Found within a large stony bowl-like area surrounding a man-made livestock reservoir in the desert (originally bull-dozed...but becoming "naturalized").

Seen from a distance in the field, I had thought this was another individual of the species Alice had seen a few minutes earlier at this site, and shown in the thumbnail below:



But upon studying my photos, and working through the keys and descriptions in PK&K(1), Rumpp (1977), and Bertholf (1979)...this clearly goes to Cicindela hornii. The following characters are diagnostic:

    1) Elytra immaculate (those spots are sand grains:-); shiny black; extremely domed in profile;
    2) Labrum black; vertex, frons, face bald (see 2nd image);
    3) Size fairly large; body shape relatively long, slender and deep.

The range of C. hornii in the U.S. is restricted to the extreme southeast of Arizona, far southern NM, and s.w. TX.

I found the following remarks in PK&K(1) interesting and apropos:

"Normally a weak flyer, this species runs from grass clump to grass clump or makes short flights to land in dense grass clumps. If persued persistently, however, an individual will suddenly fly up 10-15 m in the air and let the wind take it across the grasslands sometimes for 500m or more."

It was extremely windy when I found this beetle, and the above describes exactly what it did after scuttling short distances a few times between my initial approach and my continued attempts to get closer and take better photos.