Portuguese Moth Recording Scheme

João Nunes; Helder Cardoso; Ana Valadares; Paula Banza; João Tomás; Thijs Valkenburg

doi:10.15468/mbpxnd

Portuguese Moth Recording Scheme

Citation

Nunes J, Cardoso H, Valadares A, Banza P, Tomás J, Valkenburg T (2023). Portuguese Moth Recording Scheme. Version 1.3. GBIF Portugal. Occurrence dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/mbpxnd accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-12-11.

Description

This resource includes the records of macro-moths produced by the Portuguese Moth Recording Scheme called "Rede de Estações de Borboletas Nocturnas" (REBN). This citizen science project promotes public participation in the production of faunistic data. The dataset consists of a collection of personal observations of the participants. It is intended to be updated annually with the results from the previous year. As a result from 2021 samplings, more than 11 000 records are included.

Purpose

This dataset was developed by the coordination team of the Rede de Estações de Borboletas Nocturnas with the intentions to make public all the produced data and to support the project with a stable repository. As there are huge lacks of knowledge about the moths of Portugal (e.g. in species distribution and phenology), we consider that, in long-term, this dataset can turn out to be a good source of information. The data is intended to be diversely used by the community, ideally to promote nature conservation. The 2021 records that represented a significant extension of the known distribution of the species in Portugal were highlighted in Corley et al. 2022. A total of 45 records of 40 species were highlighted. The 2021 records from Lousada are discussed in Nunes 2022.

Sampling Description

Study Extent

The geographic and temporal scope of this dataset is mainland Portugal and the Madeira Archipelago, during 2021.

Sampling

Sampling procedures were based on light trapping. There is some variation in the sampling protocol between participants (sampling stations) that can be attributed to differences in the design of moth traps (e.g. Heath trap, Skinner trap, Robinson trap), the light source (e.g. actinic light, mixed light, LED) and its power. Moreover, the time effort is also variable between samplings. These differences are considered in the columns samplingEffort and eventTime. The right method used for each record is stated in the columns samplingProtocol (e.g. Skinner trap with Mercury vapor light of 125 W).

Quality Control

To ensure the quality of the data, all the records that consisted of a significant increase in the known distribution of the species , i.e., a first record of a given species for a given province, were personally confirmed by the authors through the analysis of photos of the specimen(s) that support that record. In addition, records of uncommon species were also consistently verified by the authors. In the preparation of the dataset for GBIF publication, data consistency was verified using cluster algorithms using OpenRefine.

Method steps

The present data were obtained from the database of the project "Rede de Estações de Borboletas Nocturnas", from which the records where column “Por confirmar” contained “Yes” were filtered in Open Refine – in order to select only the records that the participants considered confirmed.
To select only the records of macro-moths, just the families Cossidae, Drepanidae, Erebidae, Euteliidae, Geometridae, Hepialidae, Lasiocampidae, Limacodidae, Noctuidae, Nolidae, Notodontidae, Saturniidae, Sphingidae were considered for this dataset.
All the columns were placed in DwC format and mandatory columns were added: type, modified, license, collectionCode, datasetName, basisOfRecord, occurrenceStatus.
The identifications in species groups were safe identification is only possible through dissection were reduced to genus level. The original identifications from the participants were maintained in the column verbatimIdentification. The column taxonRank present the taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName column.
Some participants use the iNaturalist social network to get some help with moth identification (either by users, or through the AI algorithm). To signal the records identified using this network, a column named identificationRemarks was created and filled with "iNaturalist". The column identifiedBy is empty for these records.

Taxonomic Coverages

This dataset includes 11123 records referring to specimens of 13 different families, 280 genera and 512 species/subspecies.

Animalia
rank: kingdom
Arthropoda
rank: phylum
Insecta
rank: class
Lepidoptera
rank: order
Cossidae
rank: family
Drepanidae
rank: family
Erebidae
rank: family
Euteliidae
rank: family
Geometridae
rank: family
Hepialidae
rank: family
Lasiocampidae
rank: family
Limacodidae
rank: family
Noctuidae
rank: family
Nolidae
rank: family
Notodontidae
rank: family
Saturniidae
rank: family
Sphingidae
rank: family

Geographic Coverages

The occurrences are in mainland Portugal and Madeira Archipelago.

Bibliographic Citations

Corley, M. F. V., Cardoso, H., Nunes, J., Valadares, A., & Valkenburg, T. (2022). New and interesting Portuguese Lepidoptera records from 2021 (Insecta: Lepidoptera). SHILAP Revista De lepidopterología, 50(200), 617–631. - https://doi.org/10.57065/shilap.270
Nunes, J. (2022). Moth diversity of Mata de Vilar, Lousada, Portugal (Lepidoptera). Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa, 70, 367-372. -

Contacts

João Nunes
originator
position: N/A
N/A
PT

Helder Cardoso
originator
position: N/A
N/A
PT

Ana Valadares
originator
position: N/A
N/A
PT

Paula Banza
originator
position: N/A
N/A
PT

João Tomás
originator
position: N/A
N/A
PT

Thijs Valkenburg
originator
position: N/A
N/A
PT

João Nunes
metadata author
position: N/A
N/A
PT

Helder Cardoso
metadata author
position: N/A
N/A
PT

João Nunes
administrative point of contact
position: N/A
N/A
PT
email: redeborboletas@gmail.com