Tag Archives: Bembidion

It was fifty years ago today…

Fifty years ago today, Carl Hildebrand Lindroth’s revision of the Bembidion of Canada and Alaska was published; this was part 3 of his opus on the ground beetles of Canada and Alaska. This work is the basis of all that … Continue reading

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And then there were five…

Earlier this week I spent three lovely days in the Bay Area with Dave Kavanaugh, and on Monday we went to collecting on the slopes of Mount Tamalpais.  There, along Cataract Creek, we found a series of small “Bembidion curtulatum” … Continue reading

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Hiding in Plain Sight

In most groups of organisms there are taxa that are very isolated phylogenetically, and are structurally so distinctive that they are easy to recognize (the Australian platypus and Welwitschia mirabilis come to mind).  Some of these isolated taxa are considered to … Continue reading

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Two lineages, not one

I’m back, after a long hiatus.  We’ve been busy in the lab looking at the specimens from the Big Loop Trip, and sequencing them.  Over the next few weeks I will report on some of the results.  We’ve discovered some … Continue reading

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A new lineage of Bembidion?

On my recent field trip around the west, something occurred that has never happened to me before in North America:  I knew, in the field, that I had found a previously undiscovered species.  This has happened to me in South … Continue reading

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Follow-up to “What should I name this beetle?”

In my post “What should I name this beetle?”, I discussed a pretty, spotted beetle species that lives in the Sierra Nevadas of California and which lacks a name. I’ve recently been in discussion with Don Cameron,  an arachnologist and … Continue reading

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The Bembidion ulkei mystery: solved

In an earlier post, I discussed the mystery of Bembidion ulkei.  Here’s a quick summary:  according to Lindroth’s (1963) study, Bembidion obscuripenne is a widespread species in the west,  from California north to Washington. In contrast, Lindroth knew B. ulkei only … Continue reading

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What should I name this beetle?

Along some creek and pond shores in the Sierra Nevada of California there lives a pretty, spotted Bembidion, and this Bembidion has no name.  It belongs to the subgenus Liocosmius, a group of Bembidion that range from BC to Baja … Continue reading

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Names approved!

In two earlier posts, I wrote about the dangers of naming species after the name of the first peoples of an area, as well as the concerns about using a word from a native language. In the first of those … Continue reading

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More hidden species in Bembidion: a multiplicity of “Bembidion kuprianovi”

In Lindroth’s magnificent 1963 treatment of Bembidion of Canada and Alaska (and the northern contiguous States), he notes the extent of structural variation within species. Some species he notes to be relatively uniform, others more variable. As I delve into … Continue reading

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