Taxonomic revision of Eunota togata (LaFerté-Sénectère,1841) (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) in North America with a new subspecies from western Texas and New Mexico, United States

Abstract

Within Nearctic Cicindelidae, Cicindelini, Eunota togata (LaFerté-Sénectère, 1841) (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) exists as several distinct phenotypes, some described as subspecies whose taxonomic status has been misinterpreted. Eunota togata togata applies to adults marked with broadly sinuate inner margins on shiny brown elytra common across northern coastal Gulf of Mexico. Eunota togata fascinans (Casey,1914), new synonymy, incorrectly applied to populationsin western Texas and New Mexico, United States, is considered a junior synonym of E. togata globicollis (Casey,1913), the predominant subspecies with broadly sinuate inner margins on coppery elytra found from eastern New Mexico and western Texas into the Southern Great Plains of North America. Eunota togata leucophasma, new subspecies, is comprised of adults with mostly white elytra that are isolated in Hudspeth County, Texas, and Doña Ana, Otero, and Torrance Counties, New Mexico. Intergrades between E. togata globicollis and E. togata leucophasma, new subspecies, are found sporadically in eastern New Mexico and western Texas; however, suggested intergrades between E. togata globicollis and E. togata togata in western Texas are reinterpreted as more typical of intergrades farther north in New Mexico. Adults marked with acutely sinuate inner margins on darker elytra found only in northcentral Kansas to southeast Nebraska should be referred to as E. togata latilabris (Willis,1967), new status. All subspecies are collectively known as the white-cloaked tiger beetle. Geological conditions influencing development of saline habitats and subsequent evolution of divergent white E. togata subspecies in Texas and New Mexico, and darker E. togata subspecies in Kansas and Nebraska, are discussed and compared to more uniformly marked E. togata subspecies found elsewhere in North America.