The factors promoting species diversification are complex. Species richness may vary among lineages due to intrinsic attributes that affect diversification rates, such as body size, dispersal ability and ecology. In addition, species richness may differ among regions due to extrinsic factors, such as area, topographic complexity and environmental heterogeneity, geological and palaeoclimatic history, and others. All of these factors affect the biogeographic distributions. We are working on the globally-distributed genus Cicindela to estimate the rate and mode of speciation in comparisons among replicate radiations, and, by using biogeographic analyses, to discriminate between intrinsic and extrinsic factors in determining species diversification.
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA