Authors: Melero, Yolanda; Evans, Luke C.;Kuussaari, Mikko;Schmucki, Reto;Stefanescu, Constantí ;Roy, David B;Oliver, Tom H. ;

Climatic anomalies are increasing in intensity and frequency leading to higher extinction risk for many species. The impacts of anomalies are likely to vary between species due to different degrees of local adaptation. Here, we used long-term butterfly monitoring data of 143 species across six European bioclimatic regions to show how species’ population dynamics have responded to local or globally-calculated climatic anomalies, and how species attributes mediate these responses. Contrary to expectations, the degree of apparent local adaptation showed no associations with species mobility or reproductive rate but did contain a strong phylogenetic signal. The existence of phylogenetically-patterned local adaptation to climate has important implications for forecasting species responses to current and future climatic conditions and for developing appropriate conservation practices.