A checklist of invertebrates of Ewaso Narok swamp in the semi-arid Laikipia County, Kenya

Invertebrates play important ecosystem role and are considered for ecosystem monitoring. However, few checklists exist for most areas in Kenya, especially on the impacted wetlands in semi-arid lands. An inventory of invertebrate fauna recorded in the Ewaso Narok swamp is presented. The species richness of invertebrate fauna was found considerably high constituting 395 species in 201 genera, and 105 families. Most of the sampled species (265; 67%) could not be identified to the species level and were then handled as morphospecies. The class Insecta had the highest species with 93% of all the species, while the class Arachnida and Collembola had 5% and 2% respectively. There was no significant difference in the rainy and dry season (130) and (157) individuals respectively per plot P-value 0.49. However, the species diversity quantified by Shannon and Simpson index was significantly higher in the rainy than dry season P-value 0.05. Ewaso Narok swamp has a fair representation of invertebrate fauna functional groups and compare with other studies conducted in the African Savannahs. However, they are threatened by heavy pressure from anthropogenic activities. Some species have potential to serve as indicators for monitoring ecosystem integrity. This novel inventory of invertebrates provides the baseline data for continued monitoring of Kenyan wetlands.