A national checklist for monitoring Portugal’s pollinators (Anthophila, Syrphidae and Papilionoidea) under the EU Nature Restoration Regulation

Eduardo Marabuto, Francisco Gil, Hugo Gaspar, Albano Soares, Alperen Yayla, Ana Afonso, Ana Cristina Rufino, Carla Rego, Dora Aguín-Pombo, Helena Castro, Hugo Venceslau Silva, João Birg, João Loureiro, José Manuel Grosso-Silva, Luena Soraya, Márcia Santos, Margarida Rei, Mário Boieiro, Martim Baptista, Patrícia Garcia-Pereira, Renata Santos, Roberto A. Keller, Rui Andrade, Tatiana C. Moreira-Pinhal, Tiago Carrapiço, Sílvia Castro, Paulo A. V. Borges

1. Wild pollinators are declining across Europe, prompting new policy commitments. The EU Nature Restoration Regulation requires Member States to reverse pollinator decline and to monitor pollinator abundance and species richness. Effective implementation depends on robust national taxonomic baselines that define which species are present, where they occur and how they can be monitored consistently. 2. We present a policy-oriented national checklist for insect pollinators in the Portuguese territory, covering the three focal groups of the European Pollinator Monitoring Scheme: bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila), hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) and butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). The checklist covers mainland Portugal and the Azores and Madeira archipelagos, combining published faunistic sources, updated nomenclature, distributional information and monitoring-relevant status fields in a FAIR, Darwin Core-compatible framework, all subjected to expert revision. 3. The checklist highlights the exceptional richness and conservation relevance of the main Portuguese pollinator groups, with 1135 species recorded. Bees are the richest group, with 746 Anthophila taxa, including 736 from mainland Portugal, 24 from Madeira and 19 from the Azores. Hoverflies are represented by 232 Syrphidae species, including 223 from mainland Portugal, 26 from Madeira and 24 from the Azores. Butterflies comprise 151 accepted Papilionoidea taxa, including 140 from mainland Portugal, 18 from Madeira and 12 from the Azores. Island faunas include distinctive endemic and conservation-priority taxa, highlighting the importance of the archipelagos for pollinator conservation. 4. We propose a monitoring-ready framework that distinguishes core monitoring species, extended monitoring species and priority conservation taxa. This framework recognises differences in detectability, taxonomic difficulty, habitat specialisation, restoration sensitivity and conservation relevance. 5. By integrating taxonomic curation, territorial distribution, monitoring tiers and FAIR data principles, this checklist provides an operational reference layer for the Portuguese Pollinator Monitoring Scheme. It supports national implementation of EU restoration targets and creates a traceable baseline for future updates, long-term trend assessment and adaptive conservation planning.