Areas of endemism in the Nearctic: a case study of 1339 species of Miridae (Insecta: Hemiptera) and their plant hosts

Areas of endemism are essential first hypotheses in investigating historical biogeography, but there is a surprising paucity of such hypotheses for the Nearctic region. Miridae, the plant bugs, are an excellent taxon to study in this context, because this group combines high species diversity, often small distribution ranges, a history of modern taxonomic revisions, and comprehensive electronic data capture and data cleaning that have resulted...