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 monitor pollinator abundance and species richness. Effective implementation depends on robust national taxonomic baselines defining which species are present, where they occur, and how they can be monitored consistently.

2.      We present a policy-oriented national checklist of insect pollinators in Portugal, covering three focal groups of the European Pollinator Monitoring Scheme: bees (Hymenoptera: Anthophila), hoverflies (Diptera: Syrphidae) and butterflies (Lepidoptera: Papilionoidea). The checklist covers mainland Portugal, the Azores and Madeira, combining published sources, updated nomenclature, distribution and monitoring-relevant status fields in a FAIR, Darwin Core-compatible framework, with all records reviewed by experts.

3.      The checklist highlights the exceptional richness and conservation relevance of the main Portuguese pollinator groups, comprising 1,129 taxa. Bees are the richest group, with 746 taxa (mainland: 736, Azores: 19, Madeira: 24), followed by hoverflies with 233 taxa (mainland: 224, Azores: 25, Madeira: 26) and butterflies with 150 taxa (mainland: 138, Azores: 11, Madeira: 20).

4.      We propose a monitoring framework distinguishing core monitoring taxa, extended monitoring taxa and priority conservation taxa. This framework recognises differences in detectability, taxonomic difficulty, habitat specialisation, restoration sensitivity and conservation relevance.

5.      Integrating taxonomic curation, territorial distribution, monitoring tiers and FAIR data principles provides an operational reference for the Portuguese Pollinator Monitoring Scheme, supporting the implementation of EU restoration targets and providing a traceable baseline for future updates, long-term trend assessment and adaptive conservation planning.