Track Analysis of the North, Central, and South American Species of the Epicauta maculata Group (Coleoptera: Meloidae)

Abstract

We undertook a panbiogeographic analysis of 23 species of the Epicauta maculata group of America-Epicauta abeona Pinto, Epicauta adspersa (Klug), Epicauta andersoni Werner, Epicauta atomaria (Germar), Epicauta apache Pinto, Epicauta cavernosa (Courbon), Epicauta dilatipennis Pic, Epicauta fulvicornis (Burmeister), Epicauta horni Champion, Epicauta jeffersi Pinto, Epicauta koheleri Denier, Epicauta lizeri Denier, E. maculata (Say), Epicauta magnomaculata Martin, Epicauta minutepunctata Borchmann, Epicauta nigropunctata (Blanchard), Epicauta normalis Werner, Epicauta ocellata (Dugès), Epicauta pardalis LeConte, picauta phoenix Werner, Epicauta pluvialis Borchmann, Epicauta proscripta Werner, Epicauta rubella Denier, and Epicauta ventralis Werner-with the purpose of analyzing the distributional data for taxa, to establish patterns of distribution of an ancestral biota and areas where these groups have interacted. Based on the overlap of 20 individual tracks, four generalized tracks constituted by different numbers of species were identified; two of them are located in the Nearctic region and the Mexican transition zone (tracks "A" and "B"), and the other two are distributed in the Neotropical region and the South America transition zone ("C", "D"). Six nodes were recognized: Two of them are included in the Nearctic Region, node 'I' located in northern USA and node 'II' located in southwestern USA, both at the intersection of the tracks "A" and "B". The other four are included in the Neotropical Region at the intersection of the tracks "C" and "D": Node 'III' is located in Chaco province; node 'IV' is located in Parana Forest province; node 'V' is located in the northwest of Argentina in Puna province, and node 'VI' is located in Monte province.

Track analysis of the Nearctic region: Identifying complex areas with mammals

“…The Western Coast GT is confirmed for plants (Contreras‐Medina et al., ; Palma‐Ramírez et al., ), beetles (Campos‐Soldini et al., ), and mammals (this work). Our Columbia Plateau GT probably also belongs to this western pattern.…”

“…Some of the GTs are located mainly in lowlands and plains, such as California, Columbia Plateau, Mexican Plateau, and Neotropic, while others include mainly mountainous areas (e.g., Mesoamerican and Southern Rocky Mountains). There are few published panbiogeographic analyses including North America with which to compare our results (Campos‐Soldini, García, & Safenraiter, ; Contreras‐Medina, Luna, & Morrone, ; Mercado‐Salas, Pozo, Morrone, & Suárez‐Morales, ; Palma‐Ramírez, Goyenechea, & Castillo‐Cerón, ) as well as some South American studies (Echeverry & Morrone, ; Quijano‐Abril, Callejas‐Posada, & Miranda‐Esquivel, ). In general, all published analyses coincided with western and central differentiated patterns in the Nearctic region and the Mesoamerican and Neotropical patterns.…”

“…In central North America, a pattern is represented by our Southern Rocky Mountains GT. It is possible that the Mexican Plateau GT is related to those mountains, since various taxa formed a unique GT (Palma‐Ramírez et al., ), even extending to Mesoamerica (Campos‐Soldini et al., ; Mercado‐Salas et al., ). The Mexican Plateau is flanked by the main mountain chains in Mexico: Sierra Madre Oriental and Occidental and Transmexican Volcanic Belt, which are geologically more recent and have different origin and lithology (Viniegra, ).…”

Sixty years of Halffter’s Mexican Transition Zone: a systematic review using bibliometric tools

“…In most cases, these analyses using different taxa have allowed the detection of areas of the MTZ with high richness and/or endemism that could be important for biological conservation, such as the Sierra Madre del Sur for plants (Ortiz-Brunel et al, 2021) and amphibians (Canales & Goyenechea, 2022). Track analyses and Parsimony Analyses of Endemicity or PAE are more frequent (Campos-Soldini et al, 2015, Coulleri & Ferrucci, 2012Escalante et al, 2018;Morrone & Márquez, 2001;Rosas et al, 2011;Villaseñor et al, 2020). Escalante et al (2018) used 574 mammal species to identify generalized tracks in the Nearctic region.…”