Critical reflections on German Red Lists of endangered myriapod species (Chilopoda, Diplopoda) (with species list for Germany)

Peter Decker,Hans Reip,Joerg Spelda,Karin Voigtländer

doi:10.3897/ijm.6.2175

Peter Decker, Hans Reip + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3897/ijm.6.2175

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Abstract

The Red Lists of endangered species published by the German Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN - the Federal Agency of Nature Conservation) are essential tools for the nature protection in Germany since the 1970s. Although many groups of insects appear in the German Red Lists, small and inconspicuous soil organisms, among them millipedes and centipedes, have in the past been ignored. In the last few years great efforts have been made to assess these two groups, resulting in Red Lists of German Myriapoda. However, difficulties were encountered in strictly applying the Red List classification criteria to myriapods. Here we discuss those problems and some sources of error. A species list of all German Diplopoda and Chilopoda including Red List status and frequency of occurrence is provided in an Appendix.

Highlights

The basis of all protection measures are studies of the distribution and endangerment of species and habitats
Endangered species Red Lists were prepared for the first time in 1963 (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species)
In Germany nature protection practice has operated with Red Lists since 1970

Summary

Introduction

The basis of all protection measures are studies of the distribution and endangerment of species and habitats. Lists were established by Spelda (1999, 2004) for Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria as well as by Voigtländer (2004a, 2004b) for Saxony-Anhalt This change followed passage of the soil protection law in 1998 (BBodSchG 1998), which explicitly demands the protection of soil as habitat for mankind, animals and plants. The German myriapod fauna shows remarkable differences east and west of an invisible boundary passing from the Harz Mountains over Regensburg south to the Inn as well as the Rhine Valley line (Figure 2) Another common distribution limit is the 200 m elevation contour, which runs crosswise through Germany and and separates the northern lowland fauna from the southern low mountain range fauna. A final reason for improving the conservation status of Diplopoda and Chilopoda through Red Lists is that they are regarded as “living fossils” (Edgecombe 2010, Shear and Edgecombe 2010) and have an intrinsic as well as a utilitarian conservation value

Evaluation process

Procedure of classification

Methods and procedure

Conclusion