The checklist of alien herpetofauna of Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It contains information on alien amphibian and reptile species recorded in the wild in Belgium since 1968. Both established species and occasional records are included, but with information on the degree of establishment of species following the unified invasion framework of Blackburn et al. (2011). The checklist is published here as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each (sub)species: the scientific name and classification (in the taxon core), the presence in Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region, year of first and last observation in Belgium (given as a year range in the event date in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), and the degree of establishment, pathway(s) of introduction and native range(s) (in the description extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/alien-herpetofauna-belgium. We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the GBIF citation guidelines (https://www.gbif.org/citation-guidelines) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don’t hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via https://twitter.com/trias_project. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.

Waarnemingen.be / observations.be - List of species observed in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by Natuurpunt and Natagora. Waarnemingen.be (in Dutch) and observation.be (in French) are the two local Belgian subsites of the global observation.org website. The checklist comprises 18.785 species observed in Belgium. Here, it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, higher classification and stable taxon identifier (in the taxon core), its status (native, introduced) and first and last observation date per region (Flanders, Brussels Capital Region, Wallonia) in Belgium (in the distribution extension). Only observations which were approved by species specialists based on provided evidence (photograph or sound), or which were approved based on expert judgment by the validating experts were considered for publication (see Swinnen et al. 2022 for the validation procedure). Observers’ data-sharing settings were respected at all times. When the first or last observation from a species in a region was not to be shared, observers were contacted to request an exception for this species list. In the few cases this authorisation was not acquired, the next (for the oldest record) or previous (for the most recent record) observation date was considered for publication. This species list does not represent a complete overview of Belgian biodiversity, only species that are recorded in the citizen science platforms waarnemingen.be and observation.be. Other datasets and checklists have to be considered for the compilation of a complete Belgian overview. We have released this dataset under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). We would appreciate it, however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (http://www.natuurpunt.be/normen-voor-datagebruik). If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always prepared to provide more information or knowledge on how to use the data, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or natuurdata@natuurpunt.be. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017, Groom et al. 2022), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). The subset of introduced species is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium published as the Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - Belgium (Desmet et al. 2021). This way, validated newly reported alien species on the waarnemingen.be/observation.be citizen science portal (Swinnen et al. 2018) quickly find their way to the scientific tools supporting alien species policies and management in Belgium.

The Belgian Coccinellidae dataset which is published, is the result of a merge of 4 datasets. The INBO (Research Institute for Nature and Forest; Flemish Region Database), the DFF database (The Walloon Region Database), Observations.be data provided by Natagora (The Walloon Region and Brussels Capital Region) and the Walloon Region Online Encoding Tool (DEMNA - OFFH, observatoire.biodiversite.wallonie.be/encodage) data. At present, the database contains about 80.000 records, of which 15% come from museum collections and literature data. Collection events minimally consist of species, number of individuals, stage (adults, larvae and pupae), observation date, observer and location. Original locations as well as collection material were attributed to 1x1 km or 5x5 km grid cells of the UTM grid (Universal Transverse Mercator). A large part of the Belgian territory has been surveyed for ladybird beetles: the database contains records for at least 85% of all 5x5km UTM grid cells (N = 1376) in Belgium. Additionally, data on substratum plants, height in the vegetation, sampling method, habitat type, surrounding landscape, slope orientation, soil type, humidity, vegetation cover and behaviour were noted. In 1999, the Belgian Ladybird Working Group Coccinula launched a large scale field survey on 40 native ladybird species (Coccinellinae, Chilocorinae and Epilachninae) and to date has more than 500 volunteers providing distribution data. They actively search for ladybird beetles in a variety of habitats using sweep nets, beating trays, visual search, light trapping, pitfall traps and other sampling methods. Distribution, habitat and substrate plant information is also noted on a standard recording form. The working group maintains a database of observations, literature and collection data of Coccinellidae from 1800 onwards. Preliminary atlases have been published for the whole Belgian territory (Branquart et al., 1999; Adriaens and Maes, 2004) and updated distribution maps are available online, on demand and through the working group's newsletter. The published dataset contains most of the data maintained by the working group. For the time being, only the original INBO database is published.

The Ad hoc checklist of alien species in Belgium is a species checklist dataset published by the Research Institute of Nature and Forest (INBO). It was specifically created for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species, http://trias-project.be) to account for gaps in the alien species coverage in other species checklists for Belgium and mainly includes taxonomic groups and newly introduced species not covered elsewhere (yet). Due to its ad hoc nature, the list might change substantially over time. Here it is published as a standardized Darwin Core Archive and includes for each species: the scientific name, higher classification and stable taxon identifier (in the taxon core), the (confidence regarding the) presence of the species in Belgium (and its regions), the date of first introduction and last assessment (in the distribution extension), coarse habitat information (in the species profile extension), the pathway(s) of introduction, native range(s) and invasion stage in Belgium (in the description extension), and an overview of the consulted literature for each taxon (in the literature references extension). Issues with the dataset can be reported at https://github.com/trias-project/ad-hoc-checklist We have released this dataset to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver. We would appreciate it if you follow the INBO norms for data use (https://www.inbo.be/en/norms-data-use) when using the data. If you have any questions regarding this dataset, don't hesitate to contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata or via opendata@inbo.be. This dataset was published as open data for the TrIAS project (Tracking Invasive Alien Species http://trias-project.be, Vanderhoeven et al. 2017), with technical support provided by the Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO). It is selected as one of the authoritative sources for the compilation of a unified and reproducible checklist of alien species in Belgium.

The Saltabel dataset deals with grasshopper and cricket occurrences in Belgium. The data are largely gathered by volunteer naturalists, who also reviewed and digitised data from existing museum and university collections in Belgium. Input in a database, feedback to observers, validation and database maintenance were cared for by a professional employee at the Institute for Nature Conservation (IN). The Saltabel (Salta < Saltatoria; bel > Belgium) working group was established in 1989. The purpose of this project was mainly to collect information about the distribution, faunistics and ecology of grasshoppers and crickets in Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg. The working group produced a newsletter which appeared irregularly in the period 1989-2002 with the intention to inform observers about latest findings, interesting observations, ecological research etc., provide feedback to naturalists and to raise awareness about the conservation value of Orthoptera in general. During this periode, the working group was most active and organised annual weekends, in turn organized in Belgium, the Netherlands and sometimes also northern France . These weekends were intended to perform inventories for badly prospected regions and to stimulate knowledge exchange between collaborators. In 1997, a standard work on the grasshoppers and crickets of The Netherlands was published using data from this project (Kleukers et al. 1997). In 2000, a provisional atlas and red lists of grasshoppers and crickets in Flanders , Brussels and Wallonia was published (Decleer et al. 2000), providing the first major output of this faunistic project for Belgium. As a consequence, the interest for grasshoppers and crickets in conservation increased, as these insects became important indicators of natural quality and successful nature management. After this milestone, the working group lost some incentive, the network of volunteers was no longer professionally supported and Saltabel became less active. In 2006, a dedicated survey was organised in Brussels Capital Region through the SaltaBru project, greatly increasing the number of records for this region. More recently, Saltabel became a study group of the Flemish NGO Natuurpunt and the working group revived with numerous activities and a growing number of recorders involved (http://www.saltabel.org). Since 2011, the online encoding platform http://www.waarnemingen.be is promoted and used for online reporting of records. Since 2012, the focus of the working group was put on enhancing the knowledge of threatened species in Flanders, with dedicated surveys prospecting historically known locations of e.g. Stenobothrus stigmaticus, Stenobothrus lineatus and Ephippiger ephippiger. The database described here, however, does not contain these recent records. The Netherlands are currently also working on a new atlas through waarneming.nl (http://www.waarneming.nl/sprinkhaanatlas_start.php). To allow anyone to use this dataset, we have released the data to the public domain under a Creative Commons Zero waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/). We would appreciate however, if you read and follow these norms for data use (http://www.inbo.be/en/norms-for-data-use) and provide a link to the original dataset (https://doi.org/10.15468/1rcpsq) whenever possible. If you use these data for a scientific paper, please cite the dataset following the applicable citation norms and/or consider us for co-authorship. We are always interested to know how you have used or visualized the data, or to provide more information, so please contact us via the contact information provided in the metadata, opendata@inbo.be or https://twitter.com/LifeWatchINBO.