Robust identification of species and significant evolutionary units (ESUs) is essential to implement appropriate conservation strategies for endangered species. However, definitions of species or ESUs are numerous and sometimes controversial, which might lead to biased conclusions, with serious consequences for the management of endangered species. The hazel dormouse, an arboreal rodent of conservation concern throughout Europe is an ideal model species to investigate the relevance of species identification for conservation purposes. This species is a member of the Gliridae family, which is protected in Europe and seriously threatened in the northern part of its range. We assessed the extent of genetic subdivision in the hazel dormouse by sequencing one mitochondrial gene (cytb) and two nuclear genes (BFIBR, APOB) and genotyping 10 autosomal microsatellites. These data were analysed using a combination of phylogenetic analyses and species delimitation methods. Multilocus analyses revealed the presence of two genetically distinct lineages (approximately 11 % cytb genetic divergence, no nuclear alleles shared) for the hazel dormouse in Europe, which presumably diverged during the Late Miocene. The phylogenetic patterns suggests that Muscardinus avellanarius populations could be split into two cryptic species respectively distributed in western and central-eastern Europe and Accession numbers are available at the ''European Nucleotide Archive'' browser at the address http://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/data/view/ LT614830-LT614893 and in Supplementary Anatolia. However, the comparison of several species definitions and methods estimated the number of species between 1 and 10. Our results revealed the difficulty in choosing and applying an appropriate criterion and markers to identify species and highlight the fact that consensus guidelines are essential for species delimitation in the future. In addition, this study contributes to a better knowledge about the evolutionary history of the species.

North American martens are forest dependent, influenced by human activity, and climate vulnerable. They have long been managed and harvested throughout their range as the American marten (Martes americana). Recent work has expanded evidence for the original description of two species in North America-M. americana and the Pacific Coast marten, M. caurina-but the geographic boundary between these groups has not been described in detail. From 2010 to 2016 we deployed 734 multi-taxa winter bait stations across a 53,474 km 2 study area spanning seven mountain ranges within the anticipated contact zone along the border of Canada and the United States. We collected marten hair samples and developed genotypes for 15 polymorphic microsatellite loci for 235 individuals, and 493 base-pair sequences of the mtDNA gene COI for 175 of those individuals. Both nuclear and mitochondrial genetic structure identified a sharp break across the Clark Fork Valley, United States with M. americana and M. caurina occurring north and south of the break, respectively. We estimated global effective population size (N e) for each mountain range, clinal genetic neighborhood sizes (NS), calculated observed (H o) and expected (H e) heterozygosity, fixation index (F ST) , and clinal measures of allelic richness (Ar), H o , and inbreeding coefficient (F IS). Despite substantial genetic structure, we detected hybridization along the fracture zone with both contemporary (nuclear DNA) and historic (mtDNA) gene flow. Marten populations in our study area are highly structured and the break across the fracture zone being the largest documented in North America (F ST range 0.21-0.34, mean = 0.27). With the exception of the Coeur d'Alene Mountains, marten were well distributed across higher elevation portions of our sampling area. Clinal NS values were variable suggesting substantial heterogeneity in marten density and movement. For both M. americana and

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Terrestrial gastropods are part of one of the most vulnerable taxonomic groups, mollusks, but receive relatively little conservation attention. This is partially due to the paucity of peer‐reviewed statistical evaluations of common survey techniques. From 2010 to 2014, we conducted a massive survey for terrestrial gastropods in a montane region centered on northern Idaho and including portions of northeastern Washington and northwestern Montana, USA. We fused several commonly used gastropod survey techniques (cover board traps baited with beer or water, pitfall traps, visual search, and leaf litter sorting) into a single survey transect which we deployed at 991 survey sites across our 22,975‐km2 study area. We used a variety of variables, including air temperature (collected at each site for ≥12 calendar months) and relative humidity to evaluate the effects of seasonality, observer bias, and repeated site visits on collection rate of individual specimens and detection of numbers of species. We found a combination of timed searches and leaf litter to be most effective in describing the maximum number of species with the least amount of effort. Although re‐visiting sites significantly increased the number of species detected, more time spent at each site likely would have a similar effect and preclude the need for additional expense to visit remote survey locations. Observer bias was determined not to be a factor of concern for within‐group observers. But when grouped by observer type, different classifications of observers performed quite differently. Beer, regardless of brand, was clearly a superior trap bait to water. However, because traps outperformed timed searches only slightly for one gastropod sub‐group (small slugs) we do not recommend trapping, beer baited or otherwise, be used as part of major landscape‐level survey efforts. Our study is the most extensive evaluation of survey techniques available in the literature to date and provides a framework for other practitioners implementing landscape‐level surveys for terrestrial gastropods.

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