Short-range endemism amongst the Australian fauna: some examples from non-marine environments

Abstract

The Australian fauna is assessed for short-range endemism at the species level, i.e. the prevalence of species with naturally small ranges of less than 10,000 km². The phenomenon is found to be widespread and several groups are found to consist principally of short-range endemics: Gastropoda (snails and slugs, both freshwater and terrestrial), Oligochaeta (earthworms), Onychophora (velvet worms), Araneae (mygalomorph spiders), Schizomida (schizomids), Diplopoda (millipedes), Phreatoicidea (phreatoicidean crustaceans), and Decapoda (freshwater crayfish). The majority of taxa with high numbers of short-range endemics possess similar ecological and life-history characteristics, such as poor powers of dispersal and confinement to discontinuous habitats. The conservation of such groups is often hampered by poor taxonomic knowledge, but modern, comprehensive biotic surveys will be helpful in identifying short-range endemics.