Significance of Specimen Databases from Taxonomic Revisions for Estimating and Mapping the Global Species Diversity of Invertebrates and Repatriating Reliable Specimen Data

Abstract

We argue that the millions of specimen-label records published over the past decades in thousands of taxonomic revisions are a cost-effective source of information of critical importance for incorporating invertebrates into biodiversity research and conservation decisions. More specifically, we demonstrate for a specimen database assembled during a revision of the robber-fly genus Euscelidia (Asilidae, Diptera) how nonparametric species richness estimators (Chao1, incidence-based coverage estimator, second-order jackknife) can be used to (1) estimate global species diversity, (2) direct future collecting to areas that are undersampled and/or likely to be rich in new species, and (3) assess whether the plant-based global biodiversity hotspots of Myers et al. (2000) contain a significant proportion of invertebrates. During the revision of Euscelidia, the number of known species more than doubled, but estimation of species richness revealed that the true diversity of the genus was likely twice as high. The same techniques applied to subsamples of the data indicated that much of the unknown diversity will be found in the Oriental region. Assessing the validity of biodiversity hotspots for invertebrates is a formidable challenge because it is difficult to decide whether species are hotspot endemics, and lists of observed species dramatically underestimate true diversity. Lastly, conservation biologists need a specimen database analogous to GenBank for collecting specimen records. Such a database has a three-fold advantage over information obtained from digitized museum collections: (1) it is shown for Euscelidia that a large proportion of unrevised museum specimens are misidentified; (2) only the specimen lists in revisionary studies cover a wide variety of private and public collections; and (3) obtaining specimen records from revisions is cost-effective. Resumen: Sostuvimos que los millones de registros de especimenes publicados en miles de revisiones taxonómicas en décadas anteriores son una fuente de información costo-efectiva de importancia crítica para la incorporación de invertebrados en decisiones de investigación y conservación. Más específicamente, para una base de datos de especimenes de moscas del género Euscelidia (Asilidae, Diptera) demostramos como se pueden utilizar estimadores no paramétricos de riqueza de especies (Chao 1, estimador de cobertura basado en incidencia, navaja de segundo orden) para (1) estimar la diversidad global de especies, (2) dirigir colecciones Specimen Databases in Biodiversity Research 479futuras aáreas que están sub-muestreadas y/o probablemente tengan especies nuevas y (3) evaluar si los sitios globales de importancia para la biodiversidad basados en plantas de Myers et al. (2000) contienen una proporción significativa de invertebrados. Durante la revisión de Euscelidia el número de especies conocidas fue más del doble, pero la estimación de riqueza de especies reveló que la diversidad real del género probablemente también era el doble. Las mismas técnicas aplicadas a las sub...

Notes on the frugivorous fruit fly (Diptera: Tephritidae) fauna of western Africa, with description of a new Dacus species

“…) resulting in 12 samples. This approach was suggested by Meier & Dikow (2004) to use collection specimens for richness estimations, except that we used 10 year periods rather than 5 years because of the limited number of records for certain periods. As species richness is known to have a positive relationship with area size (Burgess et al 2004), this can be corrected for by using a mathematical approach using the formula developed by Rosenzweig (1995): BVd=BV/A z with BV being the biological value in question (in our analysis the species richness), A being the area (in square kilometers) and BVd the biological value corrected for area, and with z set at 0.2 as suggested by Burgess et al (2004).…”

Using Taxonomic Revision Data to Estimate the Global Species Richness and Characteristics of Undescribed Species of Diving Beetles (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae)

“…To give an idea of the extent of the taxonomic literature which could be utilized for this purpose, a literature search by Meier and Dikow (2002) found that more than 2300 zoological revisions were published between 1990 and 2002. Given the success of the two attempts to utilize this information carried out so far, we believe that if this method is applied to a broader range of taxa, possibly incorporating additional explanatory variables, we will gain much insight into the magnitude and distribution of species richness which will help us focus taxonomic expertise and funding into areas where they are most needed.…”

Datos geográficos de los murciélagos (Chiroptera) en el Neotrópico

“…Algunos beneficios del portal de GBIF son permitir el acceso a un alto núme-ro de registros y la repatriación de la información (Edwards, 2004). Sin embargo, pueden encontrarse diferentes problemas y errores en las bases de datos asociadas a GBIF (Meier & Dikow, 2004;Chapman, 2005;Yesson et al, 2007;Costello et al, 2012), algunos de estos son la presencia de sinonimias, errores tipográ-ficos y referencias geográficas incorrectamente relacionadas (Yesson et al, 2007;Costello et al, 2012). Así, una gran cantidad de datos disponibles en las bases de datos consultadas a través de la red, pueden no tener referencia geográfica o si la hay es imprecisa (Soberon & Peterson, 2009); en muchos casos, los registros representan a algunos taxones y se concentran en unas pocas regiones (Yesson et al, 2007).…”