Figure 2
The "taxonomic circle" representation of work protocol for species recognition. This protocol (redrawn from [49]) is a schematic representation of the congruence approach to taxonomy proposed by DeSalle and collaborators [49]. Dotted lines in (a) connect lines of evidence used to discover species or support previous hypotheses. The recognition of a species is considered when congruence between a taxonomic character and geography allows breaking out of the circle (arrows). For example, in classical taxonomy (b) the occurrence of morphologically distinct specimens at different locations can be used to propose and support a species hypothesis. In the case of cryptic species (c), morphology fails to support the hypothesis but other characters (e.g. molecular) do provide support.