Geographical Terms Used By Lepidopterists

Biogeography: The study of the distribution of organisms in the world.
 
Ethiopian region: All of Africa south of the Sahara Desert. Includes the island of Madagascar and the southern portion of the Arabian peninsula.
 
Faunal regions: The land masses of the world, roughly corresponding to the continents, on which reside the terrestrial animals. The specific regions are individually defined on this page.
 
Holarctic region: The Nearctic and Palearctic regions. These share many climatological features and are thus sometimes lumped together as the Holarctic region.
 
Indo-Australian region: Southeast Asia (below the Himalayans), Australia, and the Pacific islands, but excluding Japan. Often subdivided into Oriental and Australian subregions, by a line drawn so that Java and Borneo are just west and north (in the Oriental subregion) and Celebes and Irian Jaya are just east and south (in the Australian subregion).
 
Life Zones: Geographical regions defined mostly by their mean temperatures in the hottest month. Boundaries between adjacent life zones are biologically important since temperature is a critical factor in determining which plant species can survive and thrive. The types of plants in a life zone, in turn, profoundly influence the ability of various Lepidoptera to inhabit the life zone. A single place on a map may be comprised of several zones—think about the temperature ranges encountered as one climbs a mountain.
 
Montane: Mountainous.
 
Nearctic region: North America (except the southern tips of Florida and Texas), northern Baja California, and most of the Mexican Plateau.
 
Neotropical region: Mexico except for most of the Mexican plateau and northern Baja California, the southern tips of Florida and Texas, the West Indies, all of Central and South America.
 
Palearctic region: All of Europe and Asia, including Greenland, Iceland, and northern Africa southward including the Sahara Desert.