The global distribution of known and undiscovered ant biodiversity

Invertebrates constitute the majority of animal species and are critical
for ecosystem functioning and services. Nonetheless, global invertebrate
biodiversity patterns and their congruences with vertebrates remain
largely unknown. We resolve the first high-resolution (~20-km) global
diversity map for a major invertebrate clade, ants, using biodiversity
informatics, range modeling, and machine learning to synthesize existing
knowledge and predict the distribution of undiscovered diversity. We find
that ants and different vertebrate groups have distinct features in their
patterns of richness and rarity, underscoring the need to consider a
diversity of taxa in conservation. However, despite their phylogenetic and
physiological divergence, ant distributions are not highly anomalous
relative to variation among vertebrate clades. Furthermore, our models
predict rarity centers largely overlap (78%), suggesting that general
forces shape endemism patterns across taxa. This raises confidence that
conservation of areas important for small-ranged vertebrates will benefit
invertebrates while providing a “treasure map” to guide future discovery.