PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Runxi Wang
AU  - Jamie M. Kass
AU  - Christophe Galkowski
AU  - Federico Garcia
AU  - Matthew T. Hamer
AU  - Alexander Radchenko
AU  - Sebastian Salata
AU  - Enrico Schifani
AU  - Zalimkhan M. Yusupov
AU  - Evan P. Economo
AU  - Benoit Guénard
TI  - New distribution data and phylogenetic approach reveal bioregionalization of the western Palearctic ants
AID  - 10.1101/2022.03.10.483749
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.03.10.483749
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/03/12/2022.03.10.483749.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/03/12/2022.03.10.483749.full
AB  - Aim Biogeographic regionalization has fascinated biogeographers and ecologists for centuries and is endued with new vitality by evolutionary perspectives. However, progress is scant for most insect groups due to shortfalls in distribution and phylogenetic information, namely Wallacean and Darwinian shortfalls respectively. Here, we used the western Palearctic ants as the case to tackle these shortfalls and test their biogeographic structure through novel distribution data and phylogenetic approaches.Location Western Palearctic realm.Taxon Ants (Formicidae).Methods Firstly, we developed a refined database integrating the occurrences of 747 ant species across 207 regions of the western Palearctic realm, based on newly expert-validated records derived from the existing global ant biodiversity informatics. Using range estimates for these species derived from polygons and species distribution modelling, we produced species assemblages in 50 × 50 km grid cells. We calculated taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover of ant assemblages, performing hierarchical clustering analysis using the Simpson dissimilarity index to delineate biogeographic structure.Results At both the regional list- and grid assemblage-levels, the Mediterranean has higher turnover and more biogeographic regions than northern Europe, both taxonomically and phylogenetically. Delineations based on grid assemblages detected more detailed biogeographic transitions, while those based on regional lists showed stronger insularity in biogeographic structure. The phylogenetic regionalization suggested closer but varied affinities between assemblages in comparison to the taxonomic approach.Main conclusions Here, we integrated expert-validated regional lists, species distribution modelling, and a recent phylogeny to tackle Wallacean and Darwinian shortfalls for an important insect group by developing a next-generation map of biogeographic regionalization for the western Palearctic ants. The results of this study suggest strong constraints from geographic barriers and potential effects of climatic history on ant distributions and evolutionary history, and also provide baseline spatial information for future investigations of regional insect distributions.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.