BackgroundComprehensive biotic surveys, or ‘all taxon biodiversity inventories’ (ATBI), have traditionally been limited in scale or scope due to the complications surrounding specimen sorting and species identification. To circumvent these issues, several ATBI projects have successfully integrated DNA barcoding into their identification procedures and witnessed acceleration in their surveys and subsequent increase in project scope and scale. The Biodiversity Institute of Ontario partnered with the rare Charitable Research Reserve and delegates of the 6th International Barcode of Life Conference to complete its own rapid, barcode-assisted ATBI of an established land trust in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.New informationThe existing species inventory for the rare Charitable Research Reserve was rapidly expanded by integrating a DNA barcoding workflow with two surveying strategies – a comprehensive sampling scheme over four months, followed by a one-day bioblitz involving international taxonomic experts. The two surveys resulted in 25,287 and 3,502 specimens barcoded, respectively, as well as 127 human observations. This barcoded material, all vouchered at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario collection, covers 14 phyla, 29 classes, 117 orders, and 531 families of animals, plants, fungi, and lichens. Overall, the ATBI documented 1,102 new species records for the nature reserve, expanding the existing long-term inventory by 49%. In addition, 2,793 distinct Barcode Index Numbers (BINs) were assigned to genus or higher level taxonomy, and represent additional species that will be added once their taxonomy is resolved. For the 3,502 specimens, the collection, sequence analysis, taxonomic assignment, data release and manuscript submission by 100+ co-authors all occurred in less than one week. This demonstrates the speed at which barcode-assisted inventories can be completed and the utility that barcoding provides in minimizing and guiding valuable taxonomic specialist time. The final product is more than a comprehensive biotic inventory – it is also a rich dataset of fine-scale occurrence and sequence data, all archived and cross-linked in the major biodiversity data repositories. This model of rapid generation and dissemination of essential biodiversity data could be followed to conduct regional assessments of biodiversity status and change, and potentially be employed for evaluating progress towards the Aichi Targets of the Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011–2020.

The geographic distribution of Strobilops aeneus Pilsbry, 1926, a rare species in Canada, is reviewed and all known records are mapped. Two recent records, the only ones since 1941, are reported from the province of Ontario. One of these records represents a small range extension ca. 85 km north of the closest previous site. Specimens identified as S. aeneus from Ontario, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia were re-examined and found to be another species.

Xerolenta obvia is a Central European land snail that has been introduced to Ontario, Canada, where it was first recorded in the literature in 1975 from a single population at Bethany (City of Kawartha Lakes). Over the four decades since that publication, additional records have been found clustered near Bethany, within the City of Kawartha Lakes, neighbouring Peterborough and Northumberland counties, as well as the Regional Municipality of Durham. Two distant sites are also now known, one in rural Ottawa (southeastern Ontario), and one at Windsor, Essex County (southwestern Ontario).

Abstract:The introduced European slug Deroceras invadens Reise, Hutchinson, Schunack & Schlitt, 2011 is here reported from St. John's, Newfoundland. This new record is the first from the island of Newfoundland, the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and from Atlantic Canada. It is the first verified record for this species living outside of greenhouses in eastern Canada.New Brunswick Museum,

From 2009From -2014, incidental collections of terrestrial molluscs were made from the Far North of Ontario, Canada. Thirty-four species of terrestrial molluscs were identified from these collections, including one exotic species, Deroceras reticulatum, and three newly reported species from the Far North, Vallonia pulchella, Vertigo cf. genesii, and Gastrocopta similis. Vertigo cf. genesii is newly reported from Ontario. Some species have not been collected in Ontario for many years and some of these only once before. Subnational conservation ranks are discussed for higher-ranked species.