A preliminary survey of the insect fauna of the Hajar Mountain Range, Oman

ABSTRACT

The Hajar Mountain Range of Northern Oman is an important centre of species endemism, and of biogeographical interest as a crossroads between the Afrotropical and Palaearctic regions. Despite this, the invertebrate fauna of the region is largely unknown, with very little dedicated research or surveys having been undertaken until now. Here we present the invertebrate species collected and identified from five different survey locations within the Hajar Mountains. This preliminary checklist contains 296 records, of which 36 are new records for Oman. Our surveys also discovered two new species of ant: Lepisiota omanensis collected from Jebel Qahwan Reserve and at the base of Jebel Akhdar, and Anochetus annetteae from Hibra Village in the Nakhl Region.

KEYWORDS:

• Biodiversity
• biogeography
• Al Hajar Mountains
• Middle East
• Arabian Peninsula

Acknowledgements

This research was made possible by the National Field Research Centre for Environmental Conservation and the Earthwatch Institute. Both were working in the Sultanate of Oman for the Diwan of Royal Court as part of the Oman Earthwatch Programme 2009–2015.

The authors also acknowledge the support of the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs for its ongoing guidance to this project and providing the necessary research permits for As Saleel National Park, Jebel Qahwan Reserve and Al Jebel Akhdar Sanctuary for Natural Sceneries.

We also thank the Office for Conservation of the Environment, Diwan of Royal Court for permission to survey at Ra’s ash Shajar.

In addition, the authors thank the staff of the Oman Botanic Gardens for their assistance during part of the fieldwork.

JM would like to thank the Linnean Society (Anne Sleep Award) and Emirates Natural History Group, Abu Dhabi Chapter (ENHG Research and Conservation Fund) for the generous funding they provided for fieldwork.

AP would like to thank the Anglo Omani Society (London, UK) for their very generous support of several Oman-based projects, including expeditions to the Hajar Mountains.

Thanks also to David Agassiz, Willy De Prins, Albert Legrain and Alberto Zilli for their assistance in identifying some of the moth specimens, to John Deeming and Martin Ebejer for help in identifying Diptera, and to Alain Pauly for identification of Halictidae.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.