Aim Historically, research on global distribution patterns has mostly concentrated conspicuous organisms and thus a large proportion of biodiversity Earth remains unmapped. We examined the palpigrades, poorly studied group low dispersive arachnids specialized to subterranean life. asked what are ecological factors driving their distributions, extent sampling bias may influence observed patterns...

Scorpions of the genus Mesobuthus represent a useful terrestrial model system for studying molecular evolution. They are distributed on several Aegean islands and the adjacent mainland, they are believed to have low rates of dispersal, and evolutionary divergence dates of taxa are available based on biogeographic events that separated islands from each other and the mainland. Here, we present d...