Life Sciences Commons^™

Cryptic Diversity In The North American Dromochorus Tiger Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae): A Congruence-Based Method For Species Discovery, Daniel P. Duran, David P. Herrman, Stephen J. Roman, Rodger A. Gwiazdowski, Jennifer A. Drummond, Glen R. Hood, Scott P. Egan

School of Earth & Environment Faculty Scholarship

A fundamental problem in biodiversity science is determining the number of species in any taxon, and there is a growing awareness that cryptic diversity contributes to this problem – even in well-studied groups. Discovering cryptic species requires several lines of evidence to elucidate congruent patterns across data-types, and distinguish unrecognized species. Tiger beetles are among the most well-studied insect groups; yet few new North American species have been described since the mid-20th century, suggesting that that the number of morphologically distinct species is reaching an asymptote. We explore the possibility that more species exist in the fauna as cryptic species, …