Utilising museum data for comparative analysis of threatened insect species
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Utilising museum data for comparative analysis of threatened insect species Simon Connolly1 · Darren Ward1,2 Received: 16 March 2020 / Accepted: 17 June 2020 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Insect conservation is often impeded by a lack of species-specific data leading to difficulties in assessment of conservation and threat status. Utilising specimens and records held within natural history museums may help to overcome such limitations. We used specimens and their associated data from the New Zealand Arthropod Collection to provide a comparative analysis of threatened species and their related non-threatened congeners. A range of insect groups were covered, including families from the five mega-diverse insect orders. Data on the locality, date, habitat, and morphological measurements, were recorded for nearly 25,000 specimens from 460 species, of which 31 are Threatened and 104 are At Risk. Results found the Protected Area Network provided significantly less coverage for insect species classified as Threatened or At Risk. Body size, geographical distribution, and environmental variables were not consistent predictors of the current threat classification system. There were a disproportionately large number of At Risk species found on offshore islands. The current New Zealand threat classification system, based on trends in geographical occurrence and population sizes, does not accurately reflect the conservation needs of most insect species. This has significant implications for the utility of threat assessments for insect conservation. Keywords Body size · Geographical distribution · Natural history collections · New Zealand · Protected area network · Threat classification system
Introduction Insects are essential to the functioning of terrestrial ecosystems (Cranston 2009; New and Samways 2013). With their extraordinary diversity and abundance, they are involved in almost every ecosystem process, including pollination, seed dispersal, nutrient recycling, herbivory, and ecosystem engineering (Cranston 2009; New and Samways 2013). Recent estimates place the total global number of insect species between 2.6 and 7.8 million (Stork et al. 2015). This diversity does not make insects immune to threats. Recently, a notable review predicted global declines in insect species (Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys 2019), gaining worldwide media attention (McGrath 2019). Whilst this study has been * Darren Ward [email protected] 1
School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, PB 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
New Zealand Arthropod Collection, Landcare Research, Private Bag 92170, Auckland, New Zealand
2
criticised for over-extrapolating its findings to a global trend, it highlights the need for reliable data on insect distributions, and the importance of including insects in conservation efforts (Saunders et al 2020). Insects are often overlooked in conservation efforts, largely due to: (i) their diversity and abundance making individual species assessments difficult (New
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