New to science: tiger beetle species described since 2020

The pace of Cicindelidae taxonomy has accelerated since 2020. New species are being described at a rate of 15–25 per year, primarily from the Oriental and Neotropical regions. Some are genuinely new discoveries from recent fieldwork; others are cryptic species revealed by morphometric or molecular analysis of existing museum material.

Where new species come from

The Oriental region dominates new descriptions — Borneo, Sulawesi, the Philippines, and Vietnam continue to yield undescribed Neocollyris, Therates, and Tricondyla. Island biogeography explains why: each island in the Indo-Pacific archipelago has its own beetle fauna, most inadequately collected. A single well-planned expedition to an understudied island regularly yields 3–5 new Cicindelidae.

In the Neotropics, new species are emerging from molecular analysis of Pseudocollyris and related genera — morphologically similar species that prove, under examination, to be reproductively isolated and genetically distinct. These "morphospecies complexes" are a major source of undescribed diversity across tropical beetle faunas.

Museum discoveries

Some of the most significant post-2020 descriptions are of specimens that have been in museum collections for 100 years or more — misidentified, filed under a wrong name, or simply never examined carefully. The Natural History Museum in London, the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and the Zoologische Staatssammlung München each hold Cicindelidae material that is still being worked through.

The matrix and new species

The Cicindelidae matrix v54 integrates all post-2020 descriptions that have been validated against the Wiesner (2020) checklist. New descriptions are incorporated with source citations. The changelog documents which version of the matrix each new taxon was added in. Provisional and synonymised names are recorded separately from accepted species.