Updated list of Collembola species currently recorded from South Africa.

Charlene Janion–Scheepers,Anne Bedos,Louis Deharveng,Steven Chown

doi:10.3897/zookeys.503.8966

Abstract

Understanding the abundance and richness of species is one of the most fundamental steps in effecting their conservation. Despite global recognition of the significance of the below-ground component of diversity for ecosystem functioning, the soil remains a poorly studied terrestrial ecosystem. In South Africa, knowledge is increasing for a variety of soil faunal groups, but many still remain poorly understood. We have started to address this gap in the knowledge of South African soil biodiversity by focusing on the Collembola in an integrated project that encompasses systematics, barcoding and ecological assessments. Here we provide an updated list of the Collembola species from South Africa. A total of 124 species from 61 genera and 17 families has been recorded, of which 75 are considered endemic, 24 widespread, and 25 introduced. This total number of species excludes the 36 species we consider to be dubious. From the published data, Collembola species richness is high compared to other African countries, but low compared to European countries. This is largely a consequence of poor sampling in the African region, as our discovery of many new species in South Africa demonstrates. Our analyses also show that much ongoing work will be required before a reasonably comprehensive and spatially explicit picture of South Africa’s springtail fauna can be provided, which may well exceed 1000 species. Such work will be necessary to help South Africa meet its commitments to biodiversity conservation, especially in the context of the 2020 Aichi targets of the Convention on Biological Diversity.

Highlights

The documentation of biodiversity is an essential first step for its conservation
The number of Collembola species recorded for South Africa is low compared to wellstudied regions such as Europe (Deharveng 2007), but is the highest of all African countries south of Sahara (Thibaud 2013)
Based on new records and species discovered during recent systematic sampling in the Western Cape Province alone (Janion et al 2011a, b, Potapov et al 2011, Janion et al 2012, Liu et al 2012, Janion et al 2013), it is clear that many species remain to be recorded and described for this province

Summary

Introduction

The documentation of biodiversity is an essential first step for its conservation. A major barrier to so doing for invertebrates is a lack of taxonomic information on various groups. Given rapid environmental change and its effects on biodiversity (Butchart et al 2010), it is unclear what the rate of extinction is for many groups (Pimm et al 2010, Costello et al 2013), complicating conservation efforts and assessments of their efficacy, underscoring the urgency to further document global biodiversity (Dirzo and Raven 2003, Bacher 2012). This situation is as true for southern Africa as it is elsewhere. Much need exists for documenting and understanding biodiversity and the processes underlying its variation across a wide range of groups, and especially the soil fauna

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