Richness and similarity of Passalidae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea) from biological collections in the Brazilian Amazon

Abstract

Scientific collections are important sources of information on biodiversity that can be useful for faunistic, taxonomic and phylogenetic studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the fauna of Passalidae deposited in the zoological collections in the States of the Brazilian Amazon. 14,652 Passalidae specimens are deposited in scientific collections, distributed in two subfamilies, 7 genera and 82 species. The species that had the highest number of deposited individuals were: Passalus interstitialis, Passalus interruptus, Veturius transversus and Paxillus leachi. Passalinae was the richest subfamily (n = 57) species, followed by Proculinae (n = 25). Passalus was the richest genus (n = 39) followed by Veturius (n = 21). The State of Amazonas was the richest (s = 67) followed by Pará (s = 45). The Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia was the institution with the highest number of deposited specimens. The species accumulation curve did not reach asymptote and Chao2 estimated 142 species more than the observed richness (s = 82 species). The richness of the bess beetle fauna from the Brazilian Amazon may be greater than recorded. The scientific collections provided quantitative and important data that allowed to determine a large fraction of the Amazon bess beetle fauna.