Comparison of the biogeographic origin of three terrestrial arthropod groups in the Socotra Archipelago (Yemen)

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SOCOTRA BIODIVERSITY RESEARCH AND NATURE CONSERVATION

Comparison of the biogeographic origin of three terrestrial arthropod groups in the Socotra Archipelago (Yemen) Luboš Purchart1   · Vladimír Hula1   · Zdeněk Faltýnek Fric2  Received: 29 January 2020 / Accepted: 18 June 2020 © Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei 2020

Abstract We reviewed and compared the occurrence and biogeographic origins of three arthropod groups, darkling beetles (Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae), spiders (Araneae) and butterflies (Papilionoidea) on the Socotra archipelago (Yemen). More than half of the darkling beetles (80.3%) and spiders (51.5%) are endemic to the Socotra archipelago, in contrast with only 5 species (18.5%) of butterflies. The number of non-endemic taxa is higher among those distributed widely in the Afro-Oriental region, less of taxa from Afro-Arabian or African origin. These species colonised the Archipelago by natural means, but we document also introduction through human activity. The exact distribution and evolutionary patterns still need thorough research (e.g. molecular, phylogenetic, and phylogeographic analyses). Keywords  Socotra Archipelago · Biogeography · Tenebrionidae · Araneae · Papilionoidea

1 Introduction Islands are often used to explain various biogeographical and evolutionary patterns. They form, contrary to the majority of inland areas, discrete units that are well defined geographically, with distinct boundaries and well measurable distance (Whittaker and Fernández‑Palacios 2006). This paper belongs to a Topical Collection “Twenty years of biodiversity research and nature conservation in the Socotra Archipelago” edited by Fabio Attorre and Kay Van Damme, conceived at the 18th Friends of Socotra Conference, 26–29 September, 2019, Orto Botanico di Palermo, Palermo, Italy". Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (https​://doi.org/10.1007/s1221​0-020-00926​-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Zdeněk Faltýnek Fric [email protected] Luboš Purchart [email protected] Vladimír Hula [email protected] 1



Department of Forest Ecology, Mendel University, Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic



Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences, Institute of Entomology, Branišovská 31, 37005 Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic

2

Their faunal composition is much simpler with lower species richness and thus better explorable even in the tropics (Gillespie 2007). On the other hand, the high proportion of endemic forms of isolated island biotas (‘insularity’) has been one of the most interesting topics among naturalists and especially evolutionary biologists since the second half of the nineteenth century (Whittaker and Fernández‑Palacios 2006; Witt and Maliakal-Witt 2007). Currently, island biota belongs to the most threatened ecosystems in the world, an incredible amount of species disappeared from the Earth due to habitat loss, introduction of alien organism or direct eradication (e.g. McCreless et al. 2016; Moser et al. 2018; Holmes et al. 2019). The