Conservation and land management decisions may be misguided by inaccurate or misinterpreted knowledge of biodiversity. Non-systematists often lack taxonomic expertise necessary for an accurate assessment of biodiversity. Additionally, there are far too few taxonomists to contribute significantly to the task of identifying species for specimens collected in biodiversity studies. While species level identification is desirable for making informed management decisions concerning biodiversity, little progress has been made to reduce this taxonomic deficiency. Involvement of non-systematists in the identification process could hasten species identification. Incorporation of DNA sequence data has been recognized as one way to enhance biodiversity assessment and species identification. DNA data are now technologically and economically feasible for most scientists to apply in biodiversity studies. However, its use is not widespread and means of its application has not been extensively addressed. This paper illustrates how such data can be used to hasten biodiversity assessment of species using a little-known group of edaphic beetles. Partial mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I was sequenced for 171 individuals of feather-wing beetles (Coleoptera: Ptiliidae) from the Klamath ecoregion, which is part of a biodiversity hotspot, the California Floristic Province. A phylogram of these data was reconstructed via parsimony and the strict consensus of 28,000 equally parsimonious trees was well resolved except for peripheral nodes. Forty-two voucher specimens were selected for further identification from clades that were associated with many synonymous and non-synonymous nucleotide changes. A ptiliid taxonomic expert identified nine species that corresponded to monophyletic groups. These results allowed for a more accurate assessment of ptiliid species diversity in the Klamath ecoregion. In addition, we found that the number of amino acid changes or percentage nucleotide difference did not associate with species limits. This study demonstrates that the complementary use of taxonomic expertise and molecular data can improve both the speed and the accuracy of species-level biodiversity assessment. We believe this represents a means for non-systematists to collaborate directly with taxonomists in species identification and represents an improvement over methods that rely solely on parataxonomy or sequence data.

As tick resistance to conventional acaricides becomes more common, alternative control tactics are gaining attention. Insecticidal dusts CimeXa and Surround, based on silica gel and kaolin, respectively, were assessed against Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Ixodida: Ixodidae) eggs, larvae, and nymphs in the laboratory. Coverage by the dry dusts, particularly CimeXa, was strongly lethal to larvae and to a lesser extent to nymphs. Larval mortality was also high when larvae crawled across thin layers of CimeXa and, to a lesser extent, Surround dusts. CimeXa was more lethal to nymphs that crawled across a thin layer than Surround. Larval mortality after crawling on dried aqueous suspensions of the dusts for 30 min and for 48 h caused moderate mortality (<80%) regardless of a 10-fold difference in concentration; nymphal mortality was negligible. In a field experiment, CimeXa dust strongly reduced numbers of Gulf coast tick, Amblyomma maculatum (Koch) (Ixodida: Ixodidae), larvae and nymphs by 24 h. Possible application of CimeXa to control other species of ixodid ticks is discussed as well as advantages and disadvantages of using dusts for tick control under field conditions.

With increasing development of resistance to conventional synthetic acaricides in economically and medically important ixodid species, interest in finding alternative control tactics has intensified. Laboratory bioassays were conducted, using the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (L.), as a model species, to assess the efficacy of a diatomaceous earth-based product, Deadzone, in comparison with a silica gel-based product, CimeXa. CimeXa is already known to be highly lethal against A. americanum larvae and nymphs. The two dust treatments were 100% effective against larvae and nymphs within 24 h after contact occurred by immersion in dry dusts and after crawling across a surface treated with the dry dusts. Contact by crawling on a dried aqueous film of the dusts, even at a concentration of 10%, was not as effective as exposure to the dusts in dry powder form. As has been demonstrated with CimeXa, it is likely that Deadzone will be capable of providing prophylactic protection of cattle from economically important one-host ixodids, such as the southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus microplus (Canestrini), which vectors the causal agents of babesiosis. Diatomaceous earth can be stored indefinitely, will remain efficacious for as long as sufficient quantities remain on the substrate, it is a natural (organic) substance, and it might be amenable for limited use in environmentally protected habitats.

Multiple predatory ant species, including the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta (Buren) (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), have been reported to attack ixodids (Ixodida: Ixodidae), but evidence has largely been circumstantial. When living lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (L.) (Acarina: Ixodidae), eggs, and unfed and blood-engorged larvae, nymphs, and adults were deployed on bait transects with hot dog slices and dead house flies, Musca domestica L., in West, Central, and South Texas. The various ixodid life stages were not attacked while ants were strongly recruited to the hot dog and M. domestica baits. Similarly, when the same ixodid life stages and other baits were placed adjacent to colonies of two ant species (red harvester ant, Pogonomyrmex barbatus (Smith) and the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren) the ixodids were not preyed upon while hot dog slices and dead M. domestica were immediately attacked. Some ant species dragged blood-engorged adult ixodids and eggs away from the colony entrance, where they were originally placed, and discarded them. Evidence and mechanisms for allomone-based ant deterrence in the genera Amblyomma, Dermacentor, and Rhipicephalus (metastriate ixodids) are discussed. Protection of ixodids from predatory ants helps to explain why metastriate ixodids remain problematic worldwide despite the presence of predaceous ants.