Species extinctions increase at a global scale; therefore, rapid inventorying of our planet's biodiversity is becoming more and more important. As insects represent the highest portion of the fauna and play key ecological roles, it is a pressing need to investigate their biodiversity and accelerate species discovery, especially for understudied insect groups, also known as “dark taxa.” Phoridae (Diptera) are a great example of a “dark taxon,” in particular the genus Megaselia Rondani. The use of integrative methodologies is the best approach to face up to the task of describing hyperdiverse and dark taxa, as morphology alone can be imprecise and slow, and molecular methods alone are often insufficient and lead to errors. Here, we used the Large‐Scale Integrative Taxonomy (LIT) approach to sort 9000 Megaselia into 277 putative species based on DNA barcodes. Each cluster passed through an evaluation of the predictors for incongruence indices between clusters and morphology (maximum p‐distance, stability index), and a subset of specimens were morphologically examined. We provided species estimates with Chao1, and our results suggest a 15% increase in species richness on our dataset. As this estimate was mostly based on samples from southern Germany, the species count will likely increase with expanded geographic sampling. This is a step forward in the study of this taxon, despite the fact that the German insect fauna is one of the best known in Europe and boasts more than one hundred years of study on phorids.

Iran is a country characterized by high biodiversity and complex biogeographic patterns. Its diverse landscape and steep climatic gradients have resulted in significant faunal diversity and high level of endemism. To better understand these patterns, we investigated the historical environmental drivers that have shaped Iran’s current geological and climatological conditions, and, consequently, have shaped the current zoological distribution patterns. Furthermore, we provide an overview of the country’s zoological diversity and zoogeography by reviewing published studies on its fauna. We analyzed nearly all available catalogs, updated checklists, and relevant publications, and synthesized them to present a comprehensive overview of Iran’s biodiversity. Our review reports approximately 37,500 animal species for Iran. We also demonstrated that the country serves as a biogeographic transition zone among three zoogeographical realms: the Palearctic, Oriental, and Saharo-Arabian, where distinct faunal elements intersect. This biogeographic complexity has made it challenging to delineate clear zoogeographical zones, leading to varying classifications depending on the taxon. The uplift of mountain ranges, in particular, has played a crucial role in shaping faunal diversity by serving as barriers, corridors, and glacial refugia. These mountains are largely the result of orogeny and plate collisions during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, coupled with the development of the Tethyan Sea and the uplift of several ranges during the Miocene. Despite these insights, our understanding of biodiversity distribution in Iran remains incomplete, even for some well-studied taxa, such as certain vertebrate families and arthropods. We highlight the existing gaps in knowledge regarding zoogeographical patterns and propose approaches to address these gaps, particularly concerning less-studied species and the highly diverse group of insects.

The global struggle to conserve as many species as possible with limited resources requires an improvement of our knowledge on the distribution of biodiversity. In Iran, the state of knowledge is poor for most groups of organisms, except few vertebrate groups and vascular plants. Reptiles are one of the best known, most diverse vertebrate groups in Iran, with a high rate of endemism (ca. 29%), but distribution patterns and related environmental drivers remain poorly understood. In the present study, based on a large publicly available dataset, we use general additive modelling (GAM) to identify explanatory variables for species richness of reptiles in Iran. Results indicate heterogeneity parameters (range +entropy) as the variables with the highest explanatory values. Based on the grid cells of the predicted environmental richness, using hotspot analysis, we suggest seven hotspots of reptile diversity (HRDs) across the country. Our results corroborate the previously recognized HRDs and detect three additional ones, located alongside the major mountain ranges around the central deserts plateau, particularly in the Zagros Mountains. Four of the largest HRDs (ca. 90%) situate within the Irano-Anatolian and Caucasus global biodiversity hotspot. In addition, our results reveal a large gap between identified HRDs and the current network of protected areas (PAs) in the country. While three of the detected HRDs in this study are partially touched (ca. 18%) by the PA network, overall, these areas are only covered by less than 10%. Therefore, the effectiveness of the current PAs for the protection of the reptile diversity of Iran is questionable.

Amidst the era of rapid decline in insect diversity, the role of protected areas (PAs) in conserving current insect diversity is more significant than ever. Previous studies indicate that the species‐diverse regions in Iran fall within two global biodiversity hotspots (GBHs): the Irano‐Anatolian hotspot in the north and the Caucasus hotspot in the west. However, there is an extensive conservation gap between species‐diverse regions and PAs for different vertebrate taxa. Additionally, mega‐diverse groups of insects have been overlooked in previous conservation assessments. In this study, using the most comprehensive occurrence dataset of 1974 species from nine families of Lepidoptera, we delineated regions with statistically significant high diversity as diversity hotspots of the group. Furthermore, we defined the regions with higher conservation priority. Finally, we applied a gap analysis to assess the mismatch between the network of PAs and the most species‐diverse regions. Most species‐diverse regions of Lepidoptera fall within GBHs and particularly the Irano‐Anatolian hotspot. Overall, the results of our gap analysis revealed that less than one quarter of currently established PAs cover priority areas for conservation, which indicates a dramatic deficiency of the network of PAs in conserving higher priority areas of Lepidoptera. Misplacement of the PAs in Iran, beside pressure of human footprint, can reduce the effectiveness of the established PAs to conserve the current biodiversity. Hence, enhancing the existing network of PAs and designing new ones, while considering mega‐diverse taxa such as insects, will be essential for implementing effective conservation practices.

Climate change has been suggested as an important human-induced driver for the ongoing sixth mass extinction. As a common response to climate change, and particularly global warming, species move toward higher latitudes or shift uphill. Furthermore, rapid climate change impacts the biotic interactions of species, particularly in the case of Zygaenid moths which exhibit high specialization in both habitat and host plant preferences. Iranian Zygaenidae are relatively well-known and represent a unique fauna with a high endemism rate (46%) in the whole Palearctic; as such they are a good model group to study the impact of climate change on future distributions. In this study, we used species distribution models (SDMs) and ensembles of small models (ESMs) to investigate the impact of climate change on the future distribution of endemic and non-endemic species of zygaenids, as well as their larval host plants. Three different climate scenarios were applied to forecast the probable responses of the species to different climate change intensities. Our results suggest that the central and southern parts of the country will be impacted profoundly by climate change compared to the northern regions. Beyond this, most endemic species will experience an altitudinal shift from their current range, while non-endemic species may move towards higher latitudes. Considering that the regions with higher diversity of zygaenids are limited to mountainous areas, mainly within the Irano-Anatolian biodiversity hotspot, the identification of their local high diversity regions for conservation practices has a high priority.

Aim: The contact zone of three zoogeographic realms, the Palearctic, Saharo‐Arabian and Oriental, is an evolutionary cradle of high species richness and endemism in Iran. In this study, we investigate statistically inferred bioregions of Lepidoptera in this region. Additionally, we assess species turnover and potential conservation gaps across the defined bioregions in this country.Location: Iran.Taxa: Lepidoptera.Methods: Potential ranges of Lepidopteran species were estimated using species distribution modelling and masking unsuitable ecosystem patches within a Minimum Convex Polygon, utilising the most comprehensive dataset available for the group to address the knowledge gaps in their known distribution. A presence/absence matrix was generated to define bioregions using clustering‐ and network‐based methods. We then assessed the faunistic relationships of the defined bioregions and the degree of coverage of these regions by the network of protected areas (PAs) within the country.Results: Despite some differences, the presence of five main bioregions for Lepidoptera was suggested by both clustering‐ and network‐based methods. Beyond this, six and seven small zones were detected respectively, on the overlapping areas of major bioregions as potential transition zones. Ultimately, we found an uneven distribution and extensive gap of PAs across the detected bioregions.Main Conclusions: The results of this study suggest a crucial transitional position of Iran between three main global zoogeographic realms. While similar to the results of the clustering‐based method, the bioregions detected by the network‐based method are more compatible with previously identified ecoregions, macrobioclimates and phytogeographical regions of the country. The most diverse defined bioregions and transition zones in this study are on average protected by less than 10% of their total areas. Further studies are needed to investigate the historical and ecological drivers that differentiate the species assemblages between bioregions and zoogeographic realms.