Roger Butlin is Professor of Evolutionary Biology, Animal and Plant Sciences, at the University of Sheffield. He has held a prestigious Royal Society Research Fellowship at the University of Cardiff and his work has been recognized by honorary fellowships at the Natural History Museum, Zoological Society of London and Royal Belgian Academy of Natural Sciences. Jon Bridle is a Lecturer in Biology, School of Biological Sciences, at the University of Bristol. Since completing his PhD in Evolutionary Genetics in 1998, he has conducted postdoctoral research in quantitative genetics and evolutionary biology at UCL, University of Cardiff, and Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. He was awarded a fellowship at the Zoological Society of London in 2002. Dolph Schluter is Professor and Canada Research Chair, Biodiversity Research Centre and Zoology Department, at the University of British Columbia. He is a former President of the Society for the Study of Evolution and recipient of the Sewall Wright Award from the American Society of Naturalists. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London and of Canada.

'The volume has the potential to stimulate large numbers of interdisciplinary collaborations and new research projects.' Basic and Applied Ecology

• 1. Introduction: Speciation and patterns of diversity Roger K. Butlin, Jon R. Bridle and Dolph Schluter; 2. On the arbitrary identification of real species Jody Hey; 3. The evolutionary nature of diversification in sexuals and asexuals Timothy G. Barraclough, Diego Fontaneto, Elisabeth A. Herniou and Claudia Ricci; 4. The poverty of the protists Graham Bell; 5. Theory, community assembly, diversity and evolution in the microbial world Thomas P. Curtis, Nigel C. Wallbridge and William T. Sloan; 6. Patterns of biodiversity and limits to adaptation in time and space Jon R. Bridle, Jitka Polechova and Timothy H. Vines; 7. Dynamic patterns of adaptive radiation: evolution of mating preferences Sergey Gavrilets and Aaron Vose; 8. Niche dimensionality and ecological speciation Patrik Nosil and Luke Harmon; 9. Progressive levels of trait divergence along a 'speciation transect' in the Lake Victoria cichlid fish Pundamilia Ole Seehausen; 10. Rapid speciation, hybridization and adaptive radiation in the Heliconius melpomene group James Mallet; 11. Investigating ecological speciation Daniel J. Funk; 12. Biotic interactions and speciation in the tropics Douglas W. Schemske; 13. Ecological influences on the temporal pattern of speciation Albert B. Phillimore and Trevor D. Price; 14. Speciation, extinction, and diversity Robert E. Ricklefs; 15. Temporal patterns in diversification rates Andy Purvis, C. David L. Orme, Nicola H. Toomey and Paul N. Pearson; 16. Speciation and extinction in the fossil record of North American mammals John Alroy.