The species description process of North and Central American Geotrupinae (Coleoptera: Scarabaeoidea: Geotrupidae)

Abstract

The description process for North and Central American species of Geotrupinae was analyzed and compared with that of Western Palaearctic species. This process was fitted to an asymptotic function to explore when the curve stabilized. By means of GLMs, the influence of some variables from 3 different groups (body size, geographic range and location) was examined, taking into account both pure and combined effects on the development of the process of species description. The accumulation curve of North and Central American Geotrupinae showed that probably 84-91% of the total number of species is already known and 10-20 species remain yet to be described. Body size has not shown any influence on Geotrupinae species description for either region. The most influential elements were the pure effect of the geographic range, followed by the pure effect of the geographic location, and their combined effect. These same variables were also the most influential in the Western Palaearctic region, although with a different significance. As this species inventory remains yet to be completed, it is possible that some factors, such as distribution, could become progressively more important, as for the Geotrupinae species in the Western Palaearctic region.