Small mammals of background areas in the vicinity of the Karabash copper smelter (Southern Urals, Russia)

The dataset contains records of small mammals (Eulipotyphla and Rodentia) collected in the background (unpolluted) areas in the vicinity of Karabash copper smelter (Southern Urals, Russia) and the territory of the Sultanovskoye deposit of copper-pyrite ores before the start of its development. Data were collected during the snowless periods in 2007 (18 sampling plots), 2008–2010 (13 plots annually), 2011 (30 plots) and 2012–2014 (19 plots annually). The capture of animals was carried out in different types of forests (pine, birch, mixed and floodplain), sparse birch stands, reed swamps, marshy and dry meadows, border areas, a household waste dump, areas of ruderal vegetation and a temporary camp. Our study of small mammals was conducted using trap lines (snap and live traps). During the study period, 709 specimens of small mammals were caught, which belonged to five species of shrews and 13 species of rodents. The dataset may be highly useful for studying regional fauna and the distribution of species in different habitats and could also be used as reference values for environmental monitoring and conservation activities. Our dataset contains new information on occurrences of small mammals. It includes the peculiarities of their habitat distribution in the background areas in the vicinity of the large copper smelter and the deposit of copper-pyrite ores before the start of its development (Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia). All occurrence records of 18 mammal species with georeferencing have been published in GBIF.

Reviewing taxonomic bias in a megadiverse country: primary biodiversity data, cultural salience, and scientific interest of South African animals

Taxonomic bias, resulting in some taxa receiving more attention than others, has been shown to persist throughout history. Such bias in primary biodiversity data needs to be addressed because the data are vital to environmental management. This study reviews taxonomic bias in South African primary biodiversity data obtained from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). The focus was specifically on animal classes, and regression analysis was used to assess the influence of scientific interest and cultural salience on taxonomic bias. A higher resolution analysis of the two explanatory variables’ influence on taxonomic bias is conducted using a generalised linear model on a subset of herpetofaunal families from the focal classes. Furthermore, the potential effects of cultural salience and scientific interest on a taxon’s extinction risk are investigated. The findings show that taxonomic bias in South Africa’s primary biodiversity data has similarities with global scale taxonomic bias. Among animal classes, there is strong bias towards birds while classes such as Polychaeta and Maxillopoda are under-represented. Cultural salience has a stronger influence on taxonomic bias than scientific interest. It is, however, unclear how these explanatory variables may influence the extinction risk of taxa. We recommend that taxonomic bias can be reduced if primary biodiversity data collection has a range of targets that guide (but do not limit) accumulation of species occurrence records per habitat. Within this range, a lower target of species occurrence records accommodates species that are difficult to detect. The upper target means occurrence records for any species are less urgent but nonetheless useful and thus data collection efforts can focus on species with fewer occurrence records.

Contribution to a reference library of DNA barcodes of Colombian freshwater fishes

The Barcode of Life initiative was originally motivated by the large number of species, taxonomic difficulties and the limited number of expert taxonomists. Colombia has 1,610 freshwater fish species and comprises the second largest diversity of this group in the world. As genetic information continues to be limited, we constructed a reference collection of DNA sequences of Colombian freshwater fishes deposited in the Ichthyology Collection of the University of Antioquia (CIUA), thus joining the multiple efforts that have been made in the country to contribute to the knowledge of genetic diversity in order to strengthen the inventories of biological collections and facilitate the solution of taxonomic issues in the future. This study contributes to the knowledge on the DNA barcodes and occurrence records of 96 species of Colombian freshwater fishes. Fifty-seven of the species represented in this dataset were already available in the Barcode Of Life Data System (BOLD System), while 39 correspond to new species to the BOLD System. Forty-nine specimens were collected in the Atrato River Basin and 708 in the Magdalena-Cauca asin during the period 2010-2020. Two species (Loricariichthys brunneus (Hancock, 1828) and Poecilia sphenops Valenciennes, 1846) are considered exotic to the Atrato, Cauca and Magdalena Basins and four species (Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum, 1792), Oreochromis niloticus (Linnaeus, 1758), Parachromis friedrichsthalii (Heckel, 1840) and Xiphophorus helleri Heckel, 1848) are exotic to the Colombian hydrogeographic regions. All specimens are deposited in CIUA and have their DNA barcodes made publicly available in the BOLD online database. The geographical distribution dataset can be freely accessed through the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).

Occurrence of bats in protected areas of Nepal: An update on species richness and distribution records

Bat surveys in 20 Protected Areas (PAs) of Nepal are sporadic and/or had targeted purposively a few localities, therefore, bat diversity from the PAs is yet to be explored. Bat species richness in PAs from two reviews until 2011 are inconsistent. In total, seven surveys have been undertaken in six PAs since 2011. Hence, an update and revision on chiropteran account from the PAs of Nepal is warranted. We reviewed available literatures and museum collection records, and further collated and plotted bat occurrence coordinates into the country and mapped them. In total, 44 of 53 bat species in Nepal have been recorded from 12 PAs. Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) reports highest species richness (22) followed by Shivapuri Nagarjun National Park and Buffer Zone (SNNP & BZ) (15), Makalu Barun National Park and Buffer Zone (MBNP & BZ) (14) and Chitwan National Park and Buffer Zone (CNP & BZ) (13). In contrast, survey localities are more in CNP & BZ (12), ACA and SNNP & BZ (equally 11) and MBNP & BZ (10). Species richness increased proportionately with higher survey efforts and including more habitat types in respective PAs. Three species: Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Rh. pearsonii and Rh. sinicus are recorded from six out of 12 PAs. Pipistrellus javanicus (12), Hipposideros armiger (10), Cynopterus sphinx (9) and Rh. sinicus (9) are recorded from maximum number of surveyed localities in the PAs. All the PAs have limited occurrence records. Therefore, intensive surveys are recommended for understanding actual chiropteran diversity to the PAs of Nepal.

New records for crown wasps in Europe (Hymenoptera, Stephanidae)

New occurrence records for two species of Hymenoptera Stephanidae are provided from several states of Europe. Stephanus serrator (Fabricius, 1798) is recorded for the first time for Portugal and with precise locality for Switzerland. Moreover, it is recorded for the first time in the following regions: Navarre (Spain), Wallonia (Belgium), Hesse, Berlin and Bavaria (Germany), Aosta Valley, Lombardy, Veneto, Abruzzo, Campania and Calabria (Italy), and Attica (Greece). Megischus anomalipes (Foerster, 1855) is recorded for the first time in mainland Portugal and Campania (Italy).

Checklist of freshwater fishes from Loreto, Peru

This study presents an extensive review of published and unpublished occurrence records of fish species in the Loreto department. Located in the northeast of the country, Loreto is the most geographically extensive region in the Peruvian territory. Despite the increase in fish collections in Loreto in recent years, the ichthyofauna of this department needs to be more documented. Based on a database of scientific collections and bibliographic information, an updated checklist of the freshwater fishes from Loreto is presented. The results reveal a rich and diversified ichthyofauna, with 873 species distributed in 331 genera, 50 families and 15 orders. The main groups are Characiformes (42.6%), Siluriformes (34.8%), Gymnotiformes (8.6%) and Cichliformes (7.4%). Part of the ichthyofauna has restricted distribution for Loreto (4.7%). In addition, 9.0% of species from Loreto are used in fisheries. Meanwhile, 219 species (25%) were categorized according to the IUCN criteria where only six species (0.7%) are currently considered threatened species (CR, EN or VU). The results presented in this work indicate that this department needs more studies to know the biodiversity of fish, likewise, the information presented constitutes a contribution to the knowledge of fish diversity that would support environmental management actions and decision-making aimed at conserving one of the most diverse departments of Peru.

Fungal literature records database of the sub-Antarctic Region of Aysén, Chile

To this day, merely 8% of all estimated fungi species are documented and, in certain regions, its biodiversity is practically unknown. Inside the Fungi Kingdom, macrofungi and lichens assume a critical part in the ecosystem functionality and have a historical connection to mankind's social, clinical and nutritious uses. Despite their importance, the diversity of these groups has been widely overlooked in the sub-Antarctic Region of Chile, a crucial area in the study of climate change due to its extraordinary biodiversity and its proximity to Antarctica. Few studies regarding both groups have been conducted in this sub-Antarctic Region and the data are still scarce and inaccessible, as these are only published in specialised journals, unreachable to local communities. This publication presents a records compilation available in previous published scientific and technical reports on macrofungi and lichen diversity. In total, 1263 occurrence records of 618 species (341 records of 251 macrofungi species and 922 records of 367 lichen species) were digitised and integrated into the regional platform Biodiversity Information System for Aysén (SIB-Aysén) and into GBIF. Here, we provide the fullest dataset on one of the most diverse group of living beings in one of the the least-known world regions.

NERITIDAE (GASTROPODA, NERITIMORPHA) FROM THE MALACOLOGICAL COLLECTION PROF. HENRY RAMOS MATTHEWS OF THE UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO CEARÁ, BRAZIL

The basic information obtained from scientific collections help us to understanding of Earth’s diverse biota and its biological processes. The Malacological Collection Prof. Henry Ramos Matthews (CMPHRM) of the Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC), Brazil, is a reference about the biodiversity, mainly marine, of northeastern Brazil. In this collection, the gastropod molluscs of the family Neritidae were among the most representative in number of lots. Since an accurate geographical distribution knowledge is one of the fundamental factors to the study of biodiversity, the present study aimed to describe the composition and spatially analyse the neritids deposited in the CMPHRM/UFC. There is a total of 314 lots of the Neritidae deposited at CMPHRM, belonging to eight species (Nerita chamaeleon, Nerita chlorostoma, Nerita fulgurans, Nerita tessellata, Neritina virginea, Neritina meleagris, Neritina zebra, and Smaragdia viridis). The Malacological Collection Prof. Henry Ramos Matthews of the Universidade Federal do Ceará has representatives of all species of Neritidae recorded in the Brazilian Province, which are important for confirming previous records or establishing new occurrence records. Keywords: Neritina, Nerita, Smaragdia, Brazilian Province

Improving the Accuracy of Species Identification by Combining Deep Learning With Field Occurrence Records

Citizen science is essential for nationwide ecological surveys of species distribution. While the accuracy of the information collected by beginner participants is not guaranteed, it is important to develop an automated system to assist species identification. Deep learning techniques for image recognition have been successfully applied in many fields and may contribute to species identification. However, deep learning techniques have not been utilized in ecological surveys of citizen science, because they require the collection of a large number of images, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive. To counter these issues, we propose a simple and effective strategy to construct species identification systems using fewer images. As an example, we collected 4,571 images of 204 species of Japanese dragonflies and damselflies from open-access websites (i.e., web scraping) and scanned 4,005 images from books and specimens for species identification. In addition, we obtained field occurrence records (i.e., range of distribution) of all species of dragonflies and damselflies from the National Biodiversity Center, Japan. Using the images and records, we developed a species identification system for Japanese dragonflies and damselflies. We validated that the accuracy of the species identification system was improved by combining web-scraped and scanned images; the top-1 accuracy of the system was 0.324 when trained using only web-scraped images, whereas it improved to 0.546 when trained using both web-scraped and scanned images. In addition, the combination of images and field occurrence records further improved the top-1 accuracy to 0.668. The values of top-3 accuracy under the three conditions were 0.565, 0.768, and 0.873, respectively. Thus, combining images with field occurrence records markedly improved the accuracy of the species identification system. The strategy of species identification proposed in this study can be applied to any group of organisms. Furthermore, it has the potential to strike a balance between continuously recruiting beginner participants and updating the data accuracy of citizen science.

The Wild Silkmoths (Lepidoptera: Bombycoidea: Saturniidae) of Colombia: a database of occurrence points and taxonomic checklist

Based on the review of literature and biological collections, information retrieved from public online databases, and from fieldwork conducted between 2015 and 2020, we provide more than 3500 occurrence records and an updated checklist of Colombian Saturniidae, annotated with distribution data for all species. In the first checklist of Colombian saturniids published two decades ago, a total of 184 species were cited; in the current update the number has risen to 653 species/subspecies classified in 55 genera, representing all six recognized Neotropical subfamilies. The Andean and Pacific regions are the richest, accounting for about three quarters of all species listed herein. We call attention to the fact that for most speciose saturniid genera in the Neotropics, there remains a significant need for further taxonomic and systematic research with objective and integrative approaches. Likewise, it is necessary to continue the study of Saturniidae moths in Colombia, strategically increasing the sampling efforts in specific under-sampled natural regions to further document the diversity of this family in the country.