This paper analyzes the first checklist of insects from French Guiana. Compiled by a group of 70 experts based on published records, it comprises about 15 100 valid species names belonging to 20 orders and 322 families. Currently, about 17% of the species are only known from French Guiana or from the Guiana Shield region. Since Linné, the average rate of description has been 59 species per year, which has been increasing in the last 10 years. Based on a sample of recent taxonomic and faunistic papers covering 736 new species for French Guiana, 46% of the species came from new country records, the rest from new species descriptions. The rate of faunistic progress (new species or new records) is about 180 species per year over the last five years. Sixty-five percent of these faunal records came from non-professional entomologists and 74% of the holotypes of new species were collected by amateur entomologists. A rough extrapolation, using two different methods, provides a likely estimate of around 100000 species, the most conservative estimate being 67 000 species and the highest 184 000. Therefore, an estimated 80% of the species remain to be recorded and, in a best-case scenario, at least 270 years would be needed to complete the biotic inventory, at the current rate of species descriptions and distribution records. Although no order is exhaustively inventoried, the most in need of study are Diptera, Hymenoptera, Hemiptera and Trichoptera; and in absolute numbers, Coleoptera. These results and the fundamental role of non-professional entomologists in collecting and describing new species are discussed.

This article introduces the biodiversity survey “Our Planet Reviewed” in the south of French Guiana organized in February–March and August 2015. It has enabled more than 50 scientists to inventory the following groups: Actinopterygii, Amphibia, Annelida, Arachnida, Insecta, Mollusca and Squamata, with a particular effort on diverse and little-known orders, such as Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera and Hymenoptera. The forested area under investigation presents a mosaic of hills and inselbergs, with a wide variety of ecosystems. The main objectives were to discover new species for science, report first records for French Guiana, and establish a baseline inventory for biogeographic studies. The organisation of the field trip and post-field phase are supported by coordinators of major taxonomic groups. Authorisations and associated commitments, including Access and Benefit Sharing (ABS) are specified. The sampling effort, in terms of number and diversity of methods, is certainly the largest ever made i... RÉSUMÉ L'expédition naturaliste au Mitaraka : présentation des objectifs d'étude, du site et des protocoles. Cet article présente l'expédition naturaliste « La Planète Revisitée » organisée dans le sud de la Guyane en février-mars et août 2015. Elle a permis à plus de cinquante scientifiques d'inventorier les groupes suivants: Actinopterygii, Amphibia, Annelida, Arachnida, Insecta, Mollusca et Squamata, avec un effort particulier sur les ordres à la fois riches et méconnus, comme les Coléoptères, Diptères, Hémiptères et Hyménoptères. La zone forestière étudiée présente un relief de collines et inselbergs, avec une grande variété de milieux. Les objectifs principaux étaient de découvrir des nouvelles espèces pour la science, d'établir de nouvelles signalisations pour la Guyane et de dresser un inventaire de référence pour les études de biogéographie. L'organisation de la mission et les phases post-terrain s'appuient sur des coordinateurs par grands groupes taxonomiques. Les autorisations et engagements ass...

A large proportion of the insects which have invaded new regions and countries are emerging species, being found for the first time outside their native range. Being able to detect such species upon arrival at ports of entry before they establish in non-native countries is an urgent challenge. The deployment of traps baited with broad-spectrum semiochemical lures at ports-of-entry and other high-risk sites could be one such early detection tool. Rapid progress in the identification of semiochemicals for cerambycid beetles during the last 15 years has revealed that aggregation-sex pheromones and sex pheromones are often conserved at global levels for genera, tribes or subfamilies of the Cerambycidae. This possibly allows the development of generic attractants which attract multiple species simultaneously, especially when such pheromones are combined into blends. Here, we present the results of a worldwide field trial programme conducted during 2018–2021, using traps baited with a standardised 8-pheromone blend, usually complemented with plant volatiles. A total of 1308 traps were deployed at 302 sites covering simultaneously or sequentially 13 European countries, 10 Chinese provinces and some regions of the USA, Canada, Australia, Russia (Siberia) and the Caribbean (Martinique). We intended to test the following hypotheses: 1) if a species is regularly trapped in significant numbers by the blend on a continent, it increases the probability that it can be detected when it arrives in other countries/continents and 2) if the blend exerts an effective, generic attraction to multiple species, it is likely that previously unknown and unexpected species can be captured due to the high degree of conservation of pheromone structures within related taxa. A total of 78,321 longhorned beetles were trapped, representing 376 species from eight subfamilies, with 84 species captured in numbers greater than 50 individuals. Captures comprised 60 tribes, with 10 tribes including more than nine species trapped on different continents. Some invasive species were captured in both the native and invaded continents. This demonstrates the potential of multipheromone lures as effective tools for the detection of ‘unexpected’ cerambycid invaders, accidentally translocated outside their native ranges. Adding new pheromones with analogous well-conserved motifs is discussed, as well as the limitations of using such blends, especially for some cerambycid taxa which may be more attracted by the trap colour or other characteristics rather than to the chemical blend.

Ancienneté et maturité sont des composantes de la naturalité et contribuent à son évaluation. Ces qualités et leurs termes associés sont encore parfois confondus et mal employés. À partir d’une analyse de la littérature internationale, chaque qualité a été conceptualisée et une terminologie adaptée a été proposée. Les enjeux de l’ancienneté et de la maturité pour la biodiversité, certaines caractéristiques édaphiques et les fonctionnalités des écosystèmes sont explicités. Quatre seuils d’ancienneté sont proposés, ainsi qu’une réflexion en vue d’une structuration du gradient de maturité. Un état des lieux chiffré des surfaces concernées par des degrés élevés d’ancienneté et de maturité aboutit au constat qu’en France métropolitaine, seulement 29 % des forêts seraient anciennes, que moins de 3 % des peuplements gérés en futaie régulière auraient significativement dépassé l’âge d’exploitabilité.

From 2019 to 2021, scientific field campaigns have been organised in Corsica by the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, the Office français de la biodiversité and the Collectivité de Corse as part of the “Our Planet Reviewed” naturalist exploration programme. This paper presents the context, the state of biogeographical and taxonomic knowledge prior to our expeditions, and the objectives, the methods and the first results obtained. The aim was to establish a modern survey of the species present in a selection of sites representative of different Corsican ecosystems, and to further develop the natural history collections through depositing new specimens and species with associated standard DNA barcodes, useful for their identification. Over a period of three years, nineteen sites were surveyed with a semi-standardised protocol and a large-scale trapping scheme was organised in three of these. Sampling efforts focused on forest habitats at higher altitudes and on coastal dune and lowland marshland habitats. A vast array of methods was used to collect invertebrates, with a specific effort on flightinterception traps and pan traps. A total of 34 experts participated to the field surveys and more than 80 further contributed to the study of the specimens. Occurrence data are available in the Inventaire national du patrimoine naturel (http://www.inpn.fr) and, for specimens processed through DNA barcoding, specimen and DNA sequencing data will be accessible in the Barcode of Life datasystems (BOLD : http://www.boldsystems.org). In early 2023, the assembled datasets included 31,100 occurrence data for 3,900 taxa of terrestrial arthropods, representing a 53% increase in publicly available data for the island. More than 6,800 DNA barcode sequences have been produced for arthropods, representing a 14-fold increase in available sequences of Corsican insects compared to those available before the start of the programme. So far, these efforts resulted in producing the first Corsican records for 148 species and in the description of 12 species new to science.