It is becoming clear that the Mediterranean region is one of the ""hottest"" of the biodiversity hotspots on the planet. There is also an increasing concern for the conservation, adaptive management, and restoration of the unique natural ecosystems and cultural landscapes that characterize this area. The region's biological and cultural heritage as well as its huge wealth of biodiversity is now at real risk. This brings a further urgency to the task of communicating detailed butreadily accessible information on the Mediterranean biota, and an ecological, historical and evolutionary perspective.