Studies regarding macroecological patterns involving subterranean fauna are challenging, since the environments where such species are found generally do not have the same ecological patterns observed on the surface, due to their isolation. Therefore, using data on the occurrence of invertebrate families, we tested the influence of ecological regions already established for surface environments (biogeographic domains, biomes, and ecoregions), lithology, and drainage basins as potential drivers of the similarity on the invertebrates communities. We observed that within the surface ecoregions there might still be subdivisions due to different drainage basins, a pattern that was repeated in both aquatic and terrestrial fauna. Thus, we present different bioregions in the Afrotropics and Neotropics, in which caves have distinct faunistic identities. We discuss the biogeographic relationships between the epigean and hypogean environments that may be behind these patterns. We believe that these results can assist in conservation strategies, in which these different compositions are considered.
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