Possible effects of Quaternary climatic change on the composition of insect communities of the South Indian Ocean Province Islands

Numbers of insect species in the old epilithic biotope are very similar on all the islands, probably representing the "upper asymptote' for this biotope. In contrast, the numbers of species in the post-glacial vegetated biotope on each island depend on the extent of previous glaciation. Thus, the past history of each particular island has a large role to play in determining species richness of the particular island. -from Author