mangrovi, there is a northern, an Antillean, and a Pacific lineage, whereas in C. The genetic lineages show more or less clear geographic patterns in C. Stabilizing selection caused by the extreme conditions of the intertidal environment is suggested to be responsible for the found morphological stasis. Specimens within a group show nearly identical phenotypes, impeding morphological identification and hence rendering the found diversity cryptic. Despite the lack of diagnostic characters for these suggested species, the lineages can be classified at least into two morphological groups, the bermudensis and the mangrovi group which can only be distinguished by the arrangement of cuticular ventral carinae. Species delimitation analyses based on COI sequence data, on the other hand, suggest five distinct genetic species. Morphological features allowing to clearly distinguish between these lineages are absent, and despite certain congruence with genetic data, comprehensive morphometric analyses also do not show clear separation. We investigated the enigmatic case of two widely distributed Caribbean intertidal oribatid mites, Carinozetes bermudensis and Carinozetes mangrovi, consisting of five distinct genetic lineages. Some scientists claim that cryptic diversity is a real phenomenon that should be extensively studied while others argue that cryptic species do not exist as they are nothing more than an incompatibility of species concepts. The definition, as well as the existence of cryptic species, is still a subject of controversial debates.
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