A comprehensive methods paper that more than doubled the known diversity of a well-studied beetle genus.

Citation. Duran, D. P., Herrmann, D. P., Roman, S. J., Gwiazdowski, R. A., Drummond, J., Hood, G. R., and Egan, S. P. Cryptic diversity in the North American Dromochorus tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae): a congruence-based method for species discovery. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 186 (1) 250–285. https://doi.org/10.1093/zoolinnean/zly035

The Question. Cryptic species are so morphologically similar to known species that they’ve been overlooked. Tiger beetles are extensively studied, yet new North American species descriptions slowed to a trickle after the mid-twentieth century — was the asymptote real, or hiding cryptic diversity?

ABC’s Contribution. Provided the conceptual and analytical framework. Contributed editorial support throughout.

Findings. Combining phylogenetic, ecological, and morphological data, the paper finds evidence for eight species of Dromochorus, more than doubling the previously recognized diversity. The congruence-based approach is portable to other taxonomic groups facing similar cryptic-diversity questions.

For Projects Like This. ABC contributes to taxonomy and systematics projects using multiple data types to discover or validate species. We’re a good first call when species boundaries, or cryptic diversity matters for conservation listing or management.