Melissa's Tiger Beetle - Cicindelidia melissa

Moved

… margarethe brummermann, 17 August, 2016 - 8:04pm

Did you capture and scientifically curate this

interesting individual and others like it? Were you able to confidentally separate it taxonomically from other similar species? If so, are you able to let go one for a new home in my synoptic set of North American Caraboidea. Where in Wisconsin are you? Possibly we can also do a larger exchange of tiger beetles including other ground beetles if you're interested? See the post-2012 Caraboid Registry which includes the entry "Cicindelidia melissa sp. n. AZ, ZooKeys reference". Thank you.

… Peter W. Messer, 1 August, 2016 - 7:43am

Yes, I captured it, and will curate it once I have time.

For it being melissa, my logic is as follows, with my information coming from the Zookeys article. In the US, the most similar looking species to melissa is sedecimpunctata. However, melissa is found above 2000 meters in ponderosa pine forests, which is precisely the habitat this was collected in, a gravel road at about 2500 m in the Chiracahua Mountains. The road to, and the area around, Barfoot Park is the most well-known locality for melissa in the US, and it has been collected there before. Also, the "brassy-cupreous head and pronotum" favors melissa, as sedecimpunctata has a more uniform dorsal color. To answer your other question, I unfortunately only collected one specimen (there were three found, but another collector took one and one escaped). Next time I go back to Arizona, I will attempt to collect some for you.

… Alex Harman, 3 August, 2016 - 8:39am

Cicindelidia melissa Duran & Roman

Okay, this record and image is added to the post-2012 caraboid registry. As you proceed to examine this curated specimen, let us know if you do find something anatomically inconsistent with the "diagnosis" account by Duran & Roman (2014: 38 - 39). I leave it to BugGuide editors to create the proper species page for this one and others you've submitted. Thank you for sharing.

… Peter W. Messer, 3 August, 2016 - 8:00pm

Peter,

please direct me to the paper elevating Cicindelidia to genus rank... i don't see it cited in the guide

… v belov, 10 November, 2016 - 10:05pm

It is the perogative of author to elevate former subgenus

to genus without necessarily giving reasons. In this case, a precedence is attributed to "genus Cicindelidia Rivalier (1954)" by the authors Duran & Roman in ZooKeys 646: 35-47 (2014). Furthermore, Duran is a newly added author to the 2nd edition of Field Guide to Tiger Beetles of United States & Canada (2015). It is therefore not surprising that Cicindelidia is geneus level there too.

… Peter W. Messer, 11 November, 2016 - 8:04am