One of the most serious limitations to solving taxonomic problems is lacking documentation of extant arthropods from reference material in local collections, affecting taxonomy worldwide and, especially in the Global South, in countries such as Colombia.
Mountain characteristics in the country has resulted in high endemism in certain hotspots, making Colombia one of the most diverse countries in the world. With only little survey activity in the Caribbean region—from arid zones at La Guajira, to basins and isolated mountains chains as the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the Serranía del Perijá and Montes de María—the lack of knowledge makes conservation of arthropod biodiversity is a priority.
This project aims to explore the diversity of select arthropod groups, including Cerambycoidea, Formicidae, Opiliones, Araneae, Odonata and Mantodea in the Caribbean region of Colombia. This will be achieved through a series of visits to different collections, while strengthening the collection of arthropods in the Universidad del Atlántico.
A revision will be performed by experts of each group, as well as students with an interest in taxonomy. In the short-term, the project will generate and publish papers and dataset checklists, occurrences and maps on each of the taxonomic groups, supporting long-term studies in conservation of strategic ecosystems like the tropical dry forest.
Project progress
The project has accomplished satisfactory results until now. One checklist has been published through GBIF (Cerambycidae of the Caribbean of Colombia), and one dataset of occurrence of the same group is currently under data quality revision. The proposed deliverables in this project are lists of occurrences, checklists and richness maps for all groups (Odonata, Mantodea, Cerambycoidea, Formicidae, Opiliones and Araneae), as well as a webpage of Cerambycoidea from the Caribbean of Colombia.
Regarding the lists of occurrences, progress has been estimated in 100% for Cerambycoidea (50% currently under data quality review for publication), 10% for Formicidae, 100% for Odonata, 10% for Mantodea, 50% for Opiliones and 20% for Araneae.
Regarding the checklists, progress has been estimated in 40% (already published in the first version) for Cerambycoidea, 15% for Formicidae, 80% for Odonata, 10% for Mantodea, 50% for Opiliones, 10% for Spiders.
For those lists of occurrences and checklist, the publication is estimated between July 2022 and May 2023, while for the richness maps the publication is estimated between February and May 2023.
The website of “Cerambycoidea del Caribe colombiano” presents an advance of 30% and the publication is estimated in June 2023.
The project has been promoted in the local newspaper through their website as well as through different social networks: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.
As for the communication strategies to be used, the project will share the link of the project webpage with the Universidad del Atlántico, to receive support for the dissemination through their social networks. Another strategy that is planned to be implemented is to reinforce the usage of the project website, where the information will be available, in order to create a base for other scientists who can use, replicate and update the work of the project. Also, to reach the scientific community the results will be published in indexed journals, not only presenting the tabulated data, but also analyzing the biodiversity.
