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How data curation and new geographical records can change the conservation status of threatened brazilian butterflies

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Abstract

Primary data, such as geographical records of species, are base-line for conservation status assessments. For many years, data on Brazil’s threatened butterflies (58 taxa (based on Brazilian Red List Fauna of 2014)) have been in need of improvement and the present paper provides a careful curation of their geographical distribution data as well as an update of extent of occurrence (EOO) and area of occupancy (AOO). EOO and AOO were estimated using two scenarios, one named “previous estimate” using all only published geographical records, and other named “current estimate” using both, published records (from literature) plus all newly obtained “unpublished records” (not published in literature). In total, ~ 6,700 records were compiled from several sources; 1,053 records are non duplicated geographical data. Of these 1,053 records, 566 (69%) come from surveyed literature (published records), 258 (31%) are unpublished records, and 229 (22%) were found to contain errors after data curation.

Comparing “previous” to “current” estimates of both, EOO and AOO, changes in geographical range were reported for 48 taxa (83%). Based on current data (applying the thresholds of IUCN criterion B (geographic range data)), there is a potential for changes in conservation status categories for 51 taxa (88%). Importantly, approximately half of unpublished records are from scientific collections and the remainder were provided by citizen scientists (via personal communication), showing the importance of both data sources. The present updates of geographical records based on new records and curated data (and consequently, EOO and AOO) of threatened Brazilian butterflies may aid future conservation status assessments and also reinforce the importance of data curation.

Implications for insect conservation

The present study represents the most up-to-date effort to estimate EOO and AOO of threatened Brazilian butterflies. The new data presented here can be used for a more acurate conservation status assessments for these taxa, revealing a more realistic scenario for several species included in the national and global Red lists.

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Acknowledgements

We thank all people who directily or indirecly contributed information for this study (full list Appendix S1). To Olaf H. H. Mielke, Mirna M. Casagrande and Eduardo Carneiro (DZUP), Alexandre Soares (MNRJ), Márcio Félix, Claudia L. Rodrigues and Felipe F. F. Moreira (CEIOC), Debora M. F. Mendonça (RNV), Fernando A. Silveira (UFMG), Marcelo Duarte (MZUSP), Sinval S. Neto (MELQ) for all these curators in charge of the visited collections for facilitating access (see full list Appendix S1). To Dr. Mark Collins for valuable comments and suggestions to improve the manuscript; We also thank Luiz Freire, Luan Andrade, Rodrigo Conte, Edson Roberto, Tiago Babosa, Antonio C. Fiorito Junior, Orleans Ramos and Hilton M. Cristovão for providing beautiful photographs of this study. AVLF acknowledges support from FAPESP (BIOTA-FAPESP grants 2011/50225-3, 2013/50297-0 and 2021/03868–8), from the Brazilian Research Council–CNPq (421248/2017-3 and 304291/2020-0) and from the National Science Foundation (DEB-1256742). AHBR thanks the CNPq (grant 130314/2016-1) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior–Brazil (CAPES) - Finance Code 001 for the present scholarship. This publication is part of the RedeLep ‘Rede Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Lepidópteros’ SISBIOTABrazil/CNPq (563332/2010-7). The present study is registered in the SISGEN (AE91E20).

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Correspondence to Augusto H. B. Rosa or André V. L. Freitas.

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Rosa, A.H.B., Ribeiro, D.B. & Freitas, A.V.L. How data curation and new geographical records can change the conservation status of threatened brazilian butterflies. J Insect Conserv 27, 403–414 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10841-023-00464-0

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