Estimates of Total Number of Species
However the total number of species for some taxa may be much higher.
- 10-30 million insects;
- 5-10 million bacteria;
- 1.5 million fungi;
- ~1 million mites
One early estimate by Terry Erwin put global species richness at 30 million, following extrapolations from the numbers of beetles found in a species of tropical tree. In one species of tree, Erwin identified 1200 species of beetle, of which he estimated 163 were found only in that tree. Based on the 50,000 species of tropical tree, this would suggest that there are almost 10 million species of beetle in the tropics.
Read more about this topic: Global Biodiversity
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