Full text can be accessed at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2028.2011.01261.x/epdfBiotic communities are characterized by dominant forms ofplant life and a corresponding set of climatic or environ-mental conditions. For instance, the Katavi area in westernTanzania is classified as part of the central Zambezianbiome, a tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forest(miombo) that stretches across the south-central portion ofthe African continent (Burgess et al., 2004). Geographi-cally, however, Katavi resides near the northern edge ofthe Zambezian biome, and some of its animal and plantgroups reflect this. For example, surveys demonstrate thatlarge and small mammals are Zambezian (Caro, 1999,2003; Fitzherbert et al., 2007), bird species derive fromboth Zambezian and Somali–Maasai biomes (Engilis,Lalbhai & Caro, 2009), while butterflies are from severalbiomes (Fitzherbert et al., 2006). Tree genera are domi-nated by Terminalia and Combretum (Banda, Schwartz &Caro, 2006; Banda et al., 2008), whereas Brachystegia,Julbernardia and Isoberlinia are more generally character-istic of miombo woodland (White, 1983; Rodgers, 1996;Burgess et al., 2004).