Global patterns and drivers of herbivorous eriophyoid mite species diversity

Aim: Environmental drivers and host richness play key roles in affecting herbivore diversity. However, the relative effects of these factors and their effects on lineages characterized by high host specificity are not well known. In this study, we explored the extent to which contemporary climate, Quaternary climate change, habitat heterogeneity, and host plants determine the species richness and endemism patterns of herbivorous eriophyoid mites. Location: Global. Taxon: Eriophyoid mites (Acari: Eriophyoidea). Methods: We compiled a dataset comprising 4,278 eriophyoid mite species from 22,973 occurrence sites based on a comprehensive search of the published literature and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) as a basis for predicting their global distribution patterns. We measured the association of environmental variables and host plant richness with species richness and endemism of eriophyoid mites through multiple regression analyses using a simultaneous autoregressive...