ACTA ENTOMOLOGICA MUSEI NATIONALIS PRAGAE Published 31.xii.2017 Volume 57(supplementum), pp. 1–39 ISSN 0374-1036 http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:B6B4F6EA-D596-4480-B4AE-24810EAB8C3C https://doi.org/10.1515/aemnp-2017-0105 Insect biodiversity of the Socotra Archipelago – underlined and counted Jan BEZDĚK1) & Jiří HÁJEK2) 1) Mendel University in Brno, Department of Zoology, Fisheries, Hydrobiology and Apiculture, Zemědělská 1, CZ-613 00 Brno, Czech Republic; e-mail:
[email protected] 2) Department of Entomology, National Museum, Cirkusová 1740, CZ-193 00 Praha 9 – Horní Počernice, Czech Republic; e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract. Altogether, 1,564 species taxa (identifi ed at least to the genus level) from 25 orders of Hexapoda have been recorded from the Socotra Archipelago to date. In addition, members of Diplura and Ephemeroptera are known from the archipelago as well, but they have not been identifi ed so far. The most speciose order in Socotra are beetles (Coleoptera) with 540 species. The total number of endemic taxa described from the archipelago is 662 species, which represents 42% of all known species. The vast majority of species is known from the main Socotra Island (1,520 species, 635 endemic taxa). The diversity of insects in Socotra is briefl y commented on and compared with the nearest archipelago – the Seychelles. Key words. Hexapoda, biodiversity, endemism, insect survey, Socotra, Yemen Introduction An extensive research of invertebrate diversity of the Socotra Archipelago in the last 20 years resulted in numerous publications containing descriptions of new taxa as well as new faunistic records from Socotra.