Species ranges are shaped by both climatic factors and interactions with other species. The stress gradient hypothesis predicts that under physiologically stressful environmental conditions abiotic factors shape range edges while in less stressful environments negative biotic interactions are more important. Butterflies provide a suitable system to test this hypothesis since larvae of most species depend on biotic interactions with a specific set of host plants, which in turn can shape patterns of occurrence and distribution. Here we modelled the distribution of 92 butterfly and 136 host plant species with three different modelling algorithms, using distribution data from the Swiss biodiversity monitoring scheme at a 1 km2

Hanspach, J., Schweiger, O., Kühn, I., Plattner, M., Pearman, P. B., Zimmermann, N. E., & Settele, J. (2014). Host plant availability potentially limits butterfly distributions under cold environmental conditions. Ecography, 37(3), 301–308. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00195.x