title: Discovery pattern and species number of scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea).
abstract: Few investigations have been made of the species description trend of scale insects. The present study reports the discovery pattern and taxonomic efforts for this group based on global species and a literature dataset. In addition, three asymptotic models (Logistic, Gompertz, and Extreme Value) based on a discovery curve were used to predict the species number of scale insects. Our results showed that the species description rate has been changing over time, with certain peaks and valleys in the past 250 years. The mean number of species described per year was 30, with the highest number of 195 described species in 1985. The increasing number of authors and the almost constant proportion of species described by 10% most prolific authors since the 1900s suggested that taxonomic effort has been increasing over time. The Gompertz model with lowest AIC value suggested that there are about 10,450 species of scale insects on Earth, nearly 30% of which remain to be described. Our study offers insights into the discovery pattern of scale insect diversity.
authors.affiliation: College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University , Fuzhou , Fujian , China.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: College of Economics, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University , Fuzhou , Fujian , China.
authors.forename: Kunming
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University , Fuzhou , Fujian , China.
authors.forename: Cui
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: The Key Laboratory for Silviculture and Conservation of Ministry of Education, Beijing Forestry University , Beijing , China.
authors.forename: Sanan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University , Fuzhou , Fujian , China.
authors.forename: Xiaolei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Huang
keywords: Gompertz model; Scale insect; Species diversity; Taxonomic effort