Global Species Richness, Endemism, and Conservation of Planthoppers

Although insects are the most abundant group of species and play a critical ecological role, the key factors underlying global patterns of species diversity and conservation remain poorly understood. In this study, we analyzed 121,880 occurrence records of 3,352 planthopper species worldwide to map species richness and endemism patterns using a 200 × 200 km grid and to examine their relationships with environmental variables. We then identified grids representing species richness and endemism hotspots and evaluated their geographic spatial congruence. Additionally, we assessed the overlap between planthopper hotspots and established biodiversity hotspots. Our results highlighted the dominant role of temperature in shaping species richness patterns, whereas endemism patterns were primarily driven by topography. The spatial congruence between species richness and endemism hotspot grids was low, with priority hotspots mainly located in Nearctic and Neotropical realms. Furthermore, current global biodiversity hotspots encompass three kinds of planthopper hotspots to a limited extent, with variations across zoogeographic realms. Our study underscores the importance of incorporating species-range data to understand the key factors influencing species diversity patterns, and suggests that integrating insect data into global biodiversity hotspot frameworks can guide conservation in the future.