Three annotated tiger beetle genomes (Coleoptera, Adephaga, Carabidae, Cicindelinae)

Advances and accessibility to next-generation technology provide opportunities to sequence non-model organisms. Despite this increase in whole-genome sequencing data, annotation and the production of reference genomes remain limited. Reference genomes are a critical tool for a variety of studies in evolutionary biology, functional genomics, and conservation genetics. Tiger beetles (Carabidae, Cicindelinae) are a diverse and globally distributed subfamily of beetles that serve as bioindicator taxa and flagship species for insect conservation. Here, we report highly complete (average BUSCO % C: ∼95.95%), contiguous (average N50: 15.33 Mbp; average L50: 23.75), and annotated genome assemblies (average OrthoDB AA annotation completeness: 94%) representing draft reference genomes for three species of tiger beetle spanning the phylogeny. These draft reference genomes are for Audouin’s night-stalking tiger beetle, Omus audouini (k-mer genome size estimate: 938 Megabases (Mb)); the montane giant tiger beetle, Amblycheila baroni (k-mer genome size estimate: 1086 Mb); and the western red-bellied tiger beetle, Cicindelidia sedecimpunctata (k-mer genome size estimate: 819 Mb). These annotated reference genomes will address important resource gaps and support future tiger beetle research endeavors.