diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/CallDuplexConsensusReads.scala b/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/CallDuplexConsensusReads.scala
index 55ad31513..a8b794ca0 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/CallDuplexConsensusReads.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/CallDuplexConsensusReads.scala
@@ -110,9 +110,11 @@ class CallDuplexConsensusReads
  @arg(doc="The number of threads to use while consensus calling.") val threads: Int = 1,
  @arg(doc="Consensus call overlapping bases in mapped paired end reads") val consensusCallOverlappingBases: Boolean = true,
  @arg(doc="""
-          |The number of consensus groups to include in the buffer when using multiple threads.
-          |For input with very large family sizes, a smaller chunk size, such as 2*<threads> may be suitable.
-          """) val chunkSize: Int = DefaultChunkSize
+            |Pull reads from this many source molecules into memory for multi-threaded processing.
+            |Using a smaller value will require less memory but will negatively impact processing speed.
+            |For very large family sizes, a smaller value may be necessary to reduce memory usage.
+            |This value is only used when `--threads > 1`.
+          """) val maxSourceMoleculesInMemory: Int = DefaultChunkSize
 ) extends FgBioTool with LazyLogging {
 
   Io.assertReadable(input)
@@ -147,7 +149,7 @@ class CallDuplexConsensusReads
       maxReadsPerStrand   = maxReadsPerStrand.getOrElse(VanillaUmiConsensusCallerOptions.DefaultMaxReads)
     )
     val progress = ProgressLogger(logger, unit=1000000)
-    val iterator = new ConsensusCallingIterator(inIter, caller, Some(progress), threads, chunkSize)
+    val iterator = new ConsensusCallingIterator(inIter, caller, Some(progress), threads, maxSourceMoleculesInMemory)
     out ++= iterator
     progress.logLast()
 
diff --git a/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/ConsensusCallingIterator.scala b/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/ConsensusCallingIterator.scala
index 9b752669b..5ca2eafbe 100644
--- a/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/ConsensusCallingIterator.scala
+++ b/src/main/scala/com/fulcrumgenomics/umi/ConsensusCallingIterator.scala
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ import com.fulcrumgenomics.util.ProgressLogger
   * @param caller the consensus caller to use to call consensus reads
   * @param progress an optional progress logger to which to log progress in input reads
   * @param threads the number of threads to use.
-  * @param chunkSize parallel process in chunkSize units; will cause chunkSize consensus groups to be held in memory
+  * @param chunkSize across the input [[SamRecord]]s from this many source molecules at a time
   */
 class ConsensusCallingIterator[ConsensusRead <: SimpleRead](sourceIterator: Iterator[SamRecord],
                                                             caller: UmiConsensusCaller[ConsensusRead],
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ class ConsensusCallingIterator[ConsensusRead <: SimpleRead](sourceIterator: Iter
         val caller = callers.get()
         caller.synchronized { caller.consensusReadsFromSamRecords(rs) }
       }.toAsync(chunkSize).flatten
+      // Flatten AFTER pulling through ParIterator to keep input chunks in phase with output
     }
   }