Predicting Patterns of Tiger Beetle (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) Species Richness in Northwestern South America.

Species richness patterns of tiger beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) were analyzed using a grid of 407 squares (137.5 km per side) across northwestern South America (Guyana, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and western Brazil). Reliable data on species numbers were available for only 149 of the squares. Using a trend surface model (a model used to represent the mean of a spatial process by a polynomial function of spatial coordinates) as well as altitudinal relief and biogeographical influence for each square, we predicted the number of tiger beetle species likely to occur in intermediate squares for which no or unreliable data were available. The resultant spatial patterns of species richness were compared to similar analyses for temperate areas of North America. Intercontinental comparisons and a more complete pattern of species numbers in South America are useful in developing an understanding of general spatial patterns and in the environmental management of species richness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]