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Aim: In addition to cave size and other subterranean habitat characteristics, cave entrances are important structurers of neotropical cave communities. However, little is known about the epigean ecosystems factors that might dictate the influence of entrances and the relationship among surface and cave communities, as entrance regions are ecotonal zones between the epigean and hypogean ecosystems. We aimed to assess the influence of epigean and hypogean factors as potential drivers of invertebrate species richness in Neotropical caves as well as the influence of the regional pool of invertebrate diversity on cave invertebrate diversity. Location: Limestone caves in southeastern Brazil. Taxon: Invertebrates Methods: Data were collected in 48 caves within the Cerrado biome (Brazilian Savanna). The fauna sampling was performed by a direct intuitive search (DIS). Landscape characteristics and climatic parameters were accessed using geographic information systems. The characterization of the caves occurred during each sampling event. Regional diversity was based on the Taxonomic Catalog of Brazilian Fauna. To clarify the factors that significantly influence invertebrate species richness of the caves, we used generalized linear models (GLM). The relationship between regional diversity and cave diversity was evaluated based on linear models (LM). Results: Overall, 1,173 species were found, of which 72 were obligate subterranean dwellers. The cave total species richness was influenced by hypogean factors and epigean factors. The species richness of obligate cave dwellers was significantly explained only by cave size. The regional pool of invertebrate species influenced the levels of biodiversity in the studied caves. The taxa with troglobitic species tended to be more diverse in caves than expected. Main conclusions: In addition to the influences of intrinsic cave variables, we highlight the importance of epigean factors on subterranean diversity in the Neotropics. The study shows the significant influence of the regional species pool on cave faunal composition. These findings reinforce the importance of considering the surrounding areas in actions regarding cave biodiversity conservation.

Interest in functional diversity has grown in recent years, indicating that knowledge on ecosystem functions gain importance. However, the incongruent use of terms may lead to misunderstandings and incomparable results. We aimed to review terms used in functional diversity among the Brazilian scientific community to identify if there is a lack of consensus in the terminology used. We applied online surveys to assess how these terms have been used by the Brazilian academics and searched for their definitions in the scientific literature. The definition of "ecological function" by Brazilian academics is like that of the niche, but we only found two articles defining such a term in the literature. Thus, it seems that "ecosystem function" is a more commonly used term outside of Brazil. The definition of "guilds" coincided with that used in the literature, although we still observed a lack of consensus in the latter. For "traits," "functional group," and "functional diversity" concepts, we found some discrepancy between the literature and questionnaires. These inconsistencies can be related to the use of different organizational levels for the definition of traits and to the practice of replacing species with functional groups in standard taxonomic diversity metrics, considering them as measurements of functional diversity. The adoption of cohesive terminology is crucial to ensure the comparability of scientific results in the scientific literature. However, finding a consensus in ecology represents a hard task; therefore, we encourage that, at least, researchers make clear which key concepts they adopted in their research to avoid misunderstandings.

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Scarabeoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) present more than 2000 species recorded from all over Brazil. They have been scarcely recorded from caves, and truly troglobitic species are yet to be found in the country. In this study, we carried out a review of all existing scarab beetles deposited until 2017 in the Coleção de Invertebrados Subterrâneos de Lavras (ISLA), at the Universidade Federal de Lavras (UFLA) (Minas Gerais, Brazil), one of the most important collections of subterranean invertebrates in South America. Ninety-two individuals belonging to 52 species were recorded, distributed in six families (Cetoniidae, Hybosoridae, Melolonthidae, Passalidae, Scarabaeidae and Trogidae). Scarabaeidae was the most diverse of them, representing more than 50% of the total of species recorded. We found Scarabeoidea beetles in 51 of the ~ 1600 caves examined, distributed in nine Brazilian states: Alagoas,