Liste annotée des insectes (Insecta) du canton de Genève

Annotated checklist of the insects (Insecta) of the canton of Geneva. - The first annotated checklist of the insect species known from the canton of Geneva includes 11'193 species belonging to 26 orders, which corresponds to about 38% of the Swiss insect fauna. Reliable references in the entomological literature and specimens identified by the authors of the list (or other specialists) were used in its compilation. Representatives of the orders Archaeognatha, Thysanoptera and Strepsiptera have been observed in the canton, but no reliable identifications are available. The information available for different taxonomic groups is very uneven. Those best studied are those like the Odonata, Mantodea, Orthoptera, Papilionoidea which include large attractive species and groups which have been actively studied by Genevan entomologists, namely the Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, Psocoptera, Heteroptera, Coleoptera, Trichoptera and certain superfamilies of the Hymenoptera and Diptera. The Protura, Zygentoma, Dermaptera, Auchenorrhyncha, Neuroptera and also many families of Hymenoptera and Diptera, which comprise small, or even minute species, are poorly known. The high species diversity recorded is astonishing given the small size of the canton and the environmental impact of the dense human population (more than one third of the canton is built up, and a large proportion of the agricultural and forest area is intensively cultivated or managed), the small altitudinal range (340-515 m) and the absence of a number of habitats (especially wetland habitats such as peat bogs). The sub-Mediterranean climate and the policies of sustainable management are probably factors that allow some vulnerable species to survive in the canton. It should, however, be noted that many of the species on this list have not been recorded for decades or even a century, and could perhaps be considered locally eradicated or extinct.