We measured the faunal similarityb etween samples of Coleoptera, Araneae and Gastropoda + Lumbricidae + Opiliones from infields ites in the Faroes by ordination,a nd compared the sites on a between-islandb asis. The aeriallyd ispersingA raneae did not show any island-specific pat-tern; the faunal similarityw as high between the islands. Coleoptera showed a patternw heres imilarityw ithini slandsw as highert hanb etween them.T he anthropochorous parto ft he Coleopteraf ormeda clear pattern reminiscentof t heg eographicala ppearanceo ft heF aroes; similarity within large islandsw as clearlyh ighert han betweeni slands. This indicatest hat one of the axes in thep rincipalc omponenta nalysisi s an approximationo f some measure of geographical distance. The small islands, however, showed the randomp atterno f a waifc olonizationa nd occurreds cattered in the factors pace. The anthropochorous groupsG astropoda + Lumbricidae+ Opiliones differedm arkedlyf roms uch a pattern,a nd were more similart o the aerially dispersingA raneae. We interprett his as being the result of a dispersalb etweena nd withinis landsd ependento n Man, and a persistence (of manys pecies) in man-madeh abitatso nly. We termt hiss erfc oloniza-tion to indicate those species' total dependence upon Man.