Insect taxonomy in species-rich countries: the way forward?

Abstract

There are two extremes in taxonomic behavior - publishing quickly as new taxa become available, and waiting a lifetime in the hope of publishing results that cannot be faulted. Neither of these extremes meets the needs of contemporary biologists in furthering our understanding of the evolution and maintenance of biological diversity. Part of the reason for these extremes is our failure to define suitable objectives for taxonomy. Instead of emphasising the units of biological diversity, we should concentrate on investigating patterns, structural, biological, ecological, temporal, and geographical, because it is these patterns that will generate novel ideas about the evolutionary history of organisms, and that will be most likely to be of interest to the future of our own species. To investigate these patterns, we need to give greater thought to ensuring that our methods of data acquisition are consistent with our methods of data analysis. Even if we take seriously as our objective the description of all living species, then we should be devising methods of sampling natural diversity that are statistically acceptable, not haphazard. However, the following comments, credited to Willis Jepson (1867-1946) in the latest edition of the Jepson Manual of Higher Plants of California, seem appropriate to our problems as insect taxonomists: "The botanist's objective is a furtherance of knowledge of living plants. He wishes to discover new facts and establish new principles. If wise, he will never try to produce a work which is perfect, complete and final. Any such work would be a paradox and at cross purposes with our knowledge of living things and our ideas of endless evolution associated with them. Completion, perfection, finality, represent an anomaly, a contradiction in the field of biology. The far seeing botanist will strive to do work which is inspiring, productive of thought and promoting the soundest progress, so that botanical science will ever advance into new and more fruitful fields".

DNA barcoding a regional bee (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) fauna and its potential for ecological studies

“…DNA barcoding also provides a simple and accurate way to associate sexes in insects, many of which are dimorphic and may presently be described as separate species, as demonstrated in this study and elsewhere (Janzen et al 2005). Mound (1998) suggested that even in well-studied insect groups, at least 25% of all recognized species names are subsequently placed into synonymy upon revisionary work. Accurate sex association certainly would contribute to this effort, which ultimately assists in generating accurate regional and global species lists.…”

“…2005). Mound (1998) suggested that even in well‐studied insect groups, at least 25% of all recognized species names are subsequently placed into synonymy upon revisionary work. Accurate sex association certainly would contribute to this effort, which ultimately assists in generating accurate regional and global species lists.…”

“…Considering that most insect surveys in terrestrial systems, including those of bees, use sampling methods which capture adults, DNA barcoding facilitates linking studies of alpha diversity to those which investigate functional diversity (as per Tilman & Lehman 2001; Maclaurin & Sterelny 2008), thus facilitating broader ecological knowledge (Mound 1998). For instance, DNA barcoding allows immature life stages to be matched to adult specimens (Janzen et al .…”

Sixteen new records of Odonata for Colombia from the Araracuara Region (Perilestidae, Calopterygidae, Heteragrionidae, Megapodagrionidae, Polythoridae, Coenagrionidae, Aeshnidae, Gomphidae, Libellulidae)

“…The taxonomic diversity observed in this rapid assessment clearly justifies continued taxonomic inventories of insect taxa within key geographical areas (hotspots) ( Mound 1998). Since the preliminary list of Odonata for the Colombian Amazon was published ( Bota-Sierra et al 2015), the number of new records has increased due to increased surveying and recent taxonomic studies ( Bota-Sierra et al 2018a, 2018b; Stand-Pérez et al 2019; Stand-Pérez & Pérez-Gutiérrez 2020; González-Gómez et al 2020).…”