Abstract
Tiger beetles are a popular group of insects amongst amateur naturalists, and are well-represented in museum and private collections. New species descriptions plateaued in the 19th century, but there is a recent resurgence of discoveries as integrative taxonomy methods, guided by molecular systematics, uncover “cryptic” tiger beetle diversity. In this paper, we describe a new species using multiple data types. This new species, Eunota mecocheila Duran and Roman n. sp., is in the tribe Cicindelini, and is described from specimens collected in saline muddy ditches in northern Mexico. This species is closely related to E. circumpicta (LaFerté-Sénectère, 1841), but is separated based on morphological differences, geographic range, and genetic differentiation. Little is known about the biology or distribution of this species and it has only been collected from two sites in the state of Coahuila. Given the location of this new species, and its genetic divergence from its closest relative, E. circumpicta, we discuss the historical biogeography that may have led to isolation and speciation. The male and female dorsal, lateral and frontal habitus and the male aedeagus are shown.
Highlights
Tiger beetles are one of the most studied groups of non-pest insects [1, 2] and have been used as models organisms in conservation biology and biodiversity assessments [3, 4]
New species descriptions plateaued in the 19th century, but there is a recent resurgence of discoveries as integrative taxonomy methods, guided by molecular systematics, uncover “cryptic” tiger beetle diversity
The phylogenetic analysis recovered E. mecocheila n. sp. as sister clade to a monophyletic E. circumpicta (Fig 2)
Summary
Tiger beetles are one of the most studied groups of non-pest insects [1, 2] and have been used as models organisms in conservation biology and biodiversity assessments [3, 4]. Species delineations had been based nearly exclusively on morphological characters for the vast majority of taxa, with lesser reliance on ecological or other characters. In recent years, taxa have been delineated and described through the integration of traditional morphology, molecular data and/or life history [5,6,7,8,9]. This has led to the discovery of ‘cryptic species’; that is, species that are distinct evolutionary units, but had gone undetected due to physical similarity with closely related species.
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