Door 3: Beetles of the Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands is an archipelago located in the Southern Atlantic at ca. 52°S, on the Patagonian shelf about 480 km from the South American coast. The archipelago is composed of two large islands and almost 800 smaller islands. The total land area is about 12,000 km2. The archipelago has no native tree species and is covered by vegetation composed of grass, heath, and shrub.

In total, about 70 species of beetles have been recorded in the Falklands. Weevils (Curculionidae), ground beetles (Carabidae) and rove beetles (Staphylinidae) are the families represented on the islands by the largest numbers of species. In terms of geographical distribution, the species can be divided into four groups: 1) local endemics; 2) species with subantarctic distribution (i.e. species shared with some other subantarctic islands); 3) species shared with Temperate South America; 4) species introduced from Europe.

I am writing this piece, while flying to the Falklands to find more beetle species in the Falklands, including species new to science. A pilot study done in 2000 resulted in discovery of at least one undescribed species. Hopefully, more new species will be found this year.

(Map of the Falkland Islands from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falkland_Islands#/media/File:Falkland_Islands_topographic_map-en.svg by Eric Gaba)

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