Department of Entomology, University of Georgia, 120 Cedar Street, 413 Biological Sciences Building, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Ave., Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
J Insect Sci. 2023 Jul 1;23(4). doi: 10.1093/jisesa/iead051.
Hover flies of the family Syrphidae are a highly diverse group of insects that exhibit varied life histories and provide numerous ecosystem services. Despite their importance, they are highly understudied, and many biological and distributional patterns remain unknown in regions like the midwestern United States. Data from specimens exist in regional insect collections but is largely undigitized and thus inaccessible to much of the scientific community. Here, we report our efforts to identify, recurate, and digitize thousands of specimens from the Illinois Natural History Survey Insect Collection. We then combine these data with existing datasets to compile a comprehensive checklist of Illinois hover fly fauna, assess for temporal range expansion/contraction trends, and identify species of potential conservation significance. All total, the over 20,000 specimens/records we examined revealed 209 species within 71 genera and all 4 subfamilies of Syrphidae to have ever occurred in Illinois. Based on previously published data, 68 of these species are new Illinois state records and 36 expand the previously known range significantly. Numerous species found in Illinois historically have only recently been reported further north, while others of historically southern distribution appear to be extending their range northward, possibly due to anthropogenic factors like climate change. Furthermore, 73 species have not been reported in Illinois since at least 1995, and 27 are deemed to be of potential conservation significance with few to no recent records in the Midwest or elsewhere. Our findings illustrate the importance of routine expansion, curation, and digitization of natural history collections.
食蚜蝇科的虻蝇是昆虫中高度多样化的群体，它们表现出多样的生活史，并提供了众多生态系统服务。尽管它们很重要，但在像美国中西部这样的地区，它们的许多生物学和分布模式仍然未知。标本数据存在于区域昆虫收藏中，但很大程度上未数字化，因此无法为科学界的大部分人所获取。在这里，我们报告了我们努力识别、重新整理和数字化伊利诺伊州自然历史调查昆虫收藏中的数千个标本。然后，我们将这些数据与现有数据集结合起来，编制了一份伊利诺伊州虻蝇动物区系的综合清单，评估了时间范围扩大/收缩的趋势，并确定了具有潜在保护意义的物种。我们总共检查了超过 20,000 个标本/记录，发现 71 属中的 209 种和虻蝇科的所有 4 个亚科在伊利诺伊州都有出现过。根据以前发表的数据，其中 68 种是伊利诺伊州的新记录物种，36 种显著扩大了以前已知的范围。伊利诺伊州历史上发现的许多物种最近才被报告在更北的地方，而其他历史上分布在南部的物种似乎正在向北扩展它们的范围，这可能是由于气候变化等人为因素。此外，自 1995 年以来，伊利诺伊州至少有 73 种物种没有被报告，其中 27 种被认为具有潜在的保护意义，在中西部或其他地方很少有或没有最近的记录。我们的发现说明了常规扩展、管理和数字化自然历史收藏的重要性。
