Two not too long ago printed research doc 35 new beetle species for the islands of Saba and St. Eustatius. Even with these newest additions, it’s nonetheless estimated that almost three quarters of the beetle inhabitants remains to be unknown. Beetles play an important function in breaking down pure waste and conserving bugs in verify, each necessary roles particularly for small Caribbean islands.
Beetles symbolize a number of the tiniest inhabitants of the Dutch Caribbean however play a vital function within the setting. They work as tiny decomposers and are important in recycling vitamins from lifeless leaves and pure waste again into the bottom. As predators, they may also help maintain insect populations in verify, particularly pests like caterpillars and aphids which might injury crops. Moreover, with over 350,000 species worldwide, beetles symbolize a fifth of all residing organisms on this planet and almost 40% of described bugs.
Taxonomic Obstacle: Sadly, there may be nonetheless lots that researchers don’t know concerning the beetle populations of the northern Leeward Islands. Dubbed the “taxonomic obstacle”, that is because of the hole between the native taxonomic information and a scarcity of educated taxonomists within the area. In truth, it’s estimated that solely about 10-20% of the identified beetle species of the islands have been appropriately recognized so far.
New Data: Two new research labored to bridge this hole for the islands of Saba and St. Eustatius. Between 2008 and 2020, three researchers visited Saba and recorded a complete of twenty-two completely different beetle species. Of those, 14 had been new to Saba or confirmed beforehand provisional data and 4 had been new to the Dutch Antilles. With this new examine, the full variety of beetle species recorded on Saba is now round 100.
In 2020, one researcher on St. Eustatius was capable of gather 46 beetle species, of which 21 had been new to the island, together with 15 which had been new to the Dutch Antilles. Including to earlier data, this now brings the full variety of identified beetle species for the island to 117, which researchers consider to be a couple of quarter of the variety of species anticipated.
Report your sightings: Have you ever noticed any beetles or different bugs?
At present, researcher Jan-Joost Mekkes (jayjaymekkes@hotmail.com) is on Sint Eustatius and Michiel Boeken (michiel.boeken@gmail.com) on Saba. Please ahead them your beetle and different insect sightings. Or submit your sightings and images instantly your self on the web site www.Remark.org or obtain the free apps (iPhone (iObs) & Android (ObsMapp)).
Species stories by native communities and vacationers are invaluable for nature conservation efforts to assist enhance public consciousness and general species safety. Apart from, DCNA, Remark Worldwide and Naturalis Biodiversity Heart are working collectively to develop on automated species identification app in your telephone. Your uploaded images are of nice worth to make this potential. For questions, please contact analysis@DCNAnature.org
Learn extra: You could find the finished record of the beetle species documented throughout these research within the Dutch Caribbean Biodiversity Database. See https://www.dcbd.nl/doc/results-entomological-collecting-trip-st-eustatius-coleoptera and https://www.dcbd.nl/doc/two-small-beetle-collections-saba-coleoptera
For full article, see https://dcnanature.org/beetles-dutch-caribbean/
[Photo above: The lady beetle Cycloneda sanguinea. Credit: Jan-Joost Mekkes.]