How common are cryptic species - those overlooked because of their morphological similarity? Despite its wide-ranging implications for biology and conservation, the answer remains open to debate. Butterflies constitute the best-studied invertebrates, playing a similar role as birds do in providing models for vertebrate biology. An accurate assessment of cryptic diversity in this emblematic group requires meticulous case-by-case assessments, but a preview to highlight cases of particular interest will help to direct future studies. We present a survey of mitochondrial genetic diversity for the butterfly fauna of the Iberian Peninsula with unprecedented resolution (3502 DNA barcodes for all 228 species), creating a reliable system for DNA-based identification and for the detection of overlooked diversity. After compiling available data for European butterflies (5782 sequences, 299 species), we applied the Generalized Mixed Yule-Coalescent model to explore potential cryptic diversity at a continental scale. The results indicate that 27.7% of these species include from two to four evolutionary significant units (ESUs), suggesting that cryptic biodiversity may be higher than expected for one of the best-studied invertebrate groups and regions. The ESUs represent important units for conservation, models for studies of evolutionary and speciation processes, and sentinels for future research to unveil hidden diversity.

Aim The geographical distributions of animal and plant species endemic to the Iberian Peninsula and Balearic Islands were analysed to locate and designate areas of endemicity.Location The Iberian Peninsula and the three largest Balearic Islands (Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza) in the western Mediterranean, West Palaearctic region. MethodsThe information analysed consisted of presence/absence data of animal and plant species, recorded on a 100´100 km grid based on the UTM projection system. From a larger initial data set, a simpli®ed matrix of 480 species present in at least two quadrats was obtained, and processed to estimate the overall similarity patterns across land squares, and the areas of endemism. Two methods were employed to detect areas of endemism: Wagner Parsimony (PAE, or parsimony analysis of endemicity) and compatibility. A modi®cation of PAE, PAE±PCE (Parsimony analysis of endemicity with progressive character elimination) was applied to overcome some of the potential shortcomings of the method. ResultsThe results represent the ®rst attempt for a combined analysis of animal and plant distributions in the western Mediterranean. The proposed PAE±PCE procedure proved useful to identify areas of endemism that would have been otherwise overlooked. Up to thirty-six different areas of endemisms were identi®ed. Some of these represent concentric (hierarchically nested) structures, while other are partly overlapping sectors. The endemism areas, as derived from parsimony and compatibility analyses, generally ®t within the frame of the overall similarity approach.Main conclusions The areas of endemicity identi®ed often coincide with mountain sectors, and this may be of incidental interest for conservation policies as most natural preserves in the study area are located in mountain ranges. The conclusions are of interest for large scale approaches to the biogeography of the Mediterranean Basin, facilitating the selection of endemism areas for operative purposes. However, most of the best supported areas of endemism detected are relatively small, or overlap with neighbouring endemism areas. Hence, adopting large area units such as`Iberia' for historical analysis at a wider geographical scale may be risky, because such units may actually represent composite sectors of an heterogeneous nature. The distribution of the areas of endemism, as well as the results of the overall similarity classi®cation, share a number of features with previous sectorizations from independent, mostly phytogeographical, approaches. Parsimony analysis of endemicity is a potentially useful tool for identifying areas designated by species with congruent distributions, but (1) the results Correspondence: Enrique Garcõ Âa-Barros, have no direct historical implications (for phylogenetic information is not incorporated), and (2) unless modi®cations such as the PAE±PCE procedure are applied, the number of potential areas of endemism (in the sense stated above) will often be underestimated. It is also shown that, in a PAE, a`total evidence' approac...

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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 Polyommatusottomanus Lefèbvre, 1831, which is threatened by its senior synonym Lycaenalegeri Freyer, 1830, is declared a nomen protectum, thereby conserving its name in the current combination Lycaenaottomana.

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