The taxonomic catalog of the Brazilian fauna: Dermaptera and Phasmatodea (Insecta), with commentaries on species list, types, authorship and distribution

ABSTRACT

A checklist of Dermaptera and Phasmatodea from Brazil is presented, from the Catalog of the Brazilian Fauna project, an online platform available at http://fauna.jbrj.gov.br, which gathers taxonomic information (valid species, distribution, synonymies, depository location, etc.) from species recorded in the country. The patterns of known type locations, biome distribution, and rate of new species descriptions in Brazil are discussed. There is a great number of lost types and few numbers of secondary types, indicating that collecting activities focused on Dermaptera and Phasmatodea followed by taxonomic treatments have not been many. The best-known biome in terms of species of Dermaptera and Phasmatodea is the Atlantic Forest, followed by the Amazon Forest. There are significantly less species recorded for the other biomes. This bias may be explained by the colonization of Brazil, which started in areas of Atlantic Forest, and the several expeditions that occurred in the Amazon region in the last century. As for the rate of new species descriptions, a steady and slow pattern of new species described through time is characteristic of Dermaptera, while large gaps of time without any new taxon followed by clusters of many described species is characteristic of Phasmatodea.

KEY WORDS:
Biodiversity; checklist; earwigs; Hexapoda; Insecta; stick insects