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New records, detailed distribution and abundance of rove-beetles (Insecta, Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) collected between 1990 and 2015 in Azores (Portugal) with an updated checklist

Abstract Background The dataset we present consists of an inventory compiling all records and knowledge about Staphylinidae (Insecta, Coleoptera) in the Azores and is part of a long-term monitoring performed between 1990 and 2015 in different habitat types of eight islands of the Azores Archipelago. Most samples come from the BALA project (Biodiversity of Arthropods from the Laurisilva of Azores) that sampled native forests in the Azores. Additional sampled habitats include exotic forests, intensive and semi-natural pasturelands, orchards, caves and lava flows. Most of the records (about 96.7%) were collected in standardised sampling campaigns, which included pitfall traps and beating transect protocols. Non-standardised records are based on hand-collecting and sifting, as well as cave, colour and malaise traps. New information We provide a long-term inventory of Staphylinidae (Insecta, Coleoptera) collected in the course of several standardised sampling campaigns and recorded with non-standardised methods. We collected a total of 10744 specimens belonging to 69 identified species of Staphylinidae, which represents 51% of the species known from the Azores Archipelago. Four endemic species were sampled, representing 40% of the known Azorean endemic species. From this dataset, seven species are new for the Azores: Aleocharafunebris Wollaston, 1864; Amischaforcipata Mulsant & Rey, 1873; Blediusunicornis (Germar, 1825); Carpelimustroglodytes (Erichson, 1840); Cyphaseminulum (Erichson, 1839); Paraphloeostibagayndahensis (MacLeay, 1871); Tachyporuscaucasicus Kolenati, 1846. We also registered a total of 66 new island records for eight Azorean islands. This contribution continues a series of publications on the distribution and abundance of Azorean arthropods. We also provide an updated list of Azorean rove-beetles (Staphylinidae) that now includes 136 species, ten of them considered Azorean endemics.


Introduction
According to the latest list of rove-beetles from the Azores (Assing 2010), a total of 115 species and subspecies of Staphylinidae is known from the Azores, which is 21% of the known beetle fauna of the Archipelago (total number of beetle species in the Azores: 536 species and subspecies; see Oromí et al. 2010). Being one of the most diverse families of beetles, this group of mostly predatory insects is also known for its taxonomic complexity and frequent erroneous identifications (Barratt et al. 2003, Shaw andSolodovnikov 2016).
However, in contrast to other Macaronesian archipelagos (see, for example, Assing and Schülke 2006), a recent revision of the Staphylinidae fauna of the Azores has not been attempted.
The main objective of this contribution is to provide an inventory of the Staphylinidae (Coleoptera, Insecta), based on a compilation of records from long-term monitoring sampling campaigns performed in eight islands of Azores between 1990 and 2015. This contribution is part of a series of publications on the distribution and abundance of Azorean arthropods (Borges et al. 2016, Borges et al. 2017).

General description
Purpose: The main objective is to provide an inventory of the Staphylinidae (Coleoptera, Insecta), based on a compilation of records from long-term monitoring sampling campaigns performed in eight islands of Azores between 1990 and 2015. In addition, an updated checklist of Azorean Staphylinidae is provided.
Additional information: This contribution is part of a series of publications on the distribution and abundance of Azorean arthropods (Borges et al. 2016, Borges et al. 2017 and updates the latest checklist of Azorean Staphylinidae (see Assing 2010) .
In this same Checklist of Azorean Staphylinidae (Suppl. material 1), we provide some relevant information related to taxonomic or nomenclature changes, splitting it into four columns "synonym", "different combination", "misidentification" and "emendation/ misspelling".
Fieldwork for SLAM -Long term monitoring of Azorean forests using SLAM traps; see list at Costa and . Taxonomists: Michael Schülke, Paulo A. V. Borges, Volker Assing.

Study area description:
The Azores Archipelago extends for 615 km and is located in the North Atlantic Ocean (37-40°N, 25-31°W), about 1600 km from Europe and 2200 km from North America (Fig. 1). The Archipelago is formed by nine main islands and some small islets, all of them of volcanic origin. The islands are divided into three main groups: the western group (Corvo and Flores), the central group (Faial, Pico, Graciosa, São Jorge and Terceira) and the eastern group (São Miguel and Santa Maria). The climate is temperate oceanic, with regular and abundant rainfall, high levels of relative humidity, above 95% on average in native forests and persistent winds, mainly during the winter and autumn seasons. Since Portuguese colonisation in the 15 century, the landscape of the Azores has been dramatically altered by replacing native forests with forest tree plantations, crops, pastures and urban areas. Currently, the native laurel forest comprises about 5% of the total surface of the Archipelago and has remained only at higher elevations and in inaccessible areas of the islands (Gaspar et al. 2008. Design description: This inventory of Staphylinidae includes records of several standardised sampling campaigns and non-standardised observations, performed between 1990 and 2015 (Gaspar et al. 2008, Borges et al. 2016. Most of the records (about 96.7%) were collected in standardised sampling campaigns, which included pitfall and beating protocols. Non-standardised records are based on hand-collecting and sifting, as well as cave, colour and malaise traps. Additional non-standard records are based on cave, colour and malaise traps and collecting trips conducted by Volker Assing in Terceira, São Miguel "Understanding biodiversity dynamics in tropical and subtropical islands as an aid to science based conservation action" (ISLANDBIODIV) (Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia , FCT/NETBIOME/0003).

Study extent:
The study was conducted in several habitats of eight islands of the Azores Archipelago ( Fig. 1): Flores, São Jorge, Pico, Faial, Terceira, Graciosa, São Miguel and Santa Maria Islands. The sampled habitats include exotic, mixed and native forests, intensive and semi-natural pastures, orchards, caves and lava flows (see details in Event  Table at Borges et al. 2021a).
Sampling description: This inventory of Staphylinidae (Coleoptera) includes records obtained in several standardised sampling campaigns and by non-standardised methods performed between 1990 and 2015. Most of the records (96.7%) are based on standardised sampling campaigns, which included pitfall and beating protocols. The used methodology is in accordance with BALA protocol -Biodiversity of Arthropods of the Laurissilva of Azores (Gaspar et al. 2008,Borges et al. 2016 implemented during BALA I (1999)(2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004) and BALA II (2010-2011) projects. Non-standardised records are based on hand-collecting and sifting, as well as cave, colour and malaise traps.
Standardised sampling campaigns included pitfall traps and beating transects. Pitfall trap transect protocols were conducted with 33 cl plastic cups, partially filled with propylene glycol, in the soil (cup rim at surface level) every 5 m. Traps were protected from rain using a plastic plate, placed about 5 cm above surface level and fixed to the ground with wire.
The pitfall traps remained active in the field for 14 days. Beating transects were performed by beating the canopy of woody vegetation, using a beating tray. The protocol was conducted when the vegetation was dry. A 5 m wide square was established every 15 m (total of 10 squares per transect). Two woody plant specimens of the most abundant species (up to three species when available) were sampled in each square. For each selected plant, a branch was chosen at random and a beating tray placed beneath it. The tray consisted of a 1 m wide and 60 cm deep cloth inverted pyramid, with a plastic bag at the vertex. Five beatings were made using a stick for each plant individual sampled.
Quality control: All sorted specimens were identified by a taxonomical expert. Taxonomic nomenclature followed: Schülke and Smetana (2015), Brunke et al. (2021), Yoo et al. (2021. In terms of species colonisation status, we followed two classifications: 1) For the GBIF database that incoporates occurrence data, we followed the information in the last checklist of Azorean Staphylinidae (Assing 2010). This information is analysed through the main text of this manuscript.
2) However, species classified as "native" by Volker Assing (Assing 2010) have a dubious colonisation origin and were probably inadvertently introduced from the Western Palaearctic. It is highly probable that this happened following human colonisation of the islands and prior to the first reports on Azorean beetles in the 19 century. Exceptions are Atheta pasadenae and Hypomedon debilicornis, for which the native distribution is unknown.
For that reason, in the current checklist of Azorean Staphylinidae (Suppl. material 1), we now add a column in which we create a new possible tentative categorisation for the colonisation status of the species as follows: -endemic: species for which we have some evidence that they are true endemics, occurring mostly in native habitats.
-Doubtfully endemic: species whose status is doubtful, based on our current knowledge on the distribution of congeneric species.
-Non-endemic: these include all the previous named as "native" and "introduced" since, in most cases, we currently have no confidence on their status.
-Non-endemic cosmopolitan: these include species with cosmopolitan distribution.  (Borges et al. 2021a). The following data table includes all the records for which a taxonomic identification of the species was possible. The dataset submitted to GBIF is structured as a sample event dataset that has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwCA), which is a standardised format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data file contains 2731 records (eventID). This IPT (Integrated Publishing Toolkit) archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the Portuguese GBIF Portal IPT (Borges et al. 2021a).

Column label Column description
eventID Identifier of the events, unique for the dataset.
stateProvince Name of the region of the sampling site.
islandGroup Name of archipelago.
island Name of the island.

Additional information
We collected a total of 10,744 specimens belonging to 69 species of Staphylinidae, which represent 51% of the Staphylinidae species currently known from the Azores Archipelago (see Table 1, Suppl. material 1). Of the collected species, a total of 40 species is considered introduced (n = 5392 specimens), 25 native non-endemic (n = 5109 specimens) and four endemic (n = 188 specimens). A total of 58 individuals were identified only at genus level representing nine morphospecies and can be seen at the GBIF IPT   Phloeostiba azorica (Fauvel, 1900)   At archipelago level, the most abundant Staphylinidae species were the introduced Anotylus nitidifrons (n = 1247 specimens) and Atheta fungi (n = 1139) and the native nonendemic Ocypus aethiops (n = 1219). At island level, the introduced Anotylus nitidifrons was also the most abundant species in Flores (n = 399) and Faial (n = 171) Islands. The introduced Atheta fungi was the most abundant species on Graciosa (n = 303) and Santa Maria Islands (n = 649). The native Ocypus olens was the most abundant species on Pico Island (n = 71). The native Ocypus aethiops was the most abundant species on São Jorge and Terceira Islands; and the native Quedius curtipennis was the most abundant species recorded on São Miguel Island (n = 327). The most abundant endemic Staphylinidae was Notothecta dryochares (n = 119), collected in six islands (Table 1).
From this dataset, seven species are new for the Azores (

Updated Checklist of Azorean Staphylinidae
The latest list of Azorean rove-beetles from the Azores (Assing 2010) included a total of 115 species and subspecies of Staphylinidae. Since then, a new endemic species was recorded from Azores, Medon varamontis Assing, 2013, known only from São Miguel (see Assing 2013) and the previous family Scydmaenidae (including three Azorean species) was included in the Staphylinidae as a subfamily. In addition, seven species were added in the current study (see above and Table 1). Other additions are explained below.
The catalogue of Palearctic Staphylinidae (Schülke and Smetana 2015) lists several species as recorded from the Azores that are not in the latest list of Azores species (Assing 2010). Only four of these species are now added to our updated list (see Suppl. material 1 ): Aleochara verna Say, 1833, Atheta aeneicollis (Sharp, 1869), Sepedophilus littoreus (Linnaeus, 1758) and Sepedophilus testaceus (Fabricius, 1793). The decision to add these species is based on the following reasoning: -Aleochara verna: this species was mentioned previously to Azores by Maus (1998), but without recording the island. Now we record the species for Terceira and Santa Maria (see Table 1).
-Atheta aeneicollis: we found no literature record. The species was added in the 2nd edition of the Staphylinidae catalogue by the Editors (Schülke and Smetana 2015), but the record is not traceable backwards. We have now found many specimens in several islands (see Table 1).
-Sepedophilus testaceus: old records by Fauvel (1902) and Bernhauer (1940), citing the Crotch (1867) record of S. sericeus, and Méquignon (1942). All these records are doubtful and may possibly be based on misidentification, most probably S. lusitanicus. However, Hammond (1973), who revised the British species and described S. lusitanicus, explicitly wrote that he had seen S. testaceus from the Azores. The species was also listed by Borges (1990).
For 14 species listed in the Palaearctic Catalogue as present in the Azores (Schülke and Smetana 2015), we found no clear support for their addition to the current list of Azorean rove-beetles: -Atheta maderensis: recorded by Brinck (1977). The record is based on confusion with Atheta pasadenae (see Gusarov 2016).
-Euplectus afer was recorded by Méquignon (1942) from São Miguel; this record is based on misidentification of E. infirmus.
-Sepedophilus marshami: this record is based on Crotch (1867) Based on Suppl. material 1, in addition to the old records, several sources of data have contributed to the new records to Azores and individual islands (Fig. 2). Corvo and São Jorge Islands are possibly still not well studied (Fig. 2).
The current list of Azorean rove-beetles has now 136 species (Suppl. material 1). This list includes ten endemic species, but we are confident that only five are really true endemics, the other five being possibly species from other origins, but not yet recorded in the mainland. The five "true endemics" (Atheta floresensis Pace, 2004;Euconnus azoricus Franz, 1969;Medon varamontis Assing, 2013;Notothecta dryochares (Israelson, 1985) and Phloeostiba azorica (Fauvel, 1900)) are commonly found in native forests of Azores and, in particular, N. dryochares is very abundant in the canopies of Azorean endemic trees.
Most of the species assigned to native non-endemic and introduced status in Assing (2010) are mostly of Palaearctic origin and we decided to create an alternative colonisation status categorisation, assiging this species as "non-endemic" and "non-endemic cosmopolitan". At least 16 species have a worldwide distribution and were classified as "non-endemic cosmopolitan".

Author contributions
PAVB led the project and performed research; LLL and PAVB prepared the databases; VA and MS identified species and led taxonomic work. PAVB led the writing with substantial input from the other authors.