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Tribe Cicindelini - Flashy Tiger Beetles
Classification Kingdom Animalia (Animals)
Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)
Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)
Class Insecta (Insects)
Order Coleoptera (Beetles)
Suborder Adephaga (Ground and Water Beetles)
Family Carabidae (Ground Beetles)
Subfamily Cicindelinae (Tiger Beetles)
Tribe Cicindelini (Flashy Tiger Beetles)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes Historical taxonomy: The species in the tribe Cicindelini were formerly placed in a single genus ( Cicindela) until Erwin and Pearson (2008) (1) elevated most subgenera to genus rank. These include Brasiella, Cylindera, Dromochorus, Ellipsoptera, Eunota, Habroscelimorpha, and Opilidia.
Current freeze on Tiger Beetle taxonomy: Not yet reflected by the post-2012 Caraboid Registry nor yet acknowledged by BugGuide.net are recent selected taxonomic revisions of Cicindelini that were proposed in the popular field guide A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and Canada, 2nd ed., 2015 by Pearson et al. Revisions therein were credited to comparative DNA analysis by Duran, DP & Gwiazdowski, RA (2015) who apparently reported their results in an unpublished (not peer reviewed) work entitled “Systematic revision of Nearctic Cicindelini (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae): Re-evaluating Rivalier’s taxonomy”.
Numbers ca. 2000 spp. worldwide, of which a half formerly assigned to Cicindela arranged into 85 subgenera; ca. 100 sp. in our area (2)Identification See (3) and Willis (1968).
Males can be distinguished from females by dense hairy pads on protarsomeres 1-3 ("tarsal pads").
Color can be a tricky character, see:
Food All members of this tribe are predaceous on other insects as both adults and larvae. Life Cycle beetles are often seen in pairs, often for mate guarding (the male stays in contact with the female after mating in order to prevent further matings) Remarks U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed Cicindela ohlone and Ellipsoptera nevadica lincolniana as endangered, and Habroscelimorpha dorsalis dorsalis & E. puritana as threatened See Also
Elaphrus spp. (BL <10 mm) resemble miniature tiger beetles with large embossed circular spots on elytra
Print References Willis H.L. (1968) Artificial key to the species of Cicindela of North America north of Mexico (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). J. Kansas Ent. Soc. 41: 303-317 ( Full text) Internet References Habitus photos of many species (Barcode of Life Systems web site) |
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