THE FORGOTTEN POLLINATORS : FILLING A BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION GAP. Jonathan F. Colville Applied Biodiversity Research, SANBI

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1 THE FORGOTTEN POLLINATORS : FILLING A BIODIVERSITY INFORMATION GAP Jonathan F. Colville Applied Biodiversity Research, SANBI

2 South Africa s Terrestrial Biodiversity: World renowned flora! Well studied and appreciated: Floral Kingdoms, Biomes and vegetation mapping Floristic hotspots richness and endemism Red data listings Extensive National Database (PRECIS) Rapidly accumulating phylogenetic data Strong cohort of taxonomists Conservation strategies strongly influenced World renowned Fauna! Vertebrates - Roar!!! Invertebrates although appreciated Less well-known! Less well-studied! Above categories currently not available!!! However, Insects can be considered as the very glue that holds earth s ecosystems together! And yet we neglected this key component of biodiversity! if ants, bees, and termites alone were removed from the earth, terrestrial life would probably collapse (Grimaldi & Engle 2005)

3 Biodiversity Information Gap for Inverts and Insects: What do we know? SA has remarkably rich and unique diversity: Gondwanan and Relictual component (800 sp., 600 genera, 200 families, 41 orders) Wide-spread groups, but which have their centre of diversity and adaptive radiations in SA High richness and endemism!

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10 Nemestrinidae

11 Larvae??

12 tabanidae

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14 Hump-Backed Flies

15 Mydas Flies

16 Bee Flies

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18 Lacewings

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22 Bladder Grasshoppers

23 Cederberg giant katydid

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26 Biodiversity Information Gap for Inverts and Insects: What do we NOT know? Very limited baseline data on where species occur and their concentrations?! Spatial data is key! Is there data available? YES! Collate data from natural history collections, literature, and taxonomic experts

27 Monkey Beetles: 1500 sp. Endemism: 98% of species

28 Bees: >1200 sp. Endemism: >85% of species

29 N Grasshoppers: 800 sp. Endemism: 70% of species Quarter.shp Sa.shp Kilometers

30 Endemism: Bees 95% Wasps 75% Flies -78% Beetles 65% Grasshoppers 70% Lacewings 83% Millipedes & Centipedes 80% Scorpions 52% High richness, High endemism High richness, Low endemism

31 Filling the Gap: Target groups that have: high conservation value (richness and endemism) Ecologically NB (e.g. pollinators) taxonomically well-know have well-sampled and curated collections E.g. Fruit Chafer beetles Mawdsley et al. 2011

32 Biologically important group: NB Pollinators (Protea spp., Acacia spp., Orchids, Asclepiads) Ecosystem Services! Fruit feeders (some pests!) Larvae NB detritivores in soil Biological interactions: Ants, termite, beehives, wasp nets, rock hyrax) Many rare and endemic taxa Threats from: habitat loss, illegal collecting, etc. Peter & Johnson, SA J. of Bot.

33 Building the Fruit chafer dataset: Linking: Natural history collections Taxonomists Museum Curators Existing database structure (e.g. Access) Training student data capturers and Interns SABIF funding SANBI funding NRF funding Institute No. of Specimens (No. of SA taxa) Percentage Specimens digitised Percentage of records georeferenced Strengths SANC 8500 (143) % Well-curated and identified (Erik Holm, Riaan Stals). Second largest collection in SA Iziko Museum 2558 (165) 100% 95% Good collection, especially for Cape taxa Ditsong Transvaal National Museum (250) 100% 96% Well-curated and identified (James Harrison). Largest collection in SA Natal Museum 380 (40) 100% 100% Small collection, but valuable

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35 The End! Thank You. Collaborators: John Donaldson, Mike Picker, Peter Bradshaw, Beth Grobbelaar, Riaan Stals, Elme Breytenbach, Peter Matsapola, Fhatani Ramwashi, and the SABIF Team.