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Allophylax costatipennis costatipennis (Lucas, 1846),         graphical or environmental gradient may have very dif-
Pachychila tazmaltensis Desbrochers des Loges, 1881,          ferent effects on different aspects of species distributions
Eutagenia aegyptiaca tunisea Normand, 1936, Gono-             and multiple approaches are needed for understanding
cephalum perplexum (Lucas, 1846) and Microtelus lethi-        multiple biogeographical patterns.
erryi Reiche, 1860.
                                                              ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. I wish to express my gratitude to P.
  Endemicity levels vary considerably among islands, as       Lo Cascio for providing information used to define land cover
a result of their different paleogeographical history. For    categories for small Aeolian islets not covered by the GIS of the
the Aeolian archipelago, which is very close to Sicily,       Italian Ministry of the Environment and Protection of the Terri-
with a paleogeographical distance strongly reduced            tory and Sea. Thanks are due P. Leo and A. Aliquò for sugges-
during Pleistocene regressions, only one endemic species      tions, and to D. Boukal and two anonymous reviewers for their
(Nalassus pastai Aliquò, Leo & LoCascio, 2006 from            comments on a previous version of his paper.
Vulcano) is known. Two endemic taxa are known from
the Egadi Islands, both from Marettimo, the only island in    REFERENCES
the Egadi group that remained disconnected from Sicily
during Pleistocene regressions. One endemic taxon is          BÁLDI A. 2008: Habitat heterogeneity overrides the species-area
known from Ustica and one from Pantelleria. Isolation of        relationship. J. Biogeogr. 35: 675–681.
these two islands could have favoured some morpho-
logical differentiation in their populations, but because of  TER BRAAK C.J.F. & PRENTICE I.C. 1988: A theory of gradient
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very ancient islands hosting several endemics (four on        TER BRAAK C.J.F. & SMILAUER P. 2002: CANOCO Reference
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brignonei Koch, 1935 is endemic to Linosa and Lampe-          CAPULA M. 1994: Genetic variation and differentiation in the liz-
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in southern Sicily, could still represent a distinct form.      Phylogenetic analysis and biogeography of Aegean taxa of
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CONCLUSIONS                                                     Evol. 34: 295–312.

  This study investigated the influence of island geo-        CORTI C., LO CASCIO P., VANNI S., TURRISI G.F. & VACCARO A.
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account species identities, was mostly influenced by            Linn. Soc. 28: 37–64.
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identities were considered, no substantial effect of land-    DAPPORTO L. & CINI A. 2007: Faunal patterns in the Tuscan
scape was detected. Tenebrionids are detritivorous and          archipelago butterflies: The dominant influence is recent
most species can exploit a number of different biotopes in      geography not paleogeography. Eur. J. Entomol. 104:
several kinds of land cover categories. Thus, most species      497–503.
can probably exploit biotopes across a variety of land-
cover categories. This low environmental specialization       DAPPORTO L. & DENNIS R.L.H. 2008a: Species richness, rarity
brings about low influence of landscape on species              and endemicity of Italian offshore islands: complementary
assemblage composition, whereas greater landscape het-          signals from island-focused and species-focused analyses. J.
erogeneity supports larger species numbers.                     Biogeogr. 35: 664–674.

  Current isolation does not show a strong influence on       DAPPORTO L. & DENNIS R.L.H. 2008b: Island size is not the only
species richness, but has a distinct effect in determining      consideration. Ranking priorities for the conservation of but-
species assortments on the remotest islands. Historical         terflies on Italian offshore islands. J. Insect Conserv. 12:
factors, i.e. Pleistocene landbridge connections, are not       237–249.
detectable in species richness relationships with geo-
graphical variables or in assemblage gradients, but           DAPPORTO L. & DENNIS R.L.H. 2009: Conservation biogeog-
emerge distinctly from inter-island similarities. Thus, the     raphy of large Mediterranean islands. Butterfly impoverish-
results presented in this study show that the same geo-         ment, conservation priorities and inferences for an ecological
                                                                “island paradigm”. Ecography 32: 169–179.

                                                              DAPPORTO L., WOLF H. & STRUMIA F. 2007: Recent geography
                                                                determines the distribution of some flying Hymenoptera in
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                                                              DENGLER J. 2009: Which function describes the species-area
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                                                                geogr. 36: 728–744.

                                                              DENNIS R.L.H., SHREEVE T.G., OLIVIER A. & COUTSIS J.G. 2000:
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                                                                dea, Hesperoidea). J. Biogeogr. 27: 1365–1383.

                                                              DENNIS R.L.H., DAPPORTO L., SHREEVE T.G., JOHN E., COUTSIS
                                                                J.G., KUDRNA O., SAARINEN K., RYRHOLM N. & WILLIAMS W.R.
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