Here are faunistic facts about the North American
Ground Beetles (sensu lato) that I mined from the
Catalogue of Geadephaga of America, north of Mexico by Bousquet (2012).
Number of reported valid species-group taxa (= species & subspecies) is actually 2678, not “2676” as cited on p. 67.
Number of reported names at the species level is actually 2441, not “2439” as cited on p. 67.
Number of species-group taxa that are established adventive is 64 (pp. 67-69) of which only two species were intentionally introduced:
Calosoma syncophanta and
Carabus auratus auratus.
Number of native species-group taxa = 2678 – 64 = 2614, not “2612” as cited on p. 67.
Number of species-group taxa designated Holarctic is 98, not listed separately.
Number of designated political regions (states & provinces) for North America is 66. The two-letter abbreviations appear on p. 7.
Distributed in the greatest number of North American political regions:
Amara littoralis and
Lebia viridis each in 60 North American regions.
Distributed in the greatest number of political regions globally:
Lebia viridis in 65 regions (60 North American + 5 more in western hemisphere). Close second is
Amara littoralis in 60 North American regions plus having “Holarctic” status (far eastern Asia in this case).
Distributed in the greatest number of western hemisphere political regions beyond North America:
Coptodera picea and
Paraclivina fasciata each occur in FL + 20 more regions.
The most speciose political region in North America is Texas with 696 species-group taxa (695 native + 1 adventive), not "694 (693 + 1)" as cited on p. 73.
The least speciose political region in North America is Greenland with 4 species-group taxa.
The least speciose political region in the United States is Delaware with 206 species-group taxa (201 native + 5 adventive).
Known only from single type specimen & type locality: many species (saved for a later project).
Known only from type specimen & uncertain locality:
Bradycellus subcordatus given questionable CA status.
Known only from type specimen & assigned to “North America”:
Agonum imitans and
Trechus rectangulus.
Assigned to same political region as both certain and uncertain:
Agonum collare is listed with PA as certain (error) and uncertain (correct).
Most subspecies:
Cicindela hirticollis with 10 subspecies.
Candidate for the most mysterious genus: monospecific genus
Horologion represented by
H. speokoites, known only from a single specimen taken in 1932 from a single cave in West Virginia.
More gems from Bousquet’s mother lode ought to be displayed here. I welcome curiosities and corrections.
