Insects of French Guiana: a baseline for diversity and taxonomic effort

Abstract

This paper analyzes the first checklist of insects from French Guiana. Compiled by a group of 70 experts based on published records, it comprises about 15 100 valid species names belonging to 20 orders and 322 families. Currently, about 17% of the species are only known from French Guiana or from the Guiana Shield region. Since Linné, the average rate of description has been 59 species per year, which has been increasing in the last 10 years. Based on a sample of recent taxonomic and faunistic papers covering 736 new species for French Guiana, 46% of the species came from new country records, the rest from new species descriptions. The rate of faunistic progress (new species or new records) is about 180 species per year over the last five years. Sixty-five percent of these faunal records came from non-professional entomologists and 74% of the holotypes of new species were collected by amateur entomologists. A rough extrapolation, using two different methods, provides a likely estimate of around 100 000 species, the most conservative estimate being 67 000 species and the highest 184 000. Therefore, an estimated 80% of the species remain to be recorded and, in a best-case scenario, at least 270 years would be needed to complete the biotic inventory, at the current rate of species descriptions and distribution records. Although no order is exhaustively inventoried, the most in need of study are Diptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera and Trichoptera; and in absolute numbers, Coleoptera. These results and the fundamental role of non-professional entomologists in collecting and describing new species are discussed.

Annotated checklist of the Dermaptera (Insecta) of French Guiana

“…Thirty-seven species were recorded from Surinam and 14 from French Guiana by Brindle (1968b). A few additional ones have since then been described (Brindle 1971b(Brindle , 1982 and it is likely that the number of species is probably similar in these two countries, but Surinam has until now been less studied than French Guiana. In the Guiana Shield, Venezuela has a greater diversity with 85 species recorded, which is probably due to its larger size and to its altitudinal range (up to 4978 m) which enable more diversity.…”

“…Dermaptera (earwigs) is a small insect order of about 2000 species with a greater diversity in tropical regions, especially in South-East Asia and in the Neotropics (Popham 2000). In Central and South America, species knowledge remains poor although several taxonomical and geographical accounts have been published between 1960and 1980mostly (Brindle 1968a, b, 1971b, c, d, 1974, 1977, 1982reichardt 1968a, b, 1970, 1971. Many of the newly described species are known by a few specimens only.…”

Conservation of biodiversity through taxonomy, data publication, and collaborative infrastructures

“…Filling the remaining gaps can be more cost-efficiently achieved if nonspecialists can recognize species, including unnamed species, and work with specialists to identify them (Costello et al 2013b). People not employed by research organizations already play a significant role in taxonomy (reviewed in Costello et al 2013aCostello et al , 2013bBrûlé & Touroult 2014).…”

Synthèse des connaissances des Mantodea de Guyane

“…Le nombre d'espèces mentionnées de Guyane passe à 77 dans Ehrmann (2002), puis à 92 dans Agudelo Rondon et al (2007) grâce à un renouveau dans les prospections, lesquelles se poursuivent jusqu'à aujourd'hui, en particulier avec les récoltes massives réalisées depuis 2007 principalement à la Montagne des Chevaux par la Société Entomologique Antilles-Guyane (SEAG) et celles plus localisées au massif du Mitaraka (extrême sud-ouest de la Guyane) dans le cadre de la mission de connaissance de la biodiversité, « La Planète Revisitée » (expéditions en 2015), organisée collaborativement par le MNHN et Pro-Natura International (Pascal et al 2015 ;Touroult et al 2018). Douze espèces ont été décrites par des spécimens uniquement connus de Guyane (autant qu'on le sache) et six espèces sont endémiques à sub-endémiques de Guyane (Brûlé & Touroult 2014 ;Roy 2015Roy , 2019.…”