“…Some species are local endemics to the Greater Caucasus, Pontic, Zagros, or Alborz Mountains. Others are widely distributed throughout the Caucasus and the adjacent areas of Anatolia, Cyprus, Iran, and Iraq (Hrivniak et al 2017(Hrivniak et al , 2019(Hrivniak et al , 2020a. Their distribution and diversity patterns can be explained by geological and climatic history, and land development in the region that have significantly affected the diversification of Caucasiron in the Caucasus (Hrivniak et al 2020b).…”