Areas of priority for Mantodea in South Africa

Abstract Despite the cultural and ecological importance of the Mantodea group, very little is known about their biogeography in South Africa. Existing information on South African Mantodea collected over a period of 180 years was recently compiled into a database (157 spp., 64 genera, 14 families) with the aim to identify hotspot areas that could be of importance for future Mantodea surveys and research. Biogeographical analyses were done using the Hot Spot Analyst (Getis-ord Gi*) tool in the Spatial analyst toolbox of ArcMap to determine hotspot areas. The distribution of the Mantodea as well as the rarity (based on frequency of records) of the families, genera and species were incorporated in the analyses to exclude areas with large numbers of occurrence records of commonly collected and observed species. Results indicated differences between the “hotspot areas” identified for species, compared with those for genera. However, the prominent hotspots for rare Mantodea families and species remained the same. The patterns observed in this study indicate centres of rare Mantodea occurrences and should be the starting point of future investigations. Only 38 mantid species are presently recognised on the IUCN Red List, of which only one occurs in South Africa, the findings of this study represent a critical contribution to advancing Mantodea research within the region. Implications for insect conservation Our results indicate four major hotspot areas, each situated in a different biome in South Africa. These hotspots represent regions where records of potentially underrepresented or infrequently observed taxa are concentrated. These findings contribute and refine the current understanding of mantid diversity in South Africa and establishes key biogeographical insights that advance research on this historically understudied insect group in this highly diverse region.