The global EPTO database: Worldwide occurrences of aquatic insects

Motivation: Aquatic insects comprise 64% of freshwater animal diversity and are widely used as bioindicators to assess water quality impairment and freshwater eco-system health, as well as to test ecological hypotheses. Despite their importance, a comprehensive, global database of aquatic insect occurrences for mapping freshwater biodiversity in macroecological studies and applied freshwater research is missing. We aim to fill this gap and present the Global EPTO Database, which includes world-wide geo- referenced aquatic insect occurrence records for four major taxa groups: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata (EPTO).Main type of variables contained: A total of 8,368,467 occurrence records globally, of which 8,319,689 (99%) are publicly available. The records are attributed to the cor-responding drainage basin and sub-catchment based on the Hydrography90m dataset and are accompanied by the elevation value, the freshwater ecoregion and the pro-tection status of their location. Spatial location and grain: The database covers the global extent, with 86% of the observation records having coordinates with at least four decimal digits (11.1 m preci-sion at the equator) in the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84) coordinate refer-ence system.Time period and grain: Sampling years span from 1951 to 2021. Ninety- nine percent of the records have information on the year of the observation, 95% on the year and month, while 94% have a complete date. In the case of seven sub-datasets, exact dates can be retrieved upon communication with the data contributors. Major taxa and level of measurement: Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Trichoptera and Odonata, standardized at the genus taxonomic level. We provide species names for 7,727,980 (93%) records without further taxonomic verification.Software format: The entire tab-separated value (.csv) database can be downloaded and visualized at https://glowabio.org/project/epto_database/ . Fifty individual data-sets are also available at https://fred.igb-berlin.de, while six datasets have restricted access. For the latter, we share metadata and the contact details of the authors

Description of the larva of Leptagrion dispar Selys, 1876 (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) with notes on distribution and ecology of the specie

Santos, Laís Rodrigues, Ribeiro, Cintia, Mariano, Rodolfo, Rodrigues, Marciel Elio (2020): Description of the larva of Leptagrion dispar Selys, 1876 (Odonata: Coenagrionidae) with notes on distribution and ecology of the specie. Zootaxa 4896 (1): 131-139, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4896.1.

Selecting indicators based on biodiversity surrogacy and environmental response in a riverine network: bringing operationality to biomonitoring

An efficient indicator group should fulfill operational and performance-related criteria, including reasonable taxonomic knowledge, costs, response to environmental changes and strong proxy-capacity for biodiversity groups. However, in the real world many trade-offs are involved in the selection of an indicator group, and a single group rarely satisfies all criteria. We investigated cross-taxon congruence of assemblage composition patterns using both quantitative and qualitative data between adult dragonflies and aquatic insects (midges, Ephemeroptera-Plecoptera-Trichoptera (EPT), beetles and entire aquatic insects assemblage). Also, we tested whether environmental and spatial variables were important drivers for cross-taxon congruence. Finally, we developed a set of guiding criteria that avoid arbitrariness in the selection of the best indicator group. We sampled adult dragonflies and aquatic insects in 41 streams and rivers along a riparian vegetation loss gradient in a Neotropical riverine network. We used Procrustes analyses to verify surrogacy between groups and the association of each group with environmental and spatial predictors. The criteria used involves both operational and performance aspects to select an indicator group. Our results showed that adult dragonflies were weakly congruent with the entire aquatic insects assemblage and aquatic insect subgroups were moderate (beetles) to strongly (EPT and midges) congruent with the entire assemblage. Comparisons between EPT, midges and beetles were also weakly congruent, with the exception of midges-EPT. The association between assemblage patterns and overall environmental predictors was significant for all groups, while with spatial patterns, only midges and entire assemblage showed significant results. Numerical resolution slightly improved the congruence results. Incidence data could be used instead of abundance, due to higher congruence values compared to abundance data. Based on cost-benefit, EPT was selected as the best indicator group for monitoring the effects of riparian vegetation loss on aquatic biodiversity, and its use could be viable in biomonitoring programs

O CONTEÚDO DE SISTEMÁTICA E FILOGENÉTICA EM LIVROS DIDÁTICOS DO ENSINO MÉDIO

É fundamental identificar as transformações nas populações de organismos ao longo do tempo e situar as linhagens com os seus representantes atuais, facilitando uma aprendizagem coerente com o conhecimento biológico atual. Por essas razões, nesse trabalho realizamos uma análise qualitativa sobre o conteúdo Sistemática e Filogenética em cinco livros didáticos recomendados pelo Programa Nacional do Livro para o Ensino Médio. Verificou-se que entre os livros analisados nenhum utiliza a filogenia como eixo integrador do ensino. Acredita-se que a filogenia, como eixo integrador, permita uma abordagem comparativa da vida, facilitando os estudos de Zoologia e Botânica e fornecendo subsídios para a compreensão da diversidade biológica voltada para uma abordagem evolutiva

Revealing the Odonatofauna of Northeastern Brazil: new Heteragrion Selys, 1862 (Odonata: Heteragrionidae) species from Bahia state

Vilela, Diogo Silva, Rodrigues, Marciel Elio, Lencioni, Frederico A. A. (2022): Revealing the Odonatofauna of Northeastern Brazil: new Heteragrion Selys, 1862 (Odonata: Heteragrionidae) species from Bahia state. Zootaxa 5178 (5): 493-500, DOI: https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5178.5.

O CONTEÚDO DE SISTEMÁTICA E FILOGENÉTICA EM LIVROS DIDÁTICOS DO ENSINO MÉDIO

É fundamental identificar as transformações nas populações de organismos ao longo do tempo e situar as linhagens com os seus repre sentantes atuais, facilitando uma aprendizagem coerente com o conheci mento biológico atual. Por essas razões, nesse trabalho realizamos uma análise qualitativa sobre o conteúdo Sistemática e Filogenética em cinco livros didáticos recomendados pelo Programa Nacional do Livro para o Ensino Médio. Verificou-se que entre os livros analisados nenhum utiliza a filogenia como eixo integrador do ensino. Acredita-se que a filogenia, como eixo integrador, permita uma abordagem comparativa da vida, faci litando os estudos de Zoologia e Botânica e fornecendo subsídios para a compreensão da diversidade biológica voltada para uma abordagem evo lutiva

Dragonflies within and outside a protected area: a comparison revealing the role of well-preserved atlantic forests in the preservation of critically endangered, phytotelmatous species

Understanding the interactions between protected areas and the surrounding landscape has become a central issue to conservation of biodiversity. The important role of protected areas in the preservation of biodiversity in tropical hotpots is widely recognized, but the role of the landscape surrounding those hotspots is poorly understood, particularly with regard to insects. In this study, we evaluated the species richness, composition, and beta diversity of Odonata assemblages inside and in the surroundings of a protected area in the Atlantic Forest hotspot. Sampling was carried out in the Private Reserve of Natural Heritage Veracel Station and its surroundings in the southern region of Bahia. Forty sites were sampled, 22 within the reserve and 18 in the surrounding areas. We found both a greater total species richness, and a greater richness with regard to the suborder Anisoptera in the surrounding areas. In addition, the species composition differed less between the sampling sites inside the protected area. Some of the species found inside the protected area did, however, make a greater contribution of the individual species to beta diversity (SCDB). Our study suggests that the surroundings of a protected area can contribute to the maintenance of regional diversity of dragonflies, but the protected areas play a vital role in supporting critically endangered species and populations of forest specialists, e.g., phytotelmatous species. Implications for insect conservation: Our results show that the composition of the odonate species assemblages may provide a means to assess the importance of protected areas to Odonata communities. Our study also highlights the importance of PAs to the maintenance of the regional Odonata species pool, especially to forest specialist species and to threatened species