Coleoptera of Canada. The Biota of Canada – A biodiversity assessment. Part 1: the terrestrial arthropods

Canada’s beetle fauna is diverse, dynamic and still inadequately known. Many new species remain to be described and most Canadian ecosystems are under-sampled and superficially explored. Still others, including adventive and potentially invasive species from our trading partners, and native species expanding their range northward due to human-induced global climate change, occur unnoticed in Canada. To address these challenges, the authors sought to provide an overview of Canadian beetles, including an analysis targeting the identification of knowledge gaps and areas of research priority. Their analysis included estimates of unrecognized diversity from the world’s expert beetle taxonomists and a large, dataset of DNA sequences acquired from over 77,000 Canadian beetle specimens at the Canadian National Collection of Insect, Arthropods and Nematodes. Their study revealed that as of early 2018, 8302 species of beetles occur in Canada, a 23% increase in known species since the first checklist was created in 1979. A total of 639 non-native species of beetle have been detected in Canada, the majority of which are rove beetles, weevils, leaf beetles and ground beetles. The greatest increase in knowledge has occurred for the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Although the beetle faunas of all provinces and territories remain inadequately known, the central and western regions should be key priority areas for future targeted sampling. The authors estimated that approximately 1000-1200 beetle species remain unreported in Canada, either as new records of species known from the United States, or as undescribed species. The barcode of life DNA reference database on Canadian beetle species is far from comprehensive and needs much data vetting by specialists, but has reached approximately 70% representation after this study (data generated mostly by AAFC’s Genomics Research and Development Initiative project). The beetle groups with the highest number of estimated unrecognized diversity in Canada were the rove beetles, ground beetles, feather-wing beetles, weevils and leaf beetles, most of which are the subject of active taxonomic research at AAFC.