Figure 2

Delineation of the study area. We exclude areas of ecological extrapolation. Across West Africa the red-green coloured region is ecologically interpolative within our sites, according to a multivariate environmental similarity surface (MESS). Regions where we extrapolate beyond the ecology of our study sites are identified using MESS values less than 0. Colour values are MESS values, indicating similarity to sample sites; a value of 100 is identical to the median of the sample sites. The spatial projection of this interpolative region is shown against a map of country borders of West Africa, for Belostomatidae adults in the dry season. This projection changes for each family, developmental stage and season, and though it is spatially discontinuous it is ecologically homogenous.