Towards redefining the regional division of Poland for faunistic studies

Abstract

For summaries and inventories of fauna of Poland, especially insects, research professionals and amateurs apply a division of the country into regions that became a functional standard in the 1960s when Catalogus Faunae Poloniae was published. Despite its long tradition in the local entomological literature, this approach should be treated as inadequate and provisional. The present article gives an overview of the roots of the traditional division, discusses its limitations and proposes a new, more precise and informative division, together with a description of the requirements and tools needed for the transition. Based on the "Physico-Geographical Regionalization of Poland" by Kondracki, this proposal redefines the borders of most of the KFP regions and presents a solution compatible with the widely used regionalization system, approved by geographers. In consequence of this direct connection with physical geography, some of the KFP regions have been removed or rearranged and new ones formed. The new system is not meant to be treated as a zoogeographical regionalization; rather, it aims to replace the unclearly defined objects of the old division, facilitating regional comparisons of fauna. Used with appropriate caution, it may also be helpful in analyses involving elements of biogeographical inference that were not justified in the old system.