Biodiversity analyses can greatly benefit from coherent species delimitation schemes and up-
to-date distribution data. In this article, we have made the daring attempt to delimit and map …

Abstract Continental East Asia has a mild Pleistocene climate and a complex recent
geological history. Phylogeographic studies of animals over the last 30 years have produced …

Palearctic water frogs (genus Pelophylax) are an outstanding model in ecology and
evolution, being widespread, speciose, either threatened or threatening to other species …

Japan is considered a global hot spot of biodiversity. With regard to species diversity, insects
are no exception. To date, more than 32,000 insect species have been identified in Japan …

Hybrid zones are established where two divergent populations meet and interbreed, but
experience some reproductive isolation. If one population expands its range at the expense …

Much progress in speciation research stems from documenting patterns of morphological
and genetic variation in hybrid zones. Contrasting patterns of marker introgression in …

Diagnosability is central to taxonomy as are type specimens which define taxa. New
advances in technologies and the discovery of new informative traits must be matched with …

Human introductions of exotic amphibians can have catastrophic effects on native species.
However, they usually remain unnoticed without genetic tools when species are difficult to …

Abstract Background Refugial populations in Quaternary glaciations are critical to
understanding the evolutionary history and climatic interactions of many extant species …

Background In contrast to the Western Palearctic and Nearctic biogeographic regions, the
phylogeography of Eastern-Palearctic terrestrial vertebrates has received relatively little …