USING MOLECULAR AND ECOLOGICAL DATA TO DIAGNOSE ENDANGERED POPULATIONS OF THE PURITAN TIGER BEETLE CICINDELA-PURITANA

Populations of the puritan tiger beetle Cicindela puritana in the east ern United States were found to be highly threatened at the Connecticu t River, whereas several large populations on the western shore and ne wly discovered populations on the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay appeared to be less endangered. We assessed if the disjunct C. puritan a subgroups are genetically distinct and therefore should be treated a s separate units for conservation purposes. A total of 13 individuals from the Connecticut River and 27 individuals from the Chesapeake Bay were each analysed by sequencing of up to 837 base pairs of mitochondr ial DNA per individual. Five different haplotypes could be distinguish ed. In a phylogenetic analysis of these DNA sequences that included fo ur related Cicindela species as out-groups, haplotypes from the Chesap eake Bay represent a distinct clade. The conservation status of these populations was evaluated using a phylogenetic approach based on cladi stic analysis and the framework of the phylogenetic species concept. A ccording to this analysis, beetles from the Connecticut River and the Chesapeake Bay have to be considered as independent units. Populations from the eastern and western shore of Chesapeake Bay are not split in more than one unit using the same criteria, although they exhibited s ome degree of genetic subdivision. The results from the mtDNA analysis were corroborated by ecological parameters in that the Chesapeake Bay populations can be distinguished from all congeners by their differen t habitat association.