Updated Checklist of Arthropods from Azores (Portugal)

Paulo A. V. Borges1, Lucas Lamelas-Lopez1, Rui Andrade1, Sébastien Lhoumeau1, Virgílio Vieira2, António Onofre Soares2, Isabel Borges2, Mário Boieiro1, Pedro Cardoso3, Luís Carlos Crespo3, Ole Karsholt4, Volker Assing5, Michael Schülke6, Artur R. M. Serrano7, José Alberto Quartau7

1 Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c)/Azorean Biodiversity Group, CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Environment, University of the Azores, Rua Capitão João d´Ávila, Pico da Urze, 9700-042, Angra do Heroísmo, Portugal; 2 cE3c- Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Azorean Biodiversity Group, CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of the Azores, Rua da Mãe de Deus, 13A, 9500-321, Ponta Delgada, Portugal; 3 LIBRe – Laboratory for Integrative Biodiversity Research, Finnish Museum of Natural History Luomus, University of Helsinki, P.O.Box 17 (Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 13), 00014, Helsinki, Finland; 4 Zoological Museum, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Universitetsparken 15, DK–2100, Copenhagen, Denmark; 5 Not Applicable, Gabelsbergerstraße 2, 30163, Hannover, Germany; 6 Not Applicable, Blankenfelder Straße 99, D-13127, Berlin, Germany; 7 cE3c—Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, CHANGE – Global Change and Sustainability Institute, Departamento de Biologia Animal, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, R. Ernesto de Vasconcelos, Ed. C2, Campo Grande, 1749-016, Lisboa, Portugal

Corresponding author(s): Paulo A. V. Borges (paulo.av.borges@uac.pt)Lucas Lamelas-Lopez (lucaslamelaslopez@gmail.com)Rui Andrade (ruiandrade14@gmail.com)Sébastien Lhoumeau (seb.lhoumeau@gmail.com)Virgílio Vieira (virgilio.ff.vieira@uac.pt)António Onofre Soares (antonio.oc.soares@uac.pt)Isabel Borges (isabel.mm.borges@uac.pt)Mário Boieiro (mboieiro@fc.ul.pt)Pedro Cardoso (pedro.cardoso@helsinki.fi)Luís Carlos Crespo (luiscarloscrespo@gmail.com)Ole Karsholt (okarsholt@snm.ku.dk)Volker AssingMichael Schülke (mschuelke.berlin@t-online.de)Artur R. M. Serrano (aserrano@fc.ul.pt)José Alberto Quartau (jaquartau@fc.ul.pt)

Received {date}; Revised {date}; Accepted {date}; Published {date}

Citation: Combination of authors, year of data paper publication (in parentheses), Title, Journal Name, Volume, Issue number (in parentheses), and doi of the data paper.

Resource Citation

Borges P A V, Lamelas-Lopez L, Andrade R, Lhoumeau S, Vieira V, Soares A O, Borges I, Boieiro M, Cardoso P, Crespo L C, Karsholt O, Assing V, Schülke M, Serrano A R M, Quartau J A (2022): Updated Checklist of Arthropods from Azores (Portugal). v1.6. Universidade dos Açores. Dataset/Checklist. http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=checklist_arthropoda_azores&v=1.6

Abstract

The data we present consists in an updated checklist of the Azorean arthropods. The checklist compile known records based on published literature, unpublished data, and new records at archipelago and island levels. This publication represents the most recent information about distribution of introduced, native and endemic arthropods in the Azores archipelago. 
Currently the total number of terrestrial arthropod taxa (species and subspecies) in the Azores is estimated of about 2420 belonging to 14 classes, 53 orders, 440 families, 1556 genera and 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 8 classes and 22 orders. São Miguel, Terceira and Pico are the islands with higher number of endemic species and subspecies. Compared to the other nearest Macaronesian archipelagos (Madeira and Canaries), the Azorean arthropod fauna is characterized by a lower percentage of endemism and a high proportion of exotic introduced species.

Keywords: Checklist, Arthropods, Azorean fauna, Biodiversity, Dataset, Inventory, Linnean, and Wallacean shortfalls, Inventoryregional

Project details

Project title: AZORESBIOPORTAL-PORBIOTA- Updated Checklist of Arthropods from Azores (Portugal)
Personnel: Paulo A. V. Borges, Luca Lamelas-López, Rui Andrade, Sébastien Lhoumeau, Virgílio Vieira, António Soares, Isabel Borges, Mário Boieiro, Pedro Cardoso, Luís Carlos Crespo, Ole Karsholt, Volker Assing, Michael Schülke, Artur R. M. Serrano, José Alberto Quartau
Funding: This work was financed by two main projects: 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.
Open access was funded by the project FCT-UIDB/00329/2020-2024 (Thematic Line 1 – integrated ecological assessment of environmental change on biodiversity).
Study area descriptions/descriptor: The Azores archipelago located in the North Atlantic Ocean (37-40 °N, 25-31 °W), about 1600 km of distance to southern Europe and 2200 km to the northern America. The archipelago, which extends for 615 km, is formed by nine main islands and some small islets, all of volcanic origin. The islands are divided into three main groups: the western group (Corvo and Flores), the central group (Faial, Pico, Graciosa, São Jorge and Terceira), and the eastern group (São Miguel and Santa Maria). The climate is mainly temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity, above 95% on average on high forest, and persistent winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons. In XV century, the Azores was settled by Portuguese, and since then, the landscape was dramatically transformed, by replacing of pristine forests to exotic tree plantations, agricultural areas, pastures to cattle grazing and urban areas. Currently the original native forests comprise about 5% of the total surface of the archipelago, and remains in the most elevation and inaccessible areas of the islands (Gaspar et al 2008).
Design description: For taxonomic consistency we evaluated specific literature for spiders (http://wsc.nmbe.ch) and Lepidoptera (expert revision). For the remaining groups we compared the nomenclature available in four main taxonomic databases: i) the last Azorean Checklist (Borges et al. 2010b); ii) the project Fauna Europaea (https://fauna-eu.org/); iii) the project BIOTA Canarias (https://www.biodiversidadcanarias.es/), iv) the GBIF database (https://www.gbif.org/), and when data available v) the project Fauna Iberica (http://www.fauna-iberica.mncn.csic.es/english/). In general, we looked for consistency in the nomenclature and when in doubt we followed the GBIF nomenclature.
When no information concerning island occurrence was available only archipelago occurrence is given (AZ). In most cases it 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 (e.g., Crustacea).

Data published through GBIF: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/resource?r=checklist_arthropoda_azores

Taxonomic coverage

General taxonomic coverage description: All Azorean Terrestrial Arthropods
Taxonomic ranks
Phylum: Arthropoda
Common names: Arthropods

Spatial coverage

General spatial coverage: The Azores archipelago located in the North Atlantic Ocean (37-40 °N, 25-31 °W), about 1600 km of distance to southern Europe and 2200 km to the northern America
Coordinates: 36°46'26.4''N and 39°57'36''N Latitude; 31°23'56.4''W and 24°51'3.6''W Longitude 

Temporal coverage: November 9, 2022

Methods

Method step description: When no information concerning island occurrence was available only archipelago occurrence is given. In most cases it 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
Study extent description: The checklist comprised all islands of the Azores archipelago, providing information of the arthropod species distribution at island level when available.
Sampling description: The data collection consists on compilation of known records based on published literature and the last checklist of Azorean biota in Borges et al. 2010), unpublished data; and new records at archipelago and island levels from recent publications.
Quality control description: For taxonomic consistency we evaluated specific literature for spiders (http://wsc.nmbe.ch) and Lepidoptera (expert revision). For the remaining groups we compared the nomenclature available in five main taxonomic databases: i) the last Azorean Checklist (Borges et al. 2010b); ii) the project Fauna Europaea (https://fauna-eu.org/); iii) the project BIOTA Canarias (https://www.biodiversidadcanarias.es/), iv) the GBIF database (https://www.gbif.org/), and when data available v) the project Fauna Iberica (http://www.fauna-iberica.mncn.csic.es/english/). In general, we looked for consistency in the nomenclature and when in doubt we followed the GBIF nomenclature. The new records were revised by expert taxonomists.

Datasets

Dataset description
Object name: Darwin Core Archive Updated Checklist of Arthropods from Azores (Portugal)
Character encoding: UTF-8
Format name: Darwin Core Archive format
Format version: 1.0
Distribution: http://ipt.gbif.pt/ipt/archive.do?r=checklist_arthropoda_azores
Publication date of data: 2022-12-14
Language: English
Licences of use: Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License

Metadata language: English
Date of metadata creation: 2022-11-09
Hierarchy level: Dataset

References
Borges, P.A.V., Costa, A., Cunha, R., Gabriel, R., Gonçalves, V., Martins, A.F., Melo, I., Parente, M., Raposeiro, P., Rodrigues, P., Santos, R.S., Silva, L., Vieira, P. & Vieira, V. (Eds.) (2010). A list of the terrestrial and marine biota from the Azores. Princípia, Cascais, 432 pp. ISBN: 978-989-8131-75-1