User:Alandmanson/Insects of Africa

There are 27 orders of insects. Scientific estimates have been made of the number of species in the different orders, but how common are they in terms of numbers of organisms or biomass? This is more difficult to measure, and there are many scientists asking this question, especially now that there is evidence of a world-wide decline in insect biomass.

From an informal learning point of view, however, the number of records (in iNaturalist) of organisms from each group gives an indication of how often people with cameras interact with that group. The table below gives a breakdown of the numbers of African records on iNaturalist for the different orders of insects. The table is interactive - one can sort the table so that it reflects the taxonomic order (based on the Wikipedia page for insects) by clicking on the column heading; the first two columns can be sorted alphabetically.

Iziko museum has a table of insect Orders on their biodiversity explorer site for southern Africa

Order Raphidioptera (snakeflies) is rare in Africa; Snakeflies are probably limited to a few countries on the Mediterranean Sea. iNaturalist has only one African record; that is from Morocco. Order Zoraptera (angel insects) are widespread worldwide, but are rarely recorded. There are no African records of angel insects on iNaturalist, but GBIF shows a record from Ethiopia.