I STUDIES IN THE CICINDELID^ AND CARABID^ 



OF AMERICA. 



Our Cicindelidae have been considered more or less seriously by 

 a number of authors recently, but the Carabidae have been singu- 

 larly neglected even those genera composed of conspicuous species. 

 No good tabular key to the species of Carabus or Calosoma, as 

 represented in our fauna, has ever been published, and there is no 

 evidence to show that the material in most of our rather numerous 

 collections has been so much as carefully observed or accurately 

 segregated into specific forms. No new Nebria has been brought 

 to notice for nearly a generation and the same statement can be 

 made regarding numerous other important genera. All this points 

 only too clearly to the paucity of workers and the vast field that 

 there is to cover. The active describers and classifiers of our 

 Coleoptera as a life specialty, from Thomas Say to the present time, 

 could be counted on the fingers of both hands, with some to spare. 

 It is very remarkable that a subject so fascinating, so broadening 

 to the mind and withal so accessible to everyone, should be so 

 disregarded, ignored or even ridiculed by the vast majority of 

 educated mankind. 



CICINDELIDyE. 



Omus Esch. 



Leaving out of consideration for the present the four very dis- 

 tinct species dejeani, submetallicus , vandykei and ambiguus, the last 

 three of which I do not know in nature, the remaining described 

 forms may be assigned to eleven groups, each of which conforms 

 in general characters and habitus to a well defined species forming 

 the primary type of the group and including other forms which 

 may be considered subspecific in some cases; these eleven type 

 species are californicus, audouini, borealis, lecontei, edwardsi, puncti- 

 frons, sequoiarum, horni, parvicollis, intermedius and lewis. The 

 californicus group includes also the subspecies sculptilis Csy. The 

 audouini group includes also parvulus n. subsp. The borealis group 



T. L. Casey, Mem. Col. IV, Oct. 1913. 



