| Popis: |
Sixty-eight species of insects are considered endemic to the Interior Highlands of North America. The area encompassed by these species consists of the Ozark, Ouachita, Arbuckle, and Wichita Mountains of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. County maps are given for each species as well as maps showing the distribution of close relatives, where available. The hypothesis that all endemism in the Interior Highlands is the result of events associated with Pleistocene glaciation is questioned because the area has been an above water land mass since the Pennsylvanian era. Based on taxon/area cladograms of sixteen of the species, a biogeographic pattern is suggested. It is further suggested that only two vicariant events were necessary to account for the origin of the species represented in the taxon/area cladograms. The times at which these events may have occurred is uncertain. The first event may have been in the early cretaceous when the Interior Highlands was an isolated island surrounded by epicontinental seas. |
