Improving insect conservation across heterogeneous landscapes using species-habitat networks.

The species-habitat network appeared to have a weak modular structure, meaning that the main habitat types tended to host different species assemblages. However, the habitats also shared a large proportion of species that were able to visit multiple habitats and use resources across the whole study area. Even butterfly species typically considered as habitat specialists were actually observed across multiple habitat patches, suggesting that protecting them only within their focal habitat might be ineffective. Our species-habitat network approach helped identifying both central habitat patches that were able to support the highest number of species, and habitat patches that supported rare specialist species.