Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Insect Fauna
Bulgaria's geographical position on the Balkan Peninsula makes it very interesting from the zoogeographical point of view. The proximity of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea combined with the influence of the European continental land mass and the varied Bulgarian relief form diverse climatic conditions, giving the basis of a large number of ecosystems.
The Bulgarian insect fauna comprises about 19.000 reported species. This includes a high number of rare, endemic and relict species. However, the relatively low level of investigation of some regions in Bulgaria, i.e. the Danubian Plane, the Eastern Stara Planina and the Eastern Rodopi also the low investigation of some insect groups suggests the number of total species occurring in Bulgaria to be much larger.
Some regions in Bulgaria distinguish themselves with a particular richness in rare, endemic and relict species, i.e. the Sandanski-Petrich valley, the Kresna gorge, Rila, Pirin, Vitosha, the Western Rodopi, the Black Sea coast.
