Melanins are natural biopolymers that are known to contribute to different biological processes and to protect organisms from adverse environmental conditions. During the past decade, melanins have attracted increasing attention for their use in organic semiconductors and bioelectronics, drug delivery, photoprotection and environmental bioremediation. Although considerable advances in these fields have been achieved, real-worl...

Aim To investigate the possibility of range expansion and diversification within the subterranean environment in a genus of troglobiont beetles of the family Leiodidae ( Troglocharinus ), which have a disjunct distribution between the Pyrenees and the Catalonian coast. Location North‐eastern Iberian Peninsula. Methods We sequenced 4 kb of five mitochondrial and two nuclear genes of 50 specimens of 12 of the 18 species of Trogl...

Aim To examine how the employment of both community‐ and population‐level approaches can provide a wider view of the importance of contemporary and historical factors on current species distribution. We posit that community ecology should provide more information about contemporary factors, whereas population genetics should provide better information about historical factors. Location Rivers of the western Mediterranean Basin...

Sixty‐two species of insects in thirty‐six families and nine orders, plus one species of Acari, were found to have disjunct distributions, or to belong to species groups with disjunct distributions, between the steppe areas in the central Monegros region (NE Spain) and the steppes in the eastern Mediterranean or central Asia. The accumulation of examples of a wide range of taxonomic groups, and the phyletic links of apparent e...