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Quo vadis biodiversity? Species richness following twenty years of taxonomic revisions on Afrotropical Galerucinae s. str. (Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae)
- Source :
- ZooKeys
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Pensoft Publishers, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Galerucinae is one of the most species-rich leaf beetle group with its greatest diversity occurring in tropical forests. There are 1680 nominal species of Afrotropical Galerucinae s. str. (without Alticini) described. Considering global diversity estimations, many unknown species can be presumed. Several taxa traditionally placed in “Monoleptites”, have been revised in the last twenty years. To date 259 species have been re-examined, revealing in 139 valid species and 120 mainly newly recognized synonyms. This large number of synonyms can mainly be ascribed to highly variable colour patterns, a typical character used for the identification of many chrysomelid species. Genitalic structures and molecular work can support a more precise allocation to species. Within around 72,000 specimens of galerucines s. str. from 48 museums and private collections, only 107 species were newly described. After revising approximately 15% of the Afrotropical galerucine fauna their species richness decreased from 259 to 246 species, a pattern that appears to be similar to that for other African galerucine groups. Since the estimation of the extent of global diversity based mainly on insect species richness in tropical forests, our current study which is based on hard data suggests a much lower diversity than previously predicted.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
revision
Insecta
Arthropoda
Fauna
Chrysomeloidea
010607 zoology
Biodiversity
Monoleptites
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
taxonomy
Animalia
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
biodiversity
region
biology
Chrysomelidae
Ecology
Galerucinae
biology.organism_classification
Afrotropical
Coleoptera
Geography
Taxon
Galerucinae s. str
Africa
Animal Science and Zoology
Taxonomy (biology)
Species richness
Data Paper
Leaf beetle
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 13132970 and 13132989
- Volume :
- 720
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- ZooKeys
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....19868476bba8e996248dc65f03691241
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.720.14011