Cicindela

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Cicindela
Cicindela sexguttata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Coleoptera Suborder: Adephaga Family: Carabidae Subfamily: Cicindelinae Tribe: Cicindelini Genus: Cicindela Linné, 1758
Subgenera and species
Many (see text).

Cicindela are generally brightly colored and metallic beetles, often with some sort of patterning of ivory or cream-colored markings. They are most abundant and diverse in habitats with sandy soil (though some prefer clay), and very often near bodies of water, even if seasonally transient; along river, sea and lake shores, on sand dunes, around playa lakebeds and on clay banks or woodland paths.

[edit] Systematics

The genus Cicindela is (in its broadest historical sense) the largest genus of tiger beetles, and they occur worldwide. The status of the genus is constantly in a state of flux, as various authorities on different continents have vastly different opinions about which (if any) of the dozens of subgenera traditionally recognized within the genus are deserving of being accorded status as independent genera. Moreover, this is one of the few insect taxa in which the rank of subspecies has traditionally been used repeatedly, and essentially no two classifications consistently treat the various members of the genus as to which are species and which are subspecies. Treated as a single genus, and even with a fairly conservative estimate of species, there are over 850 ^[1] (or even up to 2,300) species in the group^[2], with several thousand published names applied, collectively. The genus is divided into the following subgenera:

• Cicindela (Ancylia)
• Cicindela (Archidela)
• Cicindela (Austrocicindela)
• Cicindela (Brasiella)
• Cicindela (Calochroa)
• Cicindela (Cephalota)
• Cicindela (Chaetodera)
• Cicindela (Cicindela)
• Cicindela (Cicindelidia)
• Cicindela (Cylindera)
• Cicindela (Duponti)
• Cicindela (Euzona)
• Cicindela (Fulgoris)
• Cicindela (Habroscelimorpha)
• Cicindela (Hypaetha)
• Cicindela (Jansonia)
• Cicindela (Lophyridia)
• Cicindela (Macfarlandia)
• Cicindela (Micromentignatha)
• Cicindela (Myriochile)
• Cicindela (Neolaphyra)
• Cicindela (Opilidia)
• Cicindela (Pachydela)
• Cicindela (Pancallia)
• Cicindela (Rivacindela)
• Cicindela (Sophiodela)
• Cicindela (Tribonia)

For a list of species, see List of Cicindela species. The subgenus Cicindela (Cicindela), or Cicindela sensu stricto contains the following species:

Cicindela ancocisconiensis Cicindela arenicola Cicindela asiatica Cicindela bellissima Cicindela campestris Cicindela clypeata Cicindela coerulea Cicindela colombica Cicindela decemnotata Cicindela denverensis Cicindela depressula Cicindela duodecimguttata Cicindela fabrici Cicindela formosa Cicindela fulgida Cicindela gallica Cicindela gemmata Cicindela granulata Cicindela hirticollis

Cicindela hybrida Cicindela iberica Cicindela japana Cicindela lacteola Cicindela lengi Cicindela ligi Cicindela limbalis Cicindela limbata Cicindela longilabris Cicindela lusitanica Cicindela majalis Cicindela maroccana Cicindela nebraskana Cicindela nigrior Cicindela ohlone Cicindela oregona Cicindela parowana Cicindela patruela Cicindela plutonica

Cicindela pugetana Cicindela pulchra Cicindela purpurea Cicindela repanda Cicindela sachalinensis Cicindela scutellaris Cicindela sexguttata Cicindela soluta Cicindela splendida Cicindela sylvatica Cicindela sylvicola Cicindela tenuicincta Cicindela theatina Cicindela tranquebarica Cicindela transbaicalica Cicindela turkestanika Cicindela waynei

Cicindela aurofasciata	Cicindela campestris	Cicindela hybrida	Cicindela sexguttata
Cicindela sexguttata	Cicindela sylvicola	Cicindela nevadica lincolniana

[edit] References

• Tiger Beetles of Alberta: Killers on the Clay, Stalkers on the Sand by John Acorn. University of Alberta Press, 2001.
• Tiger Beetles: The Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity of the Cicindelids by David L. Pearson and Alfried P. Vogler. Cornell University Press, 2001.
• A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and Canada by David L. Pearson, C. Barry Knisley and Charles J. Kazilek. Oxford University Press, 2005.