The hoverfly collection (Diptera, Syrphidae) of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) at Calavi (Benin)

Dataset comprises historical records from circa 1970 to 2019, focusing on Togo, Benin and Nigeria but with some additional material from further countries in tropical Africa. The biodiversity centre of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Benin (IITA) houses together with the IFAN museum at Dakar, Senegal one of the largest collection of insects in West Africa. The geographic scope of the collection is mainly Benin, Nigeria and Togo with additional material from various countries in tropical Africa. It constitutes the largest non-plant biodiversity repository within all research centers of the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The IITA insect collection includes to date more than 370,000 specimens and belongs to the few actives of its kind in the subregion. Roughly 6,000 species from 335 insect families have been identified from the sampled material, of which the Coleoptera and Lepidoptera build the most biodiverse orders with 2300 and 1200 identified species, respectively. On-going research on Diptera focusses mainly on Tephritidae but also on pollinating flies in the framework of a collaborative project (Pollinator Information Network for Two-Winged Insects (PINDIP)) (link to: https://www.pindip.org/) involving several Africa based taxonomic institutions and lead by the Royal Museum of Central Africa, Tervuren, Belgium.本数据集包含约1970年至2019年的历史记录，研究重点为多哥、贝宁和尼日利亚，同时涵盖来自热带非洲其他国家的部分补充资料。 位于贝宁的国际热带农业研究所（International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, IITA）生物多样性中心，与塞内加尔达喀尔的黑非洲基础研究所（Institut Fondamental d'Afrique Noire, IFAN）博物馆合作，共同拥有西非规模最大的昆虫馆藏之一。该馆藏的地理覆盖范围以贝宁、尼日利亚和多哥为主，同时补充了热带非洲多国的标本。它是国际农业研究磋商小组（Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, CGIAR）旗下所有研究中心中规模最大的非植物类生物多样性馆藏库。 截至目前，IITA的昆虫馆藏已收录超过37万份标本，是该次区域少数仍在运营的同类馆藏之一。经鉴定的标本涵盖335个昆虫科、约6000个物种，其中鞘翅目（Coleoptera）和鳞翅目（Lepidoptera）的物种多样性最高，分别达2300种和1200种。目前正在开展的双翅目（Diptera）研究主要围绕实蝇科（Tephritidae）展开，同时也在一项合作项目框架内关注传粉蝇类——该项目名为「双翅目传粉者信息网络（Pollinator Information Network for Two-Winged Insects, PINDIP）」（链接：https://www.pindip.org/），由比利时特尔武伦的皇家非洲中央博物馆牵头，联合多家非洲本土分类学研究机构共同实施。