Ábrahám Levente (szerk.): Válogatott tanulmányok XVIII. - Natura Somogyiensis 34. / Miscellanea 18. (Kaposvár, 2020)

Schmidt P. et al.: A faunistic contribution to the butterfly fauna of Oman (Lepidoptera: Diurna)

Schmidt et al.: A contribution to the butterfly fauna of Oman

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Table 1. Distribution of the faunal elements of the Omani butterflies based on the recent survey________________

Biogeographic region

Number of species

Percentage (%)

Afrotropic

19

41

Paleartic

15

33

Eremic

8

17

Oriental

3

7

Ubiquitous

1

2

Altogether

46

100%

During the five insect collecting expeditions in Oman, altogether 485 specimens of 46 butterfly (Diuma) species were collected. The Omani butterfly fauna is considered to be rather species-poor; the first catalogue listed 72 species (Larsen & Larsen 1980), since then only two furher species, Melanitis leda (Linnaeus, 1758) (Cowan & Cowan 2019) and Euchrysops cnejus (Fabricius, 1798) (Fric et al. 2019) were recorded as new for the country. So, 74 butterfly species are known from Oman so far, however, it further discoveries in the near future are not unlikely. All in all, 62% of the species of the Omani butterfly fauna was collected during the expeditions between 2008 and 2019.

The reason behind the relatively low species-diversity is clear; influenced by the arid climate and homogenous landscape, as the majority of the country is extremely dry, desert territory. Most part of the country is extremely dry, desert territory. Only two areas differ significantly, providing more diverse landscape and habitats, those consist of more varied habitats, thereby suitable for higher species diversity and density. These are the Northern Omani mountain regions (the Al Hajar Mountains), and the southwestern, more humid areas, known as the Dhofar Region (the Qara Mountains) where the majority of collecting also took place.

The biogeographic composition of the species collected corresponds that of Larsen's (1980, 1984), confirming the dominance of the Afrotropical species in the butterfly fauna of Oman (41%). Most of these species are confined to the southern part of Oman, especially the Dhofar Region. Relatively high proportion of the species is Palaearctic (33%), the majority of them are restricted to the northern part of Oman. The desertdweller Eremic species (18%) are distributed mostly in the dry, inner territories, and the eastern, Oriental species (7%) also occur mostly in the northern mountainous areas.

The butterfly fauna of Oman is lacking endemic species. Although several subspecies are considered as endemic to the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula (eg. Teracolus eris contractus, Colotis daira daira), or to Oman (for instance Pyrrhiades anchises jucunda (also on the Island of Socotra)), or in a few occasions, restricted to Dhofar Region (eg. Charaxes hansali arabica and Charaxes varanes bertrami). These taxa are of high biogeographical interest and could be of conservation concern. Besides these, a few other species have to be mentioned, because these have a relatively small or sporadic global distribution (eg. Melitaea deserticola) or their populations are strongly isolated (eg. Hipparchia parisatis), though these local populations are still not considered to belong to a different subspecies. It would be an urgent task to re-assess the status of most Afrotropical taxa occurring on the Arabian Peninsula and Oman using molecular techniques for the proper conservation assessment of the fauna.