Forest hoverfly community collapse: Abundance and species richness drop over four decades

To study insect decline, an important threat to biodiversity, long-term datasets are needed. Here we present a study of hoverfly (Diptera: Syrphidae) abundance and diversity in a Dutch forest, surrounded by other forests, and analyse the variation in insect numbers over four decades. Between 1982 and 2021, abundance decreased by 80%. Until 1990, abundance showed a strong decrease of 10.9% per year, mainly in nationally rare species with carnivorous larvae exposed to air. From 1990, abundance stabilised, whereas from 2000, a second period of strong decline of 9.0% per year occurred, mainly in very common species. Species richness also declined strongly between 1979 and 2021: the total number of species observed in five monitoring days dropped by 44% over those 43 years. The characteristic set of dry-forest hoverfly species disappeared over four decades. The number of nationally rare species observed at the study site declined from 19 to 9 early on, in a period (1979–1984) that coincided with intense nitrogen input and acidification caused by agriculture in the same region. The more recent decline is likely also caused by factors from outside the forest, as forest management and conditions remained constant. Continued influx of nutrients and pesticides at a regional level, as well as climate change are possible causes of the decline. Research is needed to quantify their relative effects

Grutto Landschap Project - Jaarverslag 2020:De staat van ons landschap: biomonitoring van duurzame landbouw innovaties

Dit onderzoek werd in 2020 gefinancierd door het Ministerie van LNV, Vogelbescherming Nederland, Provincie Fryslân, Wageningen University & Research, EU LIFE IP GrassBirdHabitats, EIS Kenniscentrum Insecten en Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. Het bouwt voort op de onderzoekinvesteringen in 2004-2019 door het Ministerie van LNV, het Ministerie van Economische Zaken, de Provincie Fryslân, de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) vanwege de TOP-subsidie ‘Shorebirds in space’ en de Spinoza Premie 2014 aan T. Piersma, en door bijdragen van de Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Vogelbescherming-Nederland en Wereld Natuur Fonds aan de leerstoel Trekvogelecologie aan de RuG, een anonieme donor, en het Gieskes-Strijbis Fonds. Mede mogelijk gemaakt door een subsidie in 2006 van het Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds (via It Fryske Gea) en bijdragen van de Van der Hucht De Beukelaar Stichting. De pilot met Diopsis cameravallen voor insectenmonitoring is mogelijk gemaakt door financiële ondersteuning van het Wereld Natuur Fonds (FY20-22), dat eerder ook al bijdroeg aan de ontwikkeling van de software rond de Diopsis camera

Fauna Europaea: Diptera -Brachycera

Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Pape, T., Beuk, P., Pont, A. C., Shatalkin, A. I., Ozerov, A. L., Woźnica, A. J., ... de Jong, Y. (2015). Fauna Europaea: 3, [e4187]. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.3.e4187 General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Abstract Fauna Europaea provides a public web-service with an index of scientific names (including important synonyms) of all extant multicellular European terrestrial and freshwater animals and their geographical distribution at the level of countries and major islands (east of the Urals and excluding the Caucasus region). The Fauna Europaea project comprises about 230,000 taxonomic names, including 130,000 accepted species and 14,000 accepted subspecies, which is much more than the originally projected number of 100,000 species. Fauna Europaea represents a huge effort by more than 400 contributing taxonomic specialists throughout Europe and is a unique (standard) reference suitable for many user communities in science, government, industry, nature conservation and education. The Diptera-Brachycera is one of the 58 Fauna Europaea major taxonomic groups, and data have been compiled by a network of 55 specialists. Within the two-winged insects (Diptera), the Brachycera constitute a monophyletic group, which is generally given rank of suborder. The Brachycera may be classified into the probably paraphyletic 'lower brachyceran grade' and the monophyletic Eremoneura. The latter contains the Empidoidea, the Apystomyioidea with a single Nearctic species, and the Cyclorrhapha, which in turn is divided into the paraphyletic 'aschizan grade' and the monophyletic Schizophora. The latter is traditionally divided into the paraphyletic 'acalyptrate grade' and the monophyletic Calyptratae. Our knowledge of the European fauna of Diptera-Brachycera varies tremendously among families, from the reasonably well known hoverflies (Syrphidae) to the extremely poorly known scuttle flies (Phoridae). There has been a steady growth in our knowledge of European Diptera for the last two centuries, with no apparent slow down, but there is a shift towards a larger fraction of the new species being found among the families of the nematoceran grade (lower Diptera), which due to a larger number of small-sized species may be considered as taxonomically more challenging. Most of Europe is highly industrialised and has a high human population density, and the more fertile habitats are extensively cultivated. This has undoubtedly increased the extinction risk for numerous species of brachyceran flies, yet with the recent re-discovery of Thyreophora cynophila (Panzer), there are no known cases of extinction at a European level. However, few national Red Lists have extensive information on Diptera. For the Diptera-Brachycera, data from 96 families containing 11,751 species are included in this paper

First record of the genus Blepharella (Diptera: Tachinidae) from the western Palaearctic region

Zeegers, Theo, Majnon, Bahareh (2015): First record of the genus Blepharella (Diptera: Tachinidae) from the western Palaearctic region. Linzer biologische Beiträge 47 (1): 539-543, DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.541483

A new species of Eumerus (Diptera, Syrphidae) from the Kingdom of Bhutan, the easternmost representative of the bactrianus subgroup

A new species of Eumerus, Eumerus druk Smit sp. nov., is described from Bhutan. This species belongs to the bactrianus subgroup of the strigatus species group. Seven species are currently known within this subgroup: four European, one of which is also found in the Near East, and three more only known from Tajikistan. The new species extends this disjunct distribution to the east by at least 2,000 km, stretching far beyond the reported Turano-Mediterranean region and into the Himalayas. A diagnosis and a key to all Central and Eastern Palaearctic species of the Eumerus bactrianus subgroup are provided

A new species of Eumerus (Diptera, Syrphidae) from the Kingdom of Bhutan, the easternmost representative of the bactrianus subgroup

A new species of Eumerus, Eumerus druk Smit sp. nov., is described from Bhutan. This species belongs to the bactrianus subgroup of the strigatus species group. Seven species are currently known within this subgroup: four European, one of which is also found in the Near East, and three more only known from Tajikistan. The new species extends this disjunct distribution to the east by at least 2,000 km, stretching far beyond the reported Turano-Mediterranean region and into the Himalayas. A diagnosis and a key to all Central and Eastern Palaearctic species of the Eumerus bactrianus subgroup are provided

Aanvulling op de naamlijst van de Belgische sluipvliegen (Diptera: Tachinidae)

Volume: 30Start Page: 193End Page: 19

Smart Insect Cameras

Recent studies have shown a worrying decline in the quantity and diversity of insects at a number of locations in Europe (Hallmann et al. 2017) and elsewhere (Lister and Garcia 2018). Although the downward trend that these studies show is clear, they are limited to certain insect groups and geographical locations. Most available studies (see overview in Sánchez-Bayo and Wyckhuys 2019) were performed in nature reserves, leaving rural and urban areas largely understudied. Most studies are based on the long-term collaborative efforts of entomologists and volunteers performing labor-intensive repeat measurements, inherently limiting the number of locations that can be monitored. We propose a monitoring network for insects in the Netherlands, consisting of a large number of smart insect cameras spread across nature, rural, and urban areas. The aim of the network is to provide a labor-extensive continuous monitoring of different insect groups. In addition, we aimed to develop the cameras at a relatively cheap price point so that cameras can be installed at a large number of locations and encourage participation by citizen science enthusiasts. The cameras are made smart with image processing, consisting of image enhancement, insect detection and species identification being performed, using deep learning based algorithms. The cameras take pictures of a screen, measuring ca. 30×40 cm, every 10 seconds, capturing insects that have landed on the screen (Fig. 1). Several screen setups were evaluated. Vertical screens were used to attract flying insects. Different screen colors and lighting at night, to attract night flying insects such as moths, were used. In addition two horizontal screen orientations were used (1) to emulate pan traps to attract several pollinator species (bees and hoverflies) and (2) to capture ground-based insects and arthropods such as beetles and spiders. Time sequences of images were analyzed semi-automatically, in the following way. First, single insects are outlined and cropped using boxes at every captured image. Then the cropped single insects in every image were preliminarily identified, using a previously developed deep-learning-based automatic species identification software, Nature Identification API (https://identify.biodiversityanalysis.nl). In the next step, single insects were linked between consecutive images using a tracking algorithm that uses screen position and the preliminary identifications. This step yields for every individual insect a linked series of outlines and preliminary identifications. The preliminary identifications for individual insects can differ between multiple captured images and were therefore combined into one identification using a fusing algorithm. The result of the algorithm is a series of tracks of individual insects with species identifications, which can be subsequently translated into an estimate of the counts of insects per species or species complexes. Here we show the first set of results acquired during the spring and summer of 2019. We will discuss practical experiences with setting up cameras in the field, including the effectiveness of the different set-ups. We will also show the effectiveness of using automatic species identification in the type of images that were acquired (see attached figure) and discuss to what extent individual species can be identified reliably. Finally, we will discuss the ecological information that can be extracted from the smart insect cameras