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LepiMAP: Atlas of African Lepidoptera

This data-set comprises validated species occurrence records of Insect Order Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) across Africa, although the bulk of the data is for South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini (former Swaziland). It is a collection of data from citizen science contributions, museum and private collections, personal notebooks, published literature records, surveys and other unpublished sources. Records range from 1800 to present.


LepiMAP is a Virtual Museum and citizen science project which aims to determine the distribution and conservation priorities of Lepidoptera on the African continent. LepiMAP is building the 21st century distribution maps for Africa's moths and butterflies. LepiMAP also aims to improve public awareness of the value and plight of Lepidoptera and also provide government agencies with a clear definition of conservation priorities that will help them to plan their activities.


LepiMAP is the continuation of the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA) and incorporates the full SABCA database. SABCA was formally stablished in 2007 as a three-way partnership between the Animal Demography Unit (Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town), The Lepidopterists' Society of Africa (Lepsoc), and the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI).

Identification of citizen science records, based on the photos uploaded, is done by a panel of experts in the relevant taxa. The taxonomy is kept up-to-date by the project coordinator.


All data, excepting records for sensitive taxa, are available to the public. Records are provided at the recorded precision, usually point coordinates. However, historical records were assigned to a 15x15 minute grid (or QDS) based on the locality description when no coordinates were provided. The coverage is good for South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, moderate for Namibia, Botswana, Malawi and Zimbabwe, but very sparse for the rest of Africa.

Simple

Date (Creation)
2018-08-28
Edition

1.0

Citation identifier
http://metadata.sanbi.org/geonetwork/srv/metadata/56dca0ba-0a27-4b4a-8bf4-29fdcae96d17
Purpose

The information consolidated within the project will build up a comprehensive identification guide, as well as mapping the ranges of each species.

Status
On going
Custodian
  FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology - Dr Rene Navarro ( Information Systems Specialist )
University of Cape Town, Rondebosch , Cape Town , 7701 , South Africa
+27 21 650 4751
Maintenance and update frequency
As needed
Keywords
Theme
  • African butterflies and moths picture archive

  • Distribution maps

  • Terrestrial

  • Animalia: Euarthropoda: Insecta: Lepidoptera

Access constraints
Copyright
Use constraints
Copyright
Spatial representation type
Vector
Denominator
50000
Language
English
Character set
UTF8
Topic category
  • Environment
Begin date
2007-05-01
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Reference system identifier
WGS 1984

Distributor

Custodian
  FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology
Name

ZIP

Version

1

OnLine resource
A list of services published are available at this URL. ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )

Virtual Museum System

OnLine resource
VMUS_to_DwC_20181005.xlsx ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )

Virtual Museum field description and Darwin Core mapping

Hierarchy level
Dataset
Statement

About SABCA.


The interest in butterflies from citizen scientists, researchers and conservation agencies, linked to the ecological and economic importance of and the threats to butterfly diversity, and the appropriateness of butterflies for monitoring programs, led to the development and implementation of the Southern African Butterfly Conservation Assessment (SABCA) project for South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland. The objectives of SABCA were to:

1. Compile a comprehensive and integrated database of existing distribution records.

2. Conduct a gap analysis using the data compiled to determine priority geographic regions and taxa for field surveys.

3. Survey butterflies in South Africa to collect new distribution records, especially for priority areas and taxa.

4. Raise public awareness of butterflies and their conservation by encouraging participation in the project.

5. Map the distributions of butterfly species in the atlas region.

6. Describe local species distributions in relation to habitat.

7. Assess the conservation status of each species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) criteria.

8. Assess threats to butterflies, including identification of priority threats and threatened areas.

9. Build capacity in butterfly observation, identification and databasing within institutions, especially nature conservation agencies.

10. Produce an updated Conservation Assessment for all species to inform conservation planning, decision-making and policy-development for butterflies.


Conservation assessments for species require comprehensive and accurate data on where and when species have been recorded. This type of data for the atlas region (South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland) was sourced from three main activities, namely the digitization of existing museum and private collections, field surveys by LepSoc members prioritized by gap areas in the atlas region and the online virtual museum for the submission of photographic records from members of the public. Other data included were those from academic research studies, field sightings, the literature and the first South African Butterfly Census Weekend. Data sources are presented in Table 2.1. The bulk of the data came from museums and other collection institutions (about 160 000 records) and LepSoc (about 120 000 records). There are about 78 000 duplicate records but these will not affect the distribution maps, which reflect only the presence of taxa.


Data from existing collections were sourced from 15 institutions as well as LepSoc and two non-LepSoc individuals. Institutions included museums, nature conservation agencies, research and academic institutions. LepSoc contributed private collection data from 31 members. SABCA data technicians were mainly responsible for digitizing existing butterfly collections in museum and private collections.


A cut-off date of 20 July 2010 was set for records submitted to SABCA (via the Virtual Museum or other sources), so that the conservation assessments could be completed. The project culminated with the publication of the book: "Mecenero, S., J.B. Ball, D.A. Edge, M.L. Hamer, G.A. Hening, M. Krüger, E.L. Pringle, R.F. Terblanche & M.C. Williams (eds). 2013. Conservation assessment of butterflies of South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland: Red List and atlas. Saftronics (Pty) Ltd., Johannesburg and Animal Demography Unit, Cape Town."


LepiMAP data sources and number of records in brackets: (as of 2019-07-18):

ADU-UCT (Virtual Museum) (237,419);

African Butterfly Research Institute (6,271);

Albany Museum (8,149);

Biosystematics Division, ARC (Plant Protection Research Institute) (1,910);

National Museum (1,585);

Durban Natural Science Museum (29,594);

East London Museum (969);

Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University (44);

Lepidopterists Society of Africa (121,578);

Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism (413);

Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife (32,659);

Natural History Museum, London (14,137);

Natal Museum (3,080);

Private (Craig Peter) (25);

Iziko South African Museum (7,279);

Skukuza Biological Reference Collection, SANParks (2,268);

Thomas Desloges (private collection) (1,039);

Ditsong National Museum of Natural History (formerly Transvaal Museum) (55,387);

University of KwaZulu-Natal (503);

University of Stellenbosch (972).

All records are shareable.

File identifier
56dca0ba-0a27-4b4a-8bf4-29fdcae96d17 XML
Metadata language
English
Character set
UTF8
Date stamp
2019-07-18T14:49:39
Metadata standard name

SANS 1878

Metadata standard version

FGDC-STD-001-1998

Custodian
  FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology - Information Systems Specialist
FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, University of Cape Town , Cape Town , Rondebosch , 7701 , South Africa
+27 21 650 4751
 
 

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Keywords

African butterflies and moths picture archive Animalia: Euarthropoda: Insecta: Lepidoptera Distribution maps Terrestrial

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