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The arrival ofPapilio demoleusLinnaeus, 1758 in Cyprus in 2021 signalled the species' first appearance in a country of the European Union attributable to range expansion from mainland coastal regions to the east, rather than by human-mediated activity. Molecular work on the Cyprus taxon has shown this to belong to nominotypicalP. demoleus demoleus, matching exactly results of similar work carried out on specimens from Mediterranean Syria. Breeding ofPapilio demoleuson three species ofCitrusat various urban locations in Cyprus has been confirmed, and from which observations it is apparent that two broods were achieved in late summer/autumn of 2021. As has been the experience in neighbouring Mediterranean Turkey and Syria, overwintering success is thought likely.

Effective policies to halt biodiversity loss require knowing which anthropogenic drivers are the most important direct causes. Whereas previous knowledge has been limited in scope and rigor, here we statistically synthesize empirical comparisons of recent driver impacts found through a wide-ranging review. We show that land/sea use change has been the dominant direct driver of recent biodiversity loss worldwide. Direct exploitation of natural resources ranks second and pollution third; climate change and invasive alien species have been significantly less important than the top two drivers. The oceans, where direct exploitation and climate change dominate, have a different driver hierarchy from land and fresh water. It also varies among types of biodiversity indicators. For example, climate change is a more important driver of community composition change than of changes in species populations. Stopping global biodiversity loss requires policies and actions to tackle all the major drivers and their interactions, not some of them in isolation.

By means of molecular analysis, we confirm nominotypical Papilio demoleus demoleus as the subspecies to have invaded and spread extensively throughout Syria's major citrus-growing regions in the Mediterranean, in little over a year. We discuss the species' range expansion in the Middle East, its discovery in Lebanon and its likely further spread along eastern, southern and northern coasts of the Mediterranean.

The coastal forests of Kenya are global biodiversity hotspots known for rich plant diversity and endemism. They exist as fragmented forest islands, and their current conservation status and quantitative trends in plant diversity are understudied. We investigated these knowledge gaps by providing a comprehensive literature review and comparing to field data collected using standardized sampling protocol. Our goals were to build a robust basis for future analyses, biodiversity monitoring, and to understand the role of fragment area in determining species richness. We recorded a total of 937 woody species belonging to 88 families in 30 forest patches from reviewed and sampled data. Species richness per site from literature review was affected by biases in data scarcity, forest size and variation in sampling methods. In general, large forests reserves of Shimba hills and Arabuko exhibited a high number of cumulative species compared to smaller forest patches. Species-area relationship showed a significant proportion of species richness per forest was determined by forest area, according to Arrhenius model. This study is the first to review forest patch woody plant species diversity knowledge gaps in the coastal forests of Kenya, and the resulting comparison provides the first quantitative overview and foundation of these forests.

Aim: Occurrence data are fundamental to macroecology, but accuracy is often compromised when multiple units are lumped together (e.g., in recently separated cryptic species or in citizen science records). Using amalgamated data leads to inaccuracy in species mapping, to biased beta-diversity assessments and to potentially erroneously predicted responses to climate change. We provide a set of R functions (biodecrypt) to objectively attribute unidentified occurrences to the most probable taxon based on a subset of identified records. Innovation: Biodecrypt assumes that unidentified occurrences can only be attributed at certain distances from areas of sympatry. The function draws concave hulls based on the subset of identified records; subsequently, based on hull geometry, it attributes (or not) unidientified records to a given taxon. Concavity can be imposed with an alpha value and sea or land areas can be excluded. A cross-validation function tests attribution reliability and another function optimises the parameters (alpha, buffer, distance ratio between hulls). We applied the procedure to 16 European butterfly complexes recently separated into 33 cryptic species for which most records were amalgamated. We compared niche similarity and divergence between cryptic taxa, and re-calculated and contributed updated climatic niche characteristics of the butterflies in Europe (CLIMBER). Main conclusions: Biodecrypt showed a cross-validated correct attribution of known records always ≥ 98% and attributed more than 80% of unidientified records to the most likely taxon in parapatric species. The functions determined where records can be assigned even for largely sympatric species, and highlighted areas where further sampling is required. All the cryptic taxa showed significantly diverging climatic niches, reflected in different values of mean temperature and precipitation compared to the values originally provided in the CLIMBER database. The substantial fraction of cryptic taxa existing across different taxonomic groups and their divergence in climatic niches highlight the importance of using reliably assigned occurrence data in macroecology., Support for this research was provided by the Academy of Finland to V. Dincă (decision no. 328895), and by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) and Agencia Estatal de Investigación and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (AEI/ FEDER), UE (Refs. PID2019‐107078GB‐I00 and CGL2016‐76322‐P) to R. Vila.

We provide an updated catalogue of the type material of the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea deposited in the Zoological Museum of Hamburg (ZMH). We report 414 specimens labelled as “types” belonging to nine species (all of valid names), 74 subspecies (44 valid names and 30 synonyms), 59 invalid infrasubspecific names under the ICZN code, and 23 specimens of 16 “in litteris” (= unavailable) names. Out of the 414 specimens labelled as “types”, 171 specimens are primary types (8 holotypes/lectotypes and 163 syntypes) and 80 are secondary types; 120 specimens are infrasubspecific and hence invalid and are considered as “original specimens”; and 43 specimens are treated here as “Non-type” specimens (topotype). We present a full bibliography of the original descriptions and illustrations for all of these taxa, aiming to provide a comprehensive taxonomic guide to this collection.

This paper presents an updated checklist of the butterflies of Europe, together with their original name combinations, and their occurrence status in each European country. According to this checklist, 496 species of the superfamily Papilionoidea occur in Europe. Changes in comparison with the last version (2.6.2) of Fauna Europaea are discussed. Compared to that version, 16 species are new additions, either due to cryptic species most of which have been discovered by molecular methods (13 cases) or due to discoveries of Asian species on the eastern border of the European territory in the Ural mountains (three cases). On the other hand, nine species had to be removed from the list, because they either do not occur in Europe or lost their species status due to new evidence. In addition, three species names had to be changed and 30 species changed their combination due to new evidence on phylogenetic relationships. Furthermore, minor corrections were applied to some authors¿ names and years of publication. Finally, the name Polyommatus ottomanus Lefèbvre, 1831, which is threatened by its senior synonym Lycaena legeri Freyer, 1830, is declared a nomen protectum, thereby conserving its name in the current combination Lycaena ottomana., VL was supported by grant N 14-14-00541 from the Russian Science Foundation to the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and ZF by grant 14- 36098G from the Czech Science Foundation.

Transect counts are one of the most popular approaches to assess and monitor butterfly diversity, especially with the background of biodiversity loss. This method was developed in Europe, but its transferability is seldom tested across the world. To assess transferability, we compared butterfly richness estimates based on transect counts in Spain, Germany and central China, a region with a considerably different biogeographic history and more diverse butterfly fauna compared to Europe. We found that the efficiency of transect counts was much lower in China than in the other two regions. Apart from the fact that traditional transect counts may undersample canopy species which are predominant in central China, higher efficiency in Europe may be primarily attributed to different patterns of butterfly richness likely caused by different biogeographic and anthropogenic land-use history. Our results highlight that great caution is needed when transect count methods are transferred to other regions of the world, especially to particularly species rich areas with a high number of rare species. Low detectability of certain species can substantially mask species richness estimates, and we suggest to carefully adapt sampling effort and perhaps combine transect counts with other methods to ensure more realistic assessment of species richness in such regions.

The bacterium Wolbachia infects many insect species and spreads by diverse vertical and horizontal means. As co-inherited organisms, these bacteria often cause problems in mitochondrial phylogeny inference. The phylogenetic relationships of many closely related Palaearctic blue butterflies (Lepidoptera: Lycaenidae: Polyommatinae) are ambiguous. We considered the patterns of Wolbachia infection and mitochondrial diversity in two systems: Aricia agestis/Aricia artaxerxes and the Pseudophilotes baton species complex. We sampled butterflies across their distribution ranges and sequenced one butterfly mitochondrial gene and two Wolbachia genes. Both butterfly systems had uninfected and infected populations, and harboured several Wolbachia strains. Wolbachia was highly prevalent in A. artaxerxes and the host’s mitochondrial structure was shallow, in contrast to A. agestis. Similar bacterial alleles infected both Aricia species from nearby sites, pointing to a possible horizontal transfer. Mitochondrial history of the P. baton species complex mirrored its Wolbachia infection and not the taxonomical division. Pseudophilotes baton and P. vicrama formed a hybrid zone in Europe. Wolbachia could obscure mitochondrial history, but knowledge on the infection helps us to understand the observed patterns. Testing for Wolbachia should be routine in mitochondrial DNA studies.

Trait-based analyses explaining the different responses of species and communities to environmental changes are increasing in frequency. European butterflies are an indicator group that responds rapidly to environmental changes with extensive citizen science contributions to documenting changes of abundance and distribution. Species traits have been used to explain long- and short-term responses to climate, land-use and vegetation changes. Studies are often characterised by limited trait sets being used, with risks that the relative roles of different traits are not fully explored. Butterfly trait information is dispersed amongst various sources and descriptions sometimes differ between sources. We have therefore drawn together multiple information sets to provide a comprehensive trait database covering 542 taxa and 25 traits described by 217 variables and sub-states of the butterflies of Europe and Maghreb (northwest Africa) which should serve for improved trait-based ecological, conservation-related, phylogeographic and evolutionary studies of this group of insects. We provide this data in two forms; the basic data and as processed continuous and multinomial data, to enhance its potential usage., Measurement(s) resources • Egg Laying • larval environment • pupal environment • geographic location • behavior • size • voltinism • phenology • host plant Technology Type(s) digital curation Factor Type(s) species Sample Characteristic - Organism Papilionoidea Sample Characteristic - Location Europe • Northwest Africa Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.12998828

This study relies on the Flying Beauties Citizen Science project conducted in the Philippines to assess personal motivations and learning outcomes of volunteers who were involved in documenting butterflies and dragonflies in rice ecosystems. While evaluation of motivations of volunteers in Citizen Science is not new, at least in affluent western countries, little is done in investigating volunteers’ motivations and learning outcomes of Citizen Science projects in low-income countries. Using surveys, we collected data from volunteers that were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. We adopted a two stages evaluation format—before and after volunteers finished the project exercise. We compared pre-motivations to motivations attained and changes in level of knowledge before and after the project ended. We use Spearman’s Rho, Kendall’s Tau—nonparametric tests to draw correlations between variables. The results showed that key determinants that drove people to volunteer in the project were (a) learning about species and (b) being part of scientific research and the principal learning outcome was improved awareness about ecosystem functions of the species.

Aim Biological invasions are today the second-largest global threat for biodiversity. Once introduced, exotic plant species can modify ecosystem composition, structure and dynamics, eventually driving native species to local extinction. Among the groups of organisms, most likely to be directly affected by exotic invasive plants are herbivorous insects, such as butterflies, which strongly depend on plants throughout their life cycle. However, it remains unclear whether invasive plants have a negative or a positive effect on butterfly diversity at a landscape scale. Location Switzerland. Methods Using an extensive inventory (393 sites across Switzerland) of both butterfly and invasive plants, we explore the impact of 31 invasive black listed plant species on local butterfly richness. We further identify each butterfly species’ response to invasive plants (i.e. positive, neutral or negative) and analyse the functional and phylogenetic characteristics of these different groups of species. Results Our results indicate that butterfly richness negatively correlates with an increase in invasive plant richness. When studying the individual response of each butterfly species to the number of invasive plants, we found that no single butterfly is profiting from invasive plant species, while 28 butterfly species (24%) suffer from the presence of invasive plants. We further show that the species negatively affected are on average less mobile than the unaffected species and that they are phylogenetically clustered. Main conclusions Our results present evidences of the influence of invasive species on other trophic levels and interaction networks. We further highlight that a lack of management efforts for mitigating invasive plant impacts threatens specific sections of the functional and phylogenetic diversity of butterflies.

With the aim of supporting ecological analyses in butterflies, the third most species-rich superfamily of Lepidoptera, this paper presents the first time-calibrated phylogeny of all 496 extant butterfly species in Europe, including 18 very localised endemics for which no public DNA sequences had been available previously. It is based on a concatenated alignment of the mitochondrial gene COI and up to eleven nuclear gene fragments, using Bayesian inferences of phylogeny. To avoid analytical biases that could result from our region-focussed sampling, our European tree was grafted upon a global genus-level backbone butterfly phylogeny for analyses. In addition to a consensus tree, the posterior distribution of trees and the fully concatenated alignment are provided for future analyses. Altogether a complete phylogenetic framework of European butterflies for use by the ecological and evolutionary communities is presented.

Understanding the dynamics of biodiversity, including the spatial distribution of genetic diversity, is critical for predicting responses to environmental changes, as well as for effective conservation measures. This task requires tracking changes in biodiversity at large spatial scales and correlating with species functional traits. We provide three comprehensive resources to understand the determinants for mitochondrial DNA differentiation represented by (a) 15,609 COI sequences and (b) 14 traits belonging to 307 butterfly species occurring in Western-Central Europe and (c) the first multi-locus phylogenetic tree of all European butterfly species. By applying phylogenetic regressions we show that mitochondrial DNA spatial differentiation (as measured with G, G′, D and D) is negatively correlated with species traits determining dispersal capability and colonization ability. Thanks to the high spatial resolution of the COI data, we also provide the first zoogeographic regionalization maps based on intraspecific genetic variation. The overall pattern obtained by averaging the spatial differentiation of all Western-Central European butterflies shows that the paradigm of long-term glacial isolation followed by rapid pulses of post-glacial expansion has been a pervasive phenomenon in European butterflies. The results and the extensive data sets we provide here constitute the basis for genetically-informed conservation plans for a charismatic group in a continent where flying insects are under alarming decline., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. Grant Number: CGL2013-48277-P and CGL2016-76322-P Marie Skłodowska‐Curie. Grant Numbers: 609402-2020, 625997.

Red Lists are very valuable tools in nature conservation at global, continental and (sub-) national scales. In an attempt to prioritise conservation actions for European butterflies, we compiled a database with species lists and Red Lists of all European countries, including the Macaronesian archipelagos (Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands). In total, we compiled national species lists for 42 countries and national Red Lists for 34 of these. The most species-rich countries in Europe are Italy, Russia and France with more than 250 species each. Endemic species are mainly found on the Macaronesian archipelagos and on the Mediterranean islands. By attributing numerical values proportionate to the threat statuses in the different national Red List categories, we calculated a mean Red List value for every country (cRLV) and a weighted Red List value for every species (wsRLV) using the square root of the country’s area as a weighting factor. Countries with the highest cRLV were industrialised (NW) European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic and Denmark, whereas large Mediterranean countries such as Spain and Italy had the lowest cRLV. Species for which a Red List assessment was available in at least two European countries and with a relatively high wsRLV (≥ 50) are Colias myrmidone, Pseudochazara orestes, Tomares nogelii, Colias chrysotheme and Coenonympha oedippus. We compared these wsRLVs with the species statuses on the European Red List to identify possible mismatches. We discuss how this complementary method can help to prioritise butterfly conservation on the continental and/or the (sub-)national scale.

LEGATO stands for “Land-use intensity and Ecological EnGineering—Assessment Tools for risks and Opportunities in irrigated rice based production systems.”

Aim Niche‐based models often ignore spatial variation in the climatic niche of a species across its occupied range and the related variation in the response to changing climate conditions. This assumption may lead to inaccurate predictions of species distribution shifts under climate change. Models have been developed to address this issue, but most of them depend upon prior knowledge on evolutionary lineages, phenotypic traits or ecological processes underlying local adaptation or adaptive plasticity. As such information is often lacking, these models are not frequently used to predict distribution shifts for many species. This limits our ability to explore general patterns of change across species. Innovation Here, we propose a modelling framework that can be applied across a large sample of species to assess their distribution shifts under future climate while exploring the effect of intraspecific spatial variation in the response to climate conditions. The proposed approach does not require a detailed understanding of the processes underlying such variation. The geographical distribution of a species is split into spatial subsets along the gradient of occupied climate conditions. These subsets are considered as proxies for intraspecific spatial niche variation. Local models are built with each subset and their predictions are assembled across the study area under different dispersal assumptions. Using European butterflies as an example, we show that this approach can be used to explore the uncertainty about predicted distribution shifts arising from intraspecific spatial variation in sensitivity and response to changing climate conditions. Main conclusions Our modelling approach is not intended to replace advanced modelling methods based on species‐specific knowledge of ecological and evolutionary processes, but it is useful as an exploratory tool to detect species for which detailed information on intraspecific responses to climate conditions is likely to make a difference for prediction of future distribution shifts. Framework Programme FP6 of the European Commission, Grant/Award Number: GOCE-CT-2003-506675; FP7 Environment, Grant/Award Number: 308454; Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Grant/Award Number: ARC-grant 17/22-086; Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg, Grant/Award Number: FNR-AFR PHD-09-121

gricultural landscapes and ecosystem services in South-East sia—the LEGATO-Project osef Settelea,b,∗, Joachim H. Spangenberga,c, Kong Luen Heongd,q, enjamin Burkharde,f, Jesus Victor Bustamanteg, Jimmy Cabbigatg, o Van Chienh, Monina Escaladai, Volker Greschoa,j, Le Huu Haik, lexander Harpkea, Finbarr G. Horgand, Stefan Hotesl, Reinhold Jahnm, ngolf Kuhna,b, Leonardo Marquezn, Martin Schadlera,b, Vera Tekkeno, oris Vetterleina, Sylvia “Bong” Villareald, Catrin Westphalp, Martin Wiemersa

How species respond to environmental change is a fundamental question in ecology and species traits can help to tackle this question. In this study, we analyze how the functional structure of species assemblages changes with selected environmental variables along an elevational gradient. In particular, we used species traits of local butterfly communities (body size, voltinism, overwintering stages, and host specificity) in a national nature reserve in China to assess the impacts of temperature, net primary productivity, and land use. Our results show that productivity, measured as NDVI, had a stronger influence on the functional community structure of butterflies than temperature. Within the butterfly assemblages, net primary productivity mainly affected body size and supported few but large species. Length of vegetation period demonstrated dominating effects on the functional structure of local butterfly assemblages. However, an observed increase in dietary generalists with longer vegetation periods contradicted expectations based on niche breadth hypothesis, that more stable conditions should favor specialists. Furthermore, the general positive impact of vegetation period on species abundances differed considerably among functional groups. Only the group containing species hibernating as egg decreased with the length of vegetation period. Our results suggest that trait associations are instructive to explain environment–herbivore relationships, that resource availability can predominantly influence the functional composition of herbivore assemblages, and that conservation priority should be given to specialist butterfly species overwintering as egg, especially in the face of global warming.

Advances in phenology and pole- and up-ward shifts in geographic ranges are well-documented signs that species are responding to climate change. A deeper understanding of such responses across ecologically different species groups will help to assess future consequences for entire ecosystems. A less well-studied pattern linked with climate change is increases in abundances of warm-adapted species compared with cold-adapted species. To compare how recent climate change has affected the abundances of species across different taxonomic groups, we analyzed long-term local population trends and related them to the species temperature niche, as inferred from geographic distributions. We used population data sets collected in different regions of Central Europe, primarily Germany, for bats, birds, butterflies, ground beetles, springtails and dry grassland plants. We found that temperature niche was positively associated with long-term population trends in some of the taxonomic groups (birds, butterflies, ground beetles) but was less important in others (bats, springtails, and grassland plants). This variation in the importance of temperature niche suggested that some populations have been affected more than others by climate change, which may be explained by differences in species attributes, such as generation time and microhabitat preference. Our findings indicate that relating temperature niches of species to population trends is a useful method to quantify the impact of climate change on local population abundances. We show that this widely applicable approach is particularly suited for comparative cross-system analyses to identify which types of organisms, in which habitats, are responding the most to climate change., OS also acknowledges support from the seventh European Commission Framework Programme (FP7) via the Integrated Project STEP (grant no. 244090) (Potts et al., 2011)., European Commission

Dichotomous keys are the most popular type of identification keys. Studies have been conducted to evaluate dichotomous keys in many aspects. In this paper we propose an index for quantitative evaluation of dichotomous keys (Edicho). The index is based on the evenness and allows comparing identification keys of different sizes.

Climate change, land-use change, pollution and exploitation are among the main drivers of species' population trends; however, their relative importance is much debated. We used a unique collection of over 1,000 local population time series in 22 communities across terrestrial, freshwater and marine realms within central Europe to compare the impacts of long-term temperature change and other environmental drivers from 1980 onwards. To disentangle different drivers, we related species' population trends to species- and driver-specific attributes, such as temperature and habitat preference or pollution tolerance. We found a consistent impact of temperature change on the local abundances of terrestrial species. Populations of warm-dwelling species increased more than those of cold-dwelling species. In contrast, impacts of temperature change on aquatic species' abundances were variable. Effects of temperature preference were more consistent in terrestrial communities than effects of habitat preference, suggesting that the impacts of temperature change have become widespread for recent changes in abundance within many terrestrial communities of central Europe., Additionally, we appreciate the open access marine data provided by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea. We thank the following scientists for taxonomic or technical advice: C. Brendel, T. Caprano, R. Claus, K. Desender, A. Flakus, P. R. Flakus, S. Fritz, E.-M. Gerstner, J.-P. Maelfait, E.-L. Neuschulz, S. Pauls, C. Printzen, I. Schmitt and H. Turin, and I. Bartomeus for comments on a previous version of the manuscript. R.A. was supported by the EUproject LIMNOTIP funded under the seventh European Commission Framework Programme (FP7) ERA-Net Scheme (Biodiversa, 01LC1207A) and the long-term ecological research program at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB). R.W.B. was supported by the Scottish Government Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division (RESAS) through Theme 3 of their Strategic Research Programme. S.D. acknowledges support of the German Research Foundation DFG (grant DO 1880/1-1). S.S. acknowledges the support from the FP7 project EU BON (grant no. 308454). S.K., I.Kü. and O.S. acknowledge funding thorough the Helmholtz Association’s Programme Oriented Funding, Topic ‘Land use, biodiversity, and ecosystem services: Sustaining human livelihoods’. O.S. also acknowledges the support from FP7 via the Integrated Project STEP (grant no. 244090). D.E.B. was funded by a Landes–Offensive zur Entwicklung Wissenschaftlich–ökonomischer Exzellenz (LOEWE) excellence initiative of the Hessian Ministry for Science and the Arts and the German Research Foundation (DFG: Grant no. BO 1221/23-1).

International audience; The side effects of the current global use of pesticides on wildlife, particularly at higher levels of biological organization : populations, communities and ecosystems, are poorly understood (Köhler and Triebskorn 2013). Here, we focus on one of the problematic groups of agrochemicals, the systemic insecticides fipronil and those of the neonicotinoid family. The increasing global reliance on the partly prophylactic use of these persistent and potent neurotoxic systemic insecticides has raised concerns about their impacts on biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and ecosystem services provided by a wide range of affected species and environments. The present scale of use, combined with the properties of these compounds, has resulted in widespread contamination of agricultural soils, freshwater resources, wetlands, non-target vegetation and estuarine and coastal marine systems, which means that many organisms inhabiting these habitats are being repeatedly and chronically expose.

The cycad blue, Chilades pandava, is recorded from Egypt for the first time. According to molecular analysis, the species appears to have originated from South China or Northern Indochina, and was probably introduced with ornamental Cycas plants.

The Mediterranean Red List assessment is a review of the conservation status at regional level of approximately 6, 000 species (amphibians, mammals, reptiles, fishes, butterflies, dragonflies, beetles, molluscs, corals and plants) according to the IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria. It identifies those species that are threatened with extinction at the regional level to guide appropriate conservation actions for improving their status. This report summarises the results for Mediterranean butterflies.

The Palaearctic Grayling genus Pseudochazara encompasses a number of petrophilous butterfly species, most of which are local endemics especially in their centre of radiation in SW Asia and the Balkans. Due to a lack of consistent morphological characters, coupled with habitat induced variability, their taxonomy is poorly understood and species delimitation is hampered. We employed a DNA barcoding approach to address the question of separate species status for several European taxa and provide first insight into the phylogeny of the genus. Unexpectedly we found conflicting patterns with deep divergences between presumably conspecific taxa and lack of divergence among well-defined species. We propose separate species status for Pseudochazara tisiphone, Pseudochazara amalthea, Pseudochazara amymone, and Pseudochazara kermana all of which have separate well supported clades, with the majority of them becoming local endemics. Lack of resolution in the ‘Mamurra’ species group with well-defined species (in terms of wing pattern and coloration) such as Pseudochazara geyeri, Pseudochazara daghestana and Pseudochazara alpina should be further explored using nuclear molecular markers with higher genetic resolution.

Impacts of climate change on individual species are increasingly well documented, but we lack understanding of how these effects propagate through ecological communities. Here we combine species distribution models with ecological network analyses to test potential impacts of climate change on >700 plant and animal species in pollination and seed-dispersal networks from central Europe. We discover that animal species that interact with a low diversity of plant species have narrow climatic niches and are most vulnerable to climate change. In contrast, biotic specialization of plants is not related to climatic niche breadth and vulnerability. A simulation model incorporating different scenarios of species coextinction and capacities for partner switches shows that projected plant extinctions under climate change are more likely to trigger animal coextinctions than vice versa. This result demonstrates that impacts of climate change on biodiversity can be amplified via extinction cascades from plants to animals in ecological networks., In addition to affecting individual species, climate change can modify species interactions. Coupling simulation models with networks between plants and animal pollinators and seed dispersers, Schleuning et al. show that animal persistence under climate change depends more strongly on plant persistence than vice versa.