Being nocturnal, hiding in prickly bushes and shrubs during the day, Eupholidoptera species in Crete and its neighbouring islands are easily overlooked, and until now our knowledge about their distribution was based on some thirty sightings across 11 species. In this paper results are presented of a study of Eupholidoptera specimens collected between 1987 and 2020 by hand-catches and pitfall and fermenting traps on the Greek islands of Crete, Gavdos, Gavdopoula, and Andikithira. Diagnostic features of all known species are presented and illustrated with stacked images. An updated key to all species is provided. Eupholidoptera francisae Tilmans & Odé, sp. nov. from Andikithira and southwestern Crete and Eupholidoptera marietheresae Willemse & Kotitsa, sp. nov. from Mt. Dikti are described. Female E. cretica, E. gemellata, and E. mariannae are described, and the female of E. astyla is redescribed. Bioacoustics for E. francisae Tilmans & Odé, sp. nov., E. giuliae, and E. jacquelinae are presented for the first time. Eupholidoptera smyrnensis is reported for the first time from Crete. A substantial amount of new distribution data for Eupholidoptera species on Crete is presented. The current distribution pattern and first analyses of phylogeny based on molecular data of Eupholidoptera species on Crete are discussed in relation to paleogeographical events.
Arthropods' decline has been documented in global and local studies, yet they are still not sufficiently protected on a global scale. Crete (Greece), a Mediterranean hotspot is a continental island, renowned for its diverse geology, ecosystems and endemicity of flora and fauna, with many studies on all of the above disciplines dating back to the 19th century. Here we investigate the conservation status of the Cretan Arthropods using Preliminary Automated Conservation Assessments (PACA) and the overlap of Cretan Arthropod distributions with the Natura 2000 protected areas. In order to perform this analysis, we assembled occurrences of the endemic Arthropods in Crete located in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Crete together with literature data. These assessments resulted in 75% of endemic Arthropods as potentially threatened. The hotspots of endemic and threatened taxa are distributed mostly on the mountainous areas where the Natura 2000 protected areas have great coverage. Yet human activities have significant impact even in those areas, while some taxa are not sufficiently covered by Natura 2000. These findings call for countermeasures and conservation actions.
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