Postfire biodiversity database for eastern Iberia.

In the summer of 2012, two fires affected Mediterranean ecosystems in the eastern Iberian Peninsula. The size of these fires was at the extreme of the historical variability (megafires). Animals are traditionally assumed to recolonize from source populations outside of the burned area (exogenous regeneration) while plants recover from endogenous regeneration (resprouting and seeding).

Fire benefits flower beetles in a Mediterranean ecosystem.

Despite the abundance of plants that benefit from fire in Mediterranean ecosystems, little is known about the possible presence of fire-favoured insects (other than bark beetles). For two years we sampled invertebrates after two large wildfires in eastern Spain and demonstrate that two flower beetle species, Protaetia morio and P. oblonga (Cetoniidae), show a pyrophilous behaviour.

DNA barcode reference library for Iberian butterflies enables a continental-scale preview of potential cryptic diversity.

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.

Revision of the genus Coletinia (Zygentoma: Nicoletiidae) in the Iberian Peninsula, with descriptions of nine new species.

The discovery of several members of the genus Coletinia Wygodzinsky, 1980, from subterranean habitats (endogean and troglobiont), prompted the review of this genus in the Iberian Peninsula. Most of the samples came from caves of the Mediterranean basin of Spain, from Cádiz to the Tarragona province. As a result of this revision, nine new species have been established: C.