Species Discovery and Delimitation in Ground Beetles of the Subgenus Trepanedoris (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Bembidion)
Abstract
We infer species boundaries in small ground beetles of the genus Bembidion, presenting the discoveries made by a class of students in an experiential learning course at Oregon State University. Focusing on the Bembidion connivens group of subgenus Trepanedoris, we integrate data from external structure and male genitalia, DNA sequences of one mitochondrial gene and six nuclear genes, and geographic distribution. We analyze the DNA data using Bayesian multispecies coalescent methods to help infer reproductive communities or species; SPEEDEMON tended to split species more than what our integrated approach inferred, whereas DELINEATE tended to lump more than synthetic inference. We infer 12 species in North America outside of species-rich California, including four new species: Bembidion altipaludis Maddison (mountain marshes of the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, and Klamath Mountains), B. endeca Maddison & Sproul (Oregon east of the Cascades and the eastern edge of the Sierra Nevada in California and Nevada), B. anacalypsi Mendez & Maddison (northeastern Oregon and western Idaho), and B. kieranae Maddison & Sproul (Willamette Valley of Oregon). In addition, we document morphological features of all 12 species, and present tools to enable identification.
Keywords: Bembidiini, multispecies coalescent, species delimitation, systematics, taxonomy, experiential learning
How to Cite:
Maddison, D. R., Sproul, J., Mendez, D., Vasconcelos, A., Martin, L. & Week, T., (2026) “Species Discovery and Delimitation in Ground Beetles of the Subgenus Trepanedoris (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Bembidion)”, Bulletin of the Society of Systematic Biologists 5(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.18061/bssb.6996
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