservation status in Greece

Article Title: Saproxylic beetles ( Insecta , Coleoptera ) of Greece: A synthesis of diversity, biogeography and conservation challenges, with the first national checklist

Article References: Bolanakis, G., Avtzis, D., Németh, T., Kundrata, R., Háva, J., Kaltsidis, A., Makris, C., Maroulis, L., & Trichas, A. (2026). Saproxylic beetles (Insecta, Coleoptera) of Greece: A synthesis of diversity, biogeography and conservation challenges, with the first national checklist. Frontiers of Biogeography, 19, Article e177299. https://doi.org/10.21425/fob.19.177299

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.21425/fob.19.177299

Keywords: saproxylic beetles, Greece, species checklist, biodiversity, endemism, conservation status, Red List, dead wood, trophic guilds, Natura 2000, Saproxylic, beetles

The study was based on the database of the Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, described as the country’s most important scientific organization working on arthropods. Its holdings include books, research articles and annual congress proceedings archived since 1946. The reviewer also consulted two comprehensive works on mantids and searched Google in English and Persian using “Mantodea,” “mantis,” “Iran” and “Persia.” The assembled names and records were adjusted to the nomenclature and classification given in the Mantodea Species File and relevant recent publications, including Shcherbakov and Savitsky (2015) and Villani (2020).

Synonyms that reflected changes in classification across languages and time were consolidated before the national list was compiled. Information on global distribution was compiled by combining local and regional range maps published by previous researchers. This comparison was central to the study’s filtering process.

For approximately 80% of the 57 reported species, the source literature identified a type locality in a particular area, city or province. Nevertheless, a precise locality does not by itself establish that a specimen was correctly identified. The author therefore compared each Iranian report with the species’ recognized range and considered whether similar mantids already documented in Iran could have been confused with the reported taxon.

Based on those geographic and taxonomic comparisons, 18 records were placed in a separate category of species likely misidentified in the primary literature: Ameles decolor, Ameles heldreichi, Ameles picteti, Ameles spallanzania, Elaea marchali, Empusa pennata, Eremiaphila andresi, Eremiaphila cerisy, Eremiaphila turcica, Geomantis larvoides larvoides, Iris coeca, Iris pitcheri, Oxyothespis wagneri, Pareuthyphlebs palmonii, Pseudoyersinia paui, Rivetina baetica baetica, Severinia nigrofasciata and Severinia turcomaniae. The evidence against them differed. Ameles decolor, for example, has no confirmed Asian record in the cited range literature, while its proposed Iranian locality is separated from its easternmost Adriatic distribution.

Ameles picteti and Pseudoyersinia paui were likewise recorded in the review as western Mediterranean or Spanish species without confirmed records outside those regions. Other doubtful names had recognized distributions in North Africa, the Mediterranean, the Arabian Peninsula, Central Asia or more distant parts of the Middle East. The 39-species list with a high degree of certainty is distributed across nine families, with Rivetinidae contributing the most species at nine and Eremiaphilidae following with eight.

Mantidae accounts for six, Empusidae and Gonypetidae each contribute four, Amelidae and Toxoderidae each contain three, and Nanomantidae and Amorphoscelidae are represented by one species apiece. The list includes taxa reported from widely separated parts of Iran. Mantis religiosa, for example, has records from northern, western, central, eastern and southern provinces, while Empusa pennicornis appears in records from numerous provinces and the Iranian islands of the Persian Gulf.

Iran provides an unusual combination of environmental and biogeographic conditions relevant to mantid diversity. The country spans Mediterranean conditions in the south, arid West Asian climates in the east and west, and temperate humid or semi-humid conditions in the Caspian region to the north. The Palearctic, Eremic and Oriental biogeographical regions meet there, supporting a broad range of arthropod diversity.

Ancient rock art on the Persian Plateau depicts mantids, and the source also records their use in traditional medicine. These cultural associations are historical rather than findings of the checklist, but they show the long-standing presence of mantids in Iranian environments and human life. The review identifies substantial gaps in the geographical record.

Systematic mantid surveys appear never to have occurred in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad, Qazvin or Zanjan in western Iran. The western half of the country includes the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges, which have been described as cradles of distinctive floristic and faunistic diversity. Iran also has 17 recognized ecoregions, including marginal ecoregions that the author says were not considered in earlier studies.

These are documented gaps in systematic coverage, not evidence that mantid populations are absent from particular provinces. The review’s central limitation is therefore the uneven and incomplete nature of the available records. Museum collections may help resolve some of that uncertainty, although the study emphasizes their need for careful curation.

The Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum, or HMIM, contains more than four million insect specimens and limits access to voucher material to reduce the risk of accidental destruction or loss. The author reports that some specimens in other local institutions are poorly preserved and vulnerable. At least 35 mantid specimens likely housed in HMIM should be included in future work on Iranian Mantodea.

This combination of a major national repository and uneven preservation elsewhere demonstrates why the checklist is not simply a compilation of names: each entry depends on records whose accuracy and documentation can vary. The study’s broader conclusion is that Iran’s mantid fauna remains insufficiently documented. The author estimates that the recorded diversity represents approximately 2% of globally identified mantids, while noting Iran’s large area, limited information on its invertebrate community and potential for additional taxa.

This estimate describes the proportion represented by current records, not a prediction that exactly twice the number will be found. The proposed checklist supplies that research context by distinguishing high-certainty entries from records requiring verification, while making clear that systematic fieldwork and renewed examination of preserved material are still needed to determine Iran’s actual mantid diversity.

Subject of Research: A literature-based national checklist of praying mantis species documented in Iran.

Article Title: Mantodea of Iran: A review-based study

Article References: Kolnegari, M. (2023). Mantodea of Iran: A review-based study. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 32(2), 177-188. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.32.97388

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jor.32.97388

Keywords: Mantodea, Iran, praying mantises, species checklist, taxonomy, entomology, Iranian fauna, biogeography, museum collections, ecoregions, review-based, scientific research

The research team assembled the list from four independent sources of evidence. Field surveys ran from October 2022 to March 2023, with four researchers conducting visual encounter surveys at seven lagoons and along transects between water bodies and the Llano Blanco Stream, totaling 223 hours of searching per person. These observations were cross-checked against voucher specimens held in four Argentine herpetological collections, decades of published scientific literature, and online biodiversity databases including iNaturalist, Ecoregistros, GBIF, and the IUCN Red List. Records whose photographs could not be confidently identified were discarded, a filtering step that lends the final list a conservative weight.

The results show a fauna dominated by lizards, which account for 61 percent of confirmed species, followed by anurans at 28 percent and snakes at 11 percent. Reptiles fall into six families, while amphibians belong to three. The richest assemblages were found near the lagoons, where rocky shores and wet meadows known as mallines create a mosaic of microhabitats in an otherwise arid landscape. Lizards of the genera Liolaemus and Phymaturus, the signature groups of Patagonian reptile diversity, were found basking on basaltic walls and sheltering under peripheral rocks, while species such as Liolaemus bibronii and L. sagei favored sandy substrates among shrubby grassland.

Not every species on the list was seen alive during the surveys. Fieldwork confirmed only 12 of the 18 species, with the remainder documented through museum specimens, literature, and databases. The researchers also flagged six additional species as probable occupants, based on IUCN distribution maps extending to within 100 kilometers of the park and on similarity of habitat. Among these candidates are two more lizards, a worm lizard of the genus Amphisbaena, and three snakes, including the xeric-steppe specialist Tachymenis trigonatus. Confirming their presence will require sampling in other seasons and in sites the surveys did not reach.

The taxonomic housekeeping embedded in the new checklist is itself scientifically significant. Earlier compilations, most notably a 2005 list of reptiles in Argentina’s national parks, contained species now known to have been misidentified. The lizards once recorded as Diplolaemus darwinii, Liolaemus boulengeri, and Phymaturus palluma, among others, correspond to different species: D. sexcinctus, L. sagei, and P. querque respectively. Two species, Liolaemus purul and Phymaturus querque, were described from within the park only after that earlier list was compiled. Such corrections matter because conservation decisions rest on knowing exactly which species occupy which territories.

The conservation picture that emerges is sobering. Five of the 18 confirmed species, 28 percent of the total, carry a threat category on national or international red lists. Three reptiles, Pristidactylus araucanus, Phymaturus querque, and Phymaturus zapalensis, are listed as Vulnerable nationally, while the amphibians Atelognathus patagonicus and A. praebasalticus are classified as Critically Endangered and Endangered globally. Seven taxa, nearly 40 percent of the park’s herpetofauna, are designated Species of Vertebrates of Special Value by Argentina’s national parks administration, a status reflecting threat, endemism, or scarcity within the protected-area system.

The genus Phymaturus deserves particular attention. Every species in this Argentine lineage is listed as vulnerable nationally, a consequence of a highly specialized biology: the lizards are saxicolous, living on rocks, viviparous, giving birth to live young, and herbivorous, a combination that makes them sensitive to habitat disturbance and slow to recover from population losses. Laguna Blanca National Park shelters two of these species, and prior research on their thermal biology and reproduction has been conducted with individuals captured inside the park. The authors note that population assessments within park boundaries remain lacking.

The amphibian story carries the sharpest warning. Atelognathus patagonicus, an endemic frog of the basaltic lagoons of central-west Neuquén, once thrived in Laguna Blanca itself, the largest and only permanent water body in the area. From 1986 onward it vanished from that lagoon, a decline traced to successive introductions of invasive fish, mostly perch, which brought habitat loss, competition, and predation. Clinical signs of ranavirus and the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, two pathogens implicated in amphibian declines worldwide, have also been recorded in this species. The frog survives in smaller, disconnected lagoons within the park, but its main sub-population is gone from the water body that gives the park its name.

These pressures persist even inside protected boundaries. Livestock trample lagoon shores and drink from the water, degrading precisely the habitats where herpetofaunal diversity peaks. Prolonged droughts, intensified by climate change, threaten the shallow lagoons that are fed by underground infiltration and prone to desiccation. The park has fenced some lagoons, including Batea, Verde, and Antiñir, but cattle sometimes breach the barriers, the researchers observed. Ecological restoration of Laguna Blanca through continuous fishing of invasive fish stands as a primary objective of the current management plan, and the authors recommend stronger control of livestock activity as a complementary measure.

The study also reframes the park’s significance. Although it is the second smallest of Patagonia’s 17 national parks, it harbors roughly 20 percent of the reptile and snake species and 30 percent of the amphibian species recorded in Neuquén Province. Of about 50 lizard species in the province, 12 are protected within the park. It is the first herpetofaunal checklist for any national park in Patagonia, and no provincial list yet exists for Neuquén. Comparison with the Auca Mahuida Natural Protected Area, some 200 kilometers away, shows only four shared reptile species, underscoring how distinctive the park’s assemblage is. As the authors emphasize, checklists are dynamic snapshots of knowledge, and this one provides the baseline from which future monitoring, taxonomic revisions, and conservation actions for Patagonia’s most imperiled frogs and lizards can proceed.

Subject of Research: Herpetofauna inventory and conservation status of Laguna Blanca National Park in Argentine Patagonia

Article Title: Herpetofauna of Laguna Blanca National Park, Argentinean Patagonia: species list and conservation status

Article References: Rolón, M. C. J., Vera, D. G., De Los Santos, F. L., Harkes, M., Tettamanti, G., Calvo, R., Di Pietro, D. O., Velasco, M. A., Avila, L. J., Williams, J. D., & Kacoliris, F. P. (2024). Herpetofauna of Laguna Blanca National Park, Argentinean Patagonia: species list and conservation status. Neotropical Biology and Conservation, 19(1), 35-50. https://doi.org/10.3897/neotropical.19.e115561

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neotropical.19.e115561

Keywords: herpetofauna, Laguna Blanca National Park, Patagonia, reptiles, amphibians, endemic species, Liolaemus, Phymaturus, Atelognathus patagonicus, conservation status, invasive species, species checklist

Centipedes are among the most successful predatory soil invertebrates on Earth. These elongated, flattened creatures spend their days hidden beneath stones, bark, and leaf litter, emerging at night to hunt smaller invertebrates with venomous forcipules — modified legs that function as pincers. Their cryptozoic lifestyle means they are rarely seen in daylight, yet they occupy an extraordinary range of biomes, from humid forests to arid deserts. Despite their ecological importance as top predators in soil food webs, centipedes in many regions remain poorly documented, and Georgia is a prime example of this knowledge gap.

The scientific history of Georgian centipede research stretches back to 1841, when the naturalist Eichwald recorded three species from the territory: Geophilus electricus, Scolopendra cingulata, and Scutigera coleoptrata. Over the following decades, a handful of pioneering zoologists — most notably Sseliwanoff in 1881, who described six taxa including three new to science, and Muralevitch and Zalesskaja in the twentieth century — gradually built up a picture of the country’s centipede fauna. Because Georgia was part of the Soviet Union, much of the relevant literature was scattered across publications dealing with the Caucasus and the broader USSR, making a comprehensive synthesis long overdue.

To construct the new checklist, the researchers systematically reviewed all published literature dealing with centipedes in Georgia and the wider Caucasus region. They used the online taxonomic database Chilobase as the authoritative reference for classification, valid names, and synonymies. Geographic data from historical papers rarely included precise coordinates, so the team georeferenced 57 sampling localities using Google Earth Pro and QGIS software, coding each site by number from west to east across the country. The resulting distribution map reveals a striking pattern: large portions of Georgian territory remain entirely unexplored for centipedes.

The checklist reveals a fauna dominated by the order Lithobiomorpha, with 38 taxa recorded, followed by Geophilomorpha with 14, Scolopendromorpha with six, and a single species of Scutigeromorpha — the familiar house centipede Scutigera coleoptrata, native to the Mediterranean but synanthropic throughout much of the world. Among the Lithobiomorpha, the genus Lithobius alone accounts for the majority of species, reflecting the group’s remarkable radiation across European and Caucasian landscapes. Several species, such as the widespread Lithobius forficatus and L. crassipes, are found across much of Europe, while others are known from only one or two localities within Georgia.

Perhaps the most striking finding is the level of endemism. Nineteen of the 59 taxa — roughly 32 percent — are endemic to the Caucasus ecoregion, and eight of those are found nowhere else but Georgia. These Georgian endemics include Cryptops datviensis, described only in 2022 from Datvi Cave in western Imereti; Harpolithobius birsteini, known from Avidzba Cave near Sokhumi in Abkhazia; and several surface-dwelling Lithobius species first described by Muralevitch and Sseliwanoff more than a century ago. Notably, no endemic genera or families have been found among Georgian centipedes, suggesting that the endemic species represent relatively recent evolutionary divergences rather than ancient relict lineages.

Two of the Georgian endemics are troglobiotic — fully adapted to life in caves. Cryptops datviensis and Harpolithobius birsteini are the only confirmed troglobionts among the country’s centipede fauna, although 11 species in total have been recorded from cave habitats. The cave systems of Imereti, Abkhazia, and Adjara have yielded numerous unidentified Lithobius and Harpolithobius specimens over the years, hinting that additional cave-adapted species await formal description. The recent description of C. datviensis — the first new centipede species described from Georgia in decades — underscores how much remains to be discovered in these subterranean environments.

The checklist also performs some important taxonomic housekeeping. The researchers formally synonymize Lithobius fasciatus Muralevitch, 1929 with Lithobius striatus Muralevitch, 1926, resolving a long-standing confusion. Muralevitch, it turns out, described several Lithobius species twice — first in 1926 in the German journal Zoologischer Anzeiger, and again in 1929 in a Russian-language journal. The two descriptions of L. striatus and L. fasciatus are identical in morphology, and the researchers conclude that L. fasciatus is a junior objective synonym. They suggest that Muralevitch may have shifted the name after recognizing that L. fasciatus was already occupied by a homonymous species described from Italy by Newport in 1844.

Not every historical record survives scrutiny. The checklist flags four species as doubtful: Lithobius caucasicus Sseliwanoff, 1881; Lamyctes coeculus (Brölemann, 1889); Lithobius semperi (Haase, 1887); and Scolopocryptops nigridus McNeill, 1887. In the case of L. semperi, the species is known only from Southeast Asia, making its reported occurrence in Abkhazia almost certainly a misidentification. Even more remarkably, S. nigridus is common in the United States — leading the researchers to suggest that the American state of Georgia and the country of Georgia were simply confused in the literature. Such errors illustrate the challenges of working with historical records compiled across different languages, political boundaries, and centuries.

The new synthesis is more than a bookkeeping exercise. By consolidating nearly two centuries of scattered records into a single, georeferenced framework, the researchers have created a baseline for future biodiversity assessment in one of the world’s most important ecoregions. The Caucasus is recognized as a global biodiversity hotspot, and centipedes — as sensitive predators of soil ecosystems — serve as valuable indicators of habitat quality. With much of Georgia’s landscape still unsampled, and with unidentified specimens already hinting at undiscovered diversity, the authors argue that additional field research is urgently needed. Given the country’s extraordinary landscape diversity, they suggest there is a real probability of finding not just new species, but potentially even new genera of centipedes in Georgian territory in the years ahead.

Subject of Research: First comprehensive checklist of centipede species (Chilopoda) recorded in Georgia, Caucasus, documenting 59 taxa including endemic and troglobiotic species

Article Title: Checklist of Georgian centipedes ( Myriapoda : Chilopoda )

Article References: Kiria, E., Barjadze, S., & Tuf, I. H. (2023). Checklist of Georgian centipedes (Myriapoda: Chilopoda). Caucasiana, 2, 177-188. https://doi.org/10.3897/caucasiana.2.e108535

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/caucasiana.2.e108535

Keywords: centipedes, Chilopoda, Georgia, Caucasus, biodiversity, endemic species, troglobionts, cave fauna, taxonomy, species checklist, Lithobiomorpha, Geophilomorpha

Blackflies, the family Simuliidae, are among the most consequential blood-feeding arthropods in the temperate world. Female blackflies feed on the blood of mammals and birds, and their bites can trigger severe reactions in people and animals alike. In tropical Africa, South America and Yemen, certain species transmit the parasitic worm that causes human onchocerciasis, better known as river blindness. Europe has so far been spared major human parasites carried by blackflies, but the continent’s species are confirmed vectors of avian haemosporidian parasites and are considered potential carriers of Bartonella bacteria and zoonotic filarial nematodes. Their most notorious impact, however, remains agricultural: historical accounts document cattle mortality during mass outbreaks, with daily biting rates on cattle commonly ranging from ten to more than a thousand bites per animal.

The historical heavyweight of European biting flies was Simulium colombaschense, which once bred in staggering numbers in the middle reaches of the Danube, particularly in the Iron Gates gorge. Its populations collapsed after the Iron Gates Dams were built in the 1970s, and the species has not been detected in that stretch of the river in recent decades. Yet seasonal biting outbreaks persist across Europe, and annual biting rates of 15,000 to 50,000 bites per year were documented on horses in earlier studies. Beyond their nuisance value, blackfly larvae filter organic particles from flowing water and form a significant link in aquatic food webs, especially in boreal streams, a role the authors argue is underestimated even within hydrobiological research.

The new inventory was built through a two-stage workflow that treated every published record as a claim to be tested rather than a fact to be copied. The researchers first compiled a raw data pool of 268 species-level taxa reported from Europe, drawing primarily on three key comprehensive sources: the annually revised world inventory of blackflies, the Fauna Europaea dataset, and the Catalogue of Palaearctic Diptera. Where these secondary compilations conflicted or left ambiguities, the team went back to primary faunistic and taxonomic studies, digitising printed sources and disaggregating them into individual species records tied to defined geographic units.

Filtering then removed everything that could not stand on formal nomenclatural ground. Two morphoforms and five cytoforms, including one hypothetical species, were excluded because they carry only informal designations and lack the formal names required by the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature. Two nomina nuda, names published without adequate description, were also struck out. One of them, Simulium anomalum, described by Eversmann in 1834, was accompanied by no description at all. The other, Simulium laticornis, exists only as an attributed personal communication that was never formally published by its supposed author. Both fail the Code’s requirements and cannot legitimately appear on any species list.

Two species were simultaneously brought back from synonymy. Simulium annulipes and Simulium beckeri, both originally described in the early twentieth century from the Mediterranean and Macaronesian region, had recently been treated as synonyms of the widespread Simulium ruficorne. Chromosomal evidence published in 2018 showed that the European cytoforms of the ruficorne complex form distinct clades from their Afrotropical relatives, supporting their recognition as separate species. The authors acknowledge that the latest evidence recommends caution, but argue that keeping the two named species distinct is pragmatically easier than trying to untangle distributional data later if synonymy is eventually confirmed. In a separate reassessment, the form previously treated as Simulium aff. tuberosum was merged into Simulium janzeni, consistent with earlier morphological work, though the European members of the tuberosum group still await a full revision.

From the resulting core set of 261 species, the audit applied two decisive criteria: nomenclatural validity under the ICZN, and reliably confirmed occurrence in Europe. Species meeting both tests entered the List of accepted species, which now stands at 233 taxa. Sixteen of these are recognised as species complexes, meaning the true number of European species is likely higher than the count suggests. The accepted list is sensitive to where Europe’s eastern boundary is drawn: if the Manych Depression is taken as the limit and the northern Caucasus excluded, the total drops by 14 species, three of them Caucasian endemics whose ranges do not extend further into Europe.

The remaining 28 species form the List of questionable species, and their stories illustrate how taxonomic doubt accumulates. Several rest entirely on a single Romanian record from 1966 whose descriptions were copied from an older Russian monograph rather than based on the author’s own specimens, with pupal characters that either vary too widely among related species or contradict the original descriptions outright. Others hinge on records more than half a century old from the Balkans or northern Russia that have never been reconfirmed. In one striking case, a species described from the semi-desert rivers of Mongolia was reported from both large lowland rivers and small spring streams in Ukraine, an ecological implausibility compounded by morphological discrepancies, leading the authors to exclude it despite its traditional presence in recent national checklists.

The audit also challenges the growing reliance on short mitochondrial DNA barcodes alone. Records of Simulium turgaicum from Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Czechia rest solely on partial COI sequences, yet three closely related species in the same group show very similar barcodes, and published phylogenetic trees built from this gene fail to recover the species as distinct lineages. The authors argue that a single mitochondrial gene fragment cannot be accepted as reliable evidence of a species’ presence, particularly given the likelihood of incomplete lineage sorting or hybridisation among closely related blackflies. Molecular evidence, they contend, must be weighed alongside morphology and cytogenetics rather than replacing them.

The broader picture that emerges is one of a predominantly Palaearctic fauna with deep biogeographic roots. Of the 2,415 blackfly species recognised worldwide, Europe hosts less than ten percent. Some 133 accepted species, 57.1 percent, are shared with other continents, while 100 species, 42.9 percent, are endemic to Europe, ranging from widespread continental species to narrow island endemics such as a species confined to Corsica and another known only from Sardinia. Iceland harbours just two species, both shared with Asia. Twenty-five species, 10.7 percent, are shared with North America as remnants of a Holarctic distribution, and 39 species link Europe with Palaearctic Africa. By publishing both the accepted and the questionable lists with explicit criteria and case-by-case rationales, the revision gives ecologists, public health researchers and conservation planners a transparent baseline, while clearly marking where future fieldwork and museum detective work are most needed.

Subject of Research: Taxonomic inventory and revision of European blackfly species (Diptera: Simuliidae)

Article Title: European blackflies: accepted and questionable species ( Diptera , Simuliidae )

Article References: Jedlička, L., Kúdela, M., & Kúdelová, T. (2026). European blackflies: accepted and questionable species (Diptera, Simuliidae). ZooKeys, 1291, 251-281. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1291.196803

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.1291.196803

Keywords: blackflies, Simuliidae, taxonomy, species checklist, Europe, biodiversity, ZooKeys, nomina nuda, cytoforms, vector ecology, faunistics, ICZN

The effort drew on specimens held in 26 regional natural history museums, a review of published literature records stretching back to the early 1860s, state agency biomonitoring data, and decades of targeted fieldwork by the authors since 1987. The resulting dataset contains 49,046 occurrence records representing 221,334 specimens, standardised to Darwin Core Archive format so that the data can be indexed by the Global Biodiversity Information Facility and reused by researchers, conservation planners and water quality agencies. Records range from the earliest archived specimens collected in 1860 through collections made as recently as June 2025.

The taxonomic payoff is substantial. The compilation adds 21 new state records, including three species recorded for the first time anywhere in the Midwest. Minnesota gained nine new state records, Wisconsin seven, Ohio five, and Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Iowa one or two each. These additions raise the known state richness to 85 species in Illinois, 93 in Indiana, 47 in Iowa, 71 in Michigan, 65 in Minnesota, 109 in Ohio and 68 in Wisconsin. Even so, richness estimates derived from non-parametric species accumulation models suggest the true regional fauna lies between roughly 164 and 172 species, meaning eight to 16 species may still await discovery in undersampled drainages or in museum drawers holding specimens of recently revised genera.

The geographic pattern of the data is striking. Collections have covered 91.4 percent of the region’s 623 counties and 91.1 percent of its 316 HUC-8 drainage basins, yet the density of records is far from uniform. Illinois alone contributed 11,072 records, followed by Ohio with 9,667 and Wisconsin with 9,520, while Iowa and Minnesota trail with 1,932 and 3,496 respectively. All 28 unsampled drainages and counties sit in western Iowa and Minnesota, a bias the authors attribute to the long history of taxonomic expertise stationed at eastern institutions and the remoteness of the region’s western reaches. Species richness itself declines along both east-west and south-north gradients, with Ohio hosting the most species and Iowa the fewest.

Family-level patterns reveal where the region’s diversity is concentrated. Perlidae leads with 42 species, followed by Perlodidae with 38, Capniidae with 21, Chloroperlidae and Nemouridae with 15 each. These five families account for 84 percent of the regional fauna. The most diverse genera are Isoperla with 24 species, Allocapnia with 16, Perlesta with 12, Acroneuria and Alloperla with 11 each, and Neoperla with 10. Ohio stands out as the only state where all nine eastern Nearctic families occur, including the single regional representative of Peltoperlidae, while Iowa lacks both Chloroperlidae and Peltoperlidae. Twenty-three species were found throughout all seven states, but 37 species are known from just one state, with Ohio claiming 24 of these regional endemics.

Identifying so many specimens to species demanded exacting laboratory work, particularly for the largest and most difficult families. Pinned adults, some dating to 1883, made up 2.3 percent of records and had to be relaxed in humid chambers for one to two days before examination. For males of Perlidae and Perlodidae, confident identification often requires everting the aedeagus, an internal structure that resembles a rolled-up sock within the abdomen. The researchers clipped abdomens at the second or third segment, macerated soft tissue in cold potassium hydroxide, and used probes and fine forceps to apply hydraulic pressure that pushed the aedeagal sac through the genital pore, revealing the spinule patches and sclerite patterns essential for species determination. Fluid-preserved specimens, which account for over 93 percent of records, were cleared in hot KOH using a double-boiler of beaker and shell vial.

Fieldwork between 2006 and 2025 prioritised historical localities and the best remaining habitat, alongside degraded streams where losses were suspected. Adults were gathered with beating sheets, sweep nets and hand-picking from rocks, logs and bridges, and attracted with ultraviolet lights along streams. Because at least 60 percent of regional species cannot be identified from nymphs alone, the team also reared mature nymphs in modified Styrofoam cups suspended in Living Stream tanks that mimicked source stream temperatures, then extruded aedeagi from freshly darkened adults under dissecting microscopes. Newly collected specimens are now preserved first in 70 to 80 percent ethanol to keep tissues supple before transfer to 95 percent ethanol for molecular work.

The conservation headline is unambiguous. Thirteen species, eight percent of the regional fauna, are known solely from historical collections, and ten have not been recollected since 1970, nine of them not since before 1960. Four species, including two Isoperla described by Theodore Frison and Philip Harden’s team, are presumed extinct. Neoperla mainensis has not been recollected anywhere across its broader distribution since 1944. Illinois fared worst, with 16 species absent from collections made after 1970, followed by Indiana with nine, Michigan and Ohio with eight each, Minnesota with seven, Wisconsin with two and Iowa with one. Measured against a less conservative 1980 threshold, Minnesota’s losses climb to 13 species, or 20 percent of its fauna.

The extirpations are not evenly distributed across the tree of life. Perlidae lost 17 species from at least one state by 1970, some 40 percent of its regional richness, and Perlodidae lost eight, reflecting the vulnerability of these large, often cold-water predators to warming, sedimentation and degraded water quality. By contrast, every species of Peltoperlidae and Taeniopterygidae was recovered in contemporary collections, offering a sliver of hope that intact habitat can still sustain sensitive fauna where it survives.

The authors emphasise that none of this would have been possible without natural history museums and the specimens archived within them, which preserved the evidence of species’ historical presence from which modern comparisons could be drawn. The Midwest dataset is framed as the first step toward a continental understanding of North American stonefly richness, with a parallel treatment of the northeastern states already in preparation. By identifying where species once lived and where they have disappeared, the dataset is intended to guide conservation prioritisation and to underpin future distribution and occupancy modelling, ensuring that the quiet decline of these clean-water indicators does not go unnoticed.

Subject of Research: Historical and contemporary stonefly species occurrences and extirpations in the Midwestern United States

Article Title: Stoneflies ( Insecta , Plecoptera ) of the Midwest, USA: species checklist derived from nearly 170 Years of collection records

Article References: Hogan, P., DeWalt, R., & Grubbs, S. (2026). Stoneflies (Insecta, Plecoptera) of the Midwest, USA: species checklist derived from nearly 170 Years of collection records. Biodiversity Data Journal, 14, Article e208358. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.14.e208358

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/BDJ.14.e208358

Keywords: stoneflies, Plecoptera, biodiversity, freshwater insects, extirpation, Midwest USA, natural history museums, species checklist, biomonitoring, aquatic insects, conservation, Darwin Core Archive

The research team compiled its inventory from an unusually broad set of sources, including the Global Invasive Species Database, two major Chinese reference books on invasive species, an integrated global dataset of non-native species distributions, and targeted literature searches across Google Scholar and the Chinese database CNKI. Scientific names were standardized against the Global Biodiversity Information Facility, synonyms were harmonized in the R programming environment, and duplicate records were removed. The authors applied a strict definition: a species counted as non-native only if it had been translocated beyond its native range and introduced into China. Species whose native ranges already included parts of China were excluded as disputed, and most deliberately introduced biological control agents, such as imported predators and parasitoids used under regulatory oversight, were left out of the tally. Records lacking evidence of domestic distribution, origin or introduction pathway were also discarded, a conservative approach designed to keep the checklist verifiable.

The taxonomic composition of China’s alien insect fauna is heavily skewed toward three orders. Beetles, the Coleoptera, lead with 76 species, or 31.5 percent of the total, represented across 17 families and 58 genera. True bugs and their relatives, the Hemiptera, follow with 67 species, or 27.8 percent, and butterflies and moths, the Lepidoptera, contribute 30 species, or 12.4 percent. Together these three orders account for nearly 72 percent of all non-native insects recorded in the country. At the other end of the spectrum, Orthoptera, the grasshoppers and crickets, are represented by a single species. Among genera, the fruit fly genus Bactrocera stands out with six species, followed by the mealybug genus Phenacoccus with five, both groups of considerable agricultural concern.

The dominance of beetles is not a Chinese anomaly but a global pattern, and the study’s discussion points to the ecological traits that explain it. Coleoptera is the most species-rich insect order worldwide, and its wood-boring and stored-product members are particularly adept at hitchhiking inside traded commodities, where timber, pallets, grain and nursery stock provide sheltered microhabitats that protect them during long journeys. Insects traveling with living plants are especially difficult to detect at borders, raising their probability of successful establishment. The authors also note that a greater variety of invasion pathways and habitats, higher reproductive capacity and more generations per year, and complex genomic features all contribute to the outsized invasion success of insects compared with many other animal groups.

Geographically, the sources of China’s alien insects span every continent except Antarctica, but the distribution is far from even. Asia itself is the dominant donor, contributing 87 species, a result the researchers attribute to shorter geographic distances, reduced natural barriers and intensive cross-border movement. North America ranks second with 59 species, reflecting dense intercontinental trade and the fact that North America is itself a recognized global hotspot for non-native insects, with climates that match several major Asian climate zones. South America contributed 35 species, Africa 31, and Europe 30, while Oceania, with its distinctive island faunas, contributed the fewest, likely because species evolved in isolation there face greater difficulty naturalizing elsewhere.

Within China, the spatial fingerprint of invasion is unmistakable. Mapping 208 first-detection records for 175 species across the country’s 34 provincial-level regions, the study found that records decline steadily from the southeastern coast toward the northwest interior, mirroring the gradient of economic development and trade intensity. Taiwan leads with 39 first records, or 18.8 percent of the total, followed by Guangdong with 35 records, or 16.8 percent, and Hainan with 23 records, or 11.1 percent. Taiwan’s susceptibility reflects both its island biogeography, which makes it open to new arrivals, and its exceptionally strong tradition of biodiversity documentation, which means arrivals are more likely to be noticed and recorded. Guangdong and Hainan, by contrast, sit at the heart of China’s export manufacturing and free-trade activity, where the sheer volume of cargo creates constant opportunities for stowaways.

Two inland provinces break the coastal pattern in a revealing way. Yunnan, with 19 first records, and Xinjiang, with 13, both share extensive land borders with multiple countries, and the study links their elevated counts to the intensity of cross-regional trade and travel along those frontiers. The finding underscores a growing theme in invasion biology: border regions face structurally higher risks because they sit directly on overland transport corridors. Across all provinces, the dominant introduction pathways were transport-contaminant, meaning insects carried accidentally in commodities such as plants, soil, timber or food, and transport-stowaway, meaning insects riding on vehicles, containers and packaging. These two human-mediated routes together explain most of the recorded invasions, and the authors describe them as often representing the final leg of an insect’s journey into a new country. The vast majority of the documented species inhabit terrestrial ecosystems rather than freshwater or marine environments.

The temporal trend is the study’s most alarming finding. The earliest non-native insect on the list is the grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae, the hemipteran that devastated European vineyards in the nineteenth century, first recorded in China in 1892. For decades afterward, new records remained sparse, but the curve bends sharply upward in recent decades. Of the 196 species whose first record year could be traced, 144 have been documented since 1978, and 79 of those since 2001. The authors draw a direct line between these inflection points and China’s economic history: the Reform and Opening policy launched in 1978 and accession to the World Trade Organization in 2001 both triggered surges in trade and economic growth that vastly expanded the opportunities for alien insects to arrive and establish. Rising scientific attention to invasive species also contributes to the growing count, but the exponential shape of the curve, fitted with a growth-rate model, matches the global pattern identified in earlier work showing that alien species accumulations worldwide show no evidence of slowing.

One important caveat frames the entire dataset: the true number of alien insects in China is almost certainly far higher than 241. The recorded count remains much lower than the figures for Europe and North America, which benefit from long-established documentation systems and dense scientific monitoring, whereas systematic recording of non-native species in China is comparatively recent. The authors argue that this gap reflects underestimation rather than genuine invasional advantage, and they highlight a further blind spot: predators and parasitoids are rarely represented in current checklists, likely because these groups are poorly documented in the available literature, meaning that attention has concentrated on conspicuous agricultural pests while other invaders slip through unnoticed. Even poorly studied orders with few recorded species, such as Thysanoptera, the thrips, may carry considerable potential for future invasions.

The stakes are far from academic. Biological invasions cost the world an average of 26.8 billion US dollars per year between 1970 and 2017, with management consuming a large share, and their ecological toll, from biotic homogenization to the displacement of native species, grows as trade intensifies. Genera such as Bactrocera have already invaded multiple regions of China and caused significant economic losses, and the study warns that existing regulations and quarantine measures, while strengthened in recent years, have not been sufficient to reverse the trend. By publishing a standardized, verifiable checklist with data on origins, pathways, habitats and first records, the researchers aim to give Chinese authorities an evidence base for targeted border inspection and early detection, and to supply the global research community with high-quality regional data from a country that has been underrepresented in worldwide invasion analyses. The message of the inventory is ultimately a sober one: as long as global trade keeps expanding, the invasions will keep coming, and the era of endless arrivals appears to be only beginning.

Subject of Research: Spatiotemporal patterns of non-native insect invasions in China

Article Title: The endless invasions: Spatiotemporal patterns of non-native insects in China

Article References: Peng, S., Zhang, Y., Hui, C., Haddi, K., Qin, Y., Li, Z., & Zhao, Z. (2026). The endless invasions: Spatiotemporal patterns of non-native insects in China. NeoBiota, 109, 203-215. https://doi.org/10.3897/neobiota.109.184222

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/neobiota.109.184222

Keywords: biological invasions, non-native insects, China, invasion pathways, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Anthropocene, trade, quarantine, biogeography, NeoBiota, species checklist

The research team built their updated checklist on the shoulders of a landmark work: Birds and Mammals of Hainan Island, published in 1983. That volume served as the baseline for virtually all subsequent assessments of the island’s mammal diversity, cataloguing 76 terrestrial mammal species. In the decades since, however, taxonomy has been revolutionized by molecular techniques, museum collections have grown, and field surveys have accumulated a vast body of literature documenting new records and revised species concepts. The researchers systematically synthesized this four-decade archive of published records, museum specimen data, and modern taxonomic frameworks to produce a rigorous, up-to-date inventory of what actually lives on the island.

The result is a checklist documenting 95 terrestrial mammal species, distributed across 9 orders, 26 families, and 63 genera. That total represents 12.91 percent of China’s entire terrestrial mammalian species richness, a remarkable figure for a single island. Compared with the 1983 baseline of 76 species, the new inventory reflects substantial changes in how scientists understand Hainan’s fauna. The team revised the taxonomic status and nomenclature of 40 species, a figure that underscores just how much species concepts have shifted with the advent of integrative taxonomy, which combines genetic, morphological, and ecological evidence to delineate species boundaries more accurately than older, morphology-only approaches.

In addition to these revisions, the researchers added 19 new distribution records for the island, the majority of which involved bats and rodents. These two groups are notoriously difficult to survey and are frequently underrepresented in historical inventories, partly because many bat species are cryptic in the field and several rodent lineages can only be distinguished reliably through genetic analysis. The additions suggest that even for a comparatively well-studied region of China, the true diversity of small mammals may still exceed what is formally documented. At the same time, the team exercised caution: two previously reported species were excluded from the checklist because their distributions fall outside Hainan Island proper or because they lack solid field evidence, a decision that reflects a commitment to verifiable records over inflated species counts.

Beyond simply counting species, the study assessed the conservation status of Hainan’s terrestrial mammals against multiple authoritative reference frameworks, including the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the appendices of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and China’s national and provincial wildlife inventories. The findings are sobering. Ten species qualify as threatened under IUCN criteria, while 22 species are considered threatened according to the China Red List of Biodiversity. The discrepancy between these two figures highlights how national assessments can capture extinction risk at finer regional scales than global evaluations, which may lag in recognizing the precarious status of geographically restricted populations.

Endemism emerges as one of the island’s most striking features. Seven of the documented species are endemic to China, and six of those occur exclusively on Hainan Island. This concentration of range-restricted species means that the fate of a significant fraction of the island’s mammal diversity rests entirely on the management of a single, relatively small landmass. The most famous of Hainan’s endemic mammals, the Hainan gibbon, has become a global symbol of both extinction risk and conservation hope, but the new checklist makes clear that the island’s smaller, less charismatic mammals face comparable pressures with far less public attention.

The study’s biogeographical analysis confirms a pattern long predicted by island-biogeography theory: Hainan hosts fewer mammal species than the neighboring mainland provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi. Isolation, limited land area, and the dynamics of colonization and extinction all contribute to reduced species richness on islands. Yet the researchers found that Hainan carries a disproportionately high share of critically endangered taxa relative to the mainland. This elevated proportion of imperiled species makes the island’s mammal fauna exceptionally vulnerable to human disturbance and habitat fragmentation, the twin forces that have reshaped tropical Asian landscapes over the past century. When a species’ entire global population is confined to one island, habitat loss there translates directly into global extinction risk.

Compounding the problem is a persistent gap in basic knowledge. Roughly 10 percent of the recorded species remain data-deficient or unevaluated, meaning that scientists lack sufficient information even to assess whether they are threatened. This knowledge gap is particularly pronounced among insectivorous bats and forest-dwelling rodents, groups that are difficult to detect, challenging to identify, and often overlooked by funding priorities that favor larger or more visible animals. For these species, the absence of data is itself a conservation concern, because unassessed populations may be declining unnoticed. The checklist’s authors emphasize that closing this gap is a prerequisite for any credible conservation strategy on the island.

From these findings, the research team lays out a clear agenda for future work. They recommend integrative taxonomic studies that combine molecular and morphological evidence to resolve remaining uncertainties in species boundaries, targeted field surveys aimed at under-sampled habitats and taxa, and long-term biodiversity monitoring programs capable of tracking population trends over time. They further call for strengthened in-situ conservation, which protects species within their natural habitats, and ex-situ conservation measures, such as captive breeding and seed or tissue banks, that provide insurance against catastrophic loss. Finally, they stress that taxonomic and threat assessments must be updated regularly and dynamically, since a static checklist quickly loses its value as new species are described, ranges shift, and threats intensify.

The significance of the new inventory extends well beyond Hainan’s shores. Baseline data of this kind are the foundation of evidence-based conservation planning: without knowing which species occur where, and what condition their populations are in, managers cannot prioritize sites, allocate resources, or measure whether interventions are succeeding. For China’s tropical island province, which has invested heavily in forest protection and in the recovery of flagship species, the checklist provides an essential reference against which future change can be measured. It also serves as a model for other regions where historical inventories, however groundbreaking in their time, have not kept pace with modern taxonomy and accumulated field knowledge. Four decades after the original survey, Hainan’s mammals are finally getting the detailed accounting they deserve, and with it, a stronger scientific basis for survival.

Subject of Research: Updated species inventory and conservation assessment of terrestrial mammals on Hainan Island, China

Article Title: Updated checklist reveals rich, threatened terrestrial mammal diversity on Hainan Island

Article References: Updated checklist reveals rich, threatened terrestrial mammal diversity on Hainan Island. (n.d.). Original publication

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: Not provided

Keywords: Hainan Island, terrestrial mammals, taxonomy, species checklist, endemism, conservation, IUCN Red List, biodiversity monitoring, island biogeography, bats, rodents, habitat fragmentation