Insect Diversity in the Eastern Afromontane Hotspots: A Review

Abstract

The Eastern Afromontane is not properly studied for insects, except for the butterflies, in all settings, including agriculture, forestry, riparian areas, clean water, and so on. Subsequently, there are calls for detailed research that may document the biodiversity of various insects, together with pests, vectors, pollinators, decomposers, biological control agents, and commercial insects (honey bees, silkworms, and many others), which is prerequisite information for developing environmentally benign and economically feasible control measures for harmful insects (pests and vectors) and for developing the best conservation mechanisms for beneficial insects. Weather change is rapidly altering the dynamics of insect biodiversity, either positively or negatively, calling for uninterrupted, ongoing research in this area to provide accurate information that can prompt timely action by policymakers. The African mountains in East Africa mostly follow the East African Rift Valley from the Red Sea to Zimbabwe. The largest areas are the Ethiopian Highlands, the Albertine Rift Mountains (ARMs) of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Tanzania, as well as the Eastern Arc Highlands of Kenya and Tanzania. The available information on insect biodiversity from this vast area, which contains such abundant (>75% of the described animals) organisms, is scant and not readily available because either research was not conducted, or research has been conducted, but the data were not published. Thus, the author calls for the development of a research project that can facilitate new research and encourage scientists who have data on the shelf to publish and make the information a public good. In this chapter, attempts are made to summarize available information on insect biodiversity in the zone, mainly based on published materials. However, the author used the work of his students on insect biodiversity and his own unpublished and published data to prepare the manuscript. 128Hence, data from Ethiopia is relatively in a better position when compared to data from other countries in the zone, as the author is from Ethiopia and is the most senior person who has worked as an entomologist. In the future, when similar work is designed, it should be structured in such a way that all entomologists or representatives from the member countries are involved to make the work complete.