The range of hosts exploited by a parasite is determined by several factors, including host availability, infectivity and exploitability. Each of these can be the target of natural selection on both host and parasite, which will determine the local outcome of interactions, and potentially lead to coevolution. However, geographical variation in host use and specificity has rarely been investigated. Maculinea (= Phengaris) butterflies are brood parasites of Myrmica ants that are patchily distributed across the Palæarctic and have been studied extensively in Europe. Here, we review the published records of ant host use by the European Maculinea species, as well as providing new host ant records for more than 100 sites across Europe. This comprehensive survey demonstrates that while all but one of the Myrmica species found on Maculinea sites have been recorded as hosts, the most common is often disproportionately highly exploited. Host sharing and host switching are both relatively common, but there is evidence of specialization at many sites, which varies among Maculinea species. We show that most Maculinea display the features expected for coevolution to occur in a geographic mosaic, which has probably allowed these rare butterflies to persist in Europe. This article is part of the theme issue 'The coevolutionary biology of brood parasitism: from mechanism to pattern'.

Amperstraße 13 80638 Munich Germany

Behavioural Ecology and Conservation Group Biodiversity Research Centre Earth and Life Institute Université catholique de Louvain Louvain la Neuve Belgium

Büro Geyer und Dolek Alpenblick 12 82237 Wörthsee Germany

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Wallingford Maclean Building Benson Lane Wallingford OX10 8BB UK

Centre for Social Evolution Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Universitetsparken 15 2100 Copenhagen Denmark

Department of Community Ecology UFZ Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Theodor Lieser Strasse 4 06120 Halle Germany

Department of Evolutionary Zoology and Human Biology University of Debrecen 4032 Debrecen Egyetem tér 1 Hungary

Department of Forest Science and Landscape Center for the Research and Technology of Agro Environmental and Biological Sciences University of Trás os Montes and Alto Douro 5000 911 Vila Real Portugal

Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology University of Turin Turin 10123 Italy

Department of Zoology Hungarian Natural History Museum 1088 Budapest Baross u 13 Hungary

Department of Zoology Hydrobiology Fishery and Apiculture Faculty of AgriScience Mendel University Brno Zemedelska 1 Brno 61300 Czech Republic

Department of Zoology University of Oxford Oxford OX1 3PS UK

Dutch Butterfly Conservation and Butterfly Conservation Europe PO Box 506 6700 AM Wageningen The Netherlands

Facultad de Ciencias Departamento de Biología Universidad Autónoma de Madrid Cantoblanco 28049 Madrid Spain

German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle Jena Leipzig Deutscher Platz 5e 04103 Leipzig Germany

Gevninge Bygade 10 4000 Roskilde Denmark

Hungarian Department of Biology and Ecology Babeş Bolyai University Clinicilor St 5 7 400006 Cluj Napoca Romania

Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution CNRS UMR 5554 Université de Montpellier CC 065 34095 Montpellier Cedex 05 France Cedex 05 France

Institute of Biology University of Bialystok Ciołkowskiego 1 J 15 245 Białystok Poland

Institute of Environmental Sciences Jagiellonian University Gronostajowa 7 30 387 Kraków Poland

Institute of Zoology Department of Integrative Biology and Biodiversity Research University of Natural Resources and Live Sciences Gregor Mendel Straße 33 1180 Vienna Austria

Laboratory of Social and Myrmecophilous Insects Museum and Institute of Zoology Polish Academy of Sciences Wilcza 64 00 679 Warszawa Poland

Lithuanian Entomological Society Akademijos 2 08412 Vilnius Lithuania

Molecular Ecology Group Department of Ecology University of Innsbruck Technikerstrasse 25 6020 Innsbruck Austria

MTA ELTE MTM Ecology Research Group Pázmány Péter sétány 1 C Budapest H1117 Hungary

Research Institute for Nature and Forest Herman Teirlinckgebouw Havenlaan 88 bus 73 1000 Brussels Belgium

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Ectoparasitic fungi of Myrmica ants alter the success of parasitic butterflies

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