The importance of biotic interactions in distribution models depends on the type of ecological relations, spatial scale and range.

Short running title: Factors influencing the importance of biotic interactions in distribution models.

Merijn Moens^1,2, Jacobus C. Biesmeijer^1,2, Elaine Huang³, Nicolas J. Vereecken⁴, Leon Marshall^1,4

Merijn Moens (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7503-6572) (merijn.moens@naturalis.nl), Jacobus C. Biesmeijer (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0328-0573) (koos.biesmeijer@naturalis.nl), Elaine Huang (elaine.huang@wur.nl), Nicolas J. Vereecken (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8858-4623) (nicolas.vereecken@ulb.be), Leon Marshall (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7819-7005 ) (Leon.Marshall@ulb.be)

1. Naturalis Biodiversity Center, PO Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands 2. Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), Leiden University, Einsteinweg 2, 2333 CC Leiden, The Netherlands 3. – 4. Agroecology Lab, Interfaculty School of Bioengineering, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Boulevard du Triomphe CP 264/2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium

Authorship:  MM, EH, KB and LM designed and performed the study. MM performed the Species Distribution Models. MM and EH performed the Generalized Linear Models. MM, EH, KB and LM analyzed the output of the models. MM wrote the first version of the manuscript and all authors contributed substantially to revisions. Data accessibility:  The data that supports the results will be shared in a Dryad public repository. The DOI will be included in the article. Targeted article type: letter Number of words: 294 words in abstract and 4705 words in main text – 6 figures in main text. – 86 references. Keywords: species distributions, ecological niche models, biotic interactions, spatial resolution, plant-pollinator interactions, specialists, generalists, parasites, null models, evaluation measures. Telephone number corresponding author: +31 6 15887829