INSECT LIFE IN INDIA, 



863 



head of these insects a striking and curious appearance. The elytra are 

 often brilliantly coloured and spotted, and the legs long and powerful 

 and adapted for rapid movement (see Fig. 121). 



The Cicindelidse form one of the smaller families of the Coleoptera, 

 numbering about 1,500 species. Dr. Walter Horn of Berlin is now 

 engaged upon a classification of the family. 



The beetles move and fly rapidly about in the sunlight and are some- 

 what difficult to take owing to their wariness and rapid movements. 

 In running they often proceed in a serpentine manner. The family may 

 be said to include some of the most active and the most carnivorous of 

 the beetles. Its members feed upon insects 

 of all kinds. Bates states that the species 

 he observed in South America were of di- 

 verse colours, but usually agreed in colour 

 with the general colours of the locale they 

 inhabit. This is not always the case in 

 India ; at least not with the common spe- 

 cies. For instance the common brightly 

 coloured eight-spotted tiger-beetle is to be 

 found swarming on the stony river banks 

 of the Sunkos River in Assam near the 

 Bhutan frontier and is very easily seen in 

 such a locality. On the other hand numer- 

 ous forest-dwelling species will be found 

 to resemble to a marvellous degree the many shaded colouring of 

 the forest floor over which they run on flit hurriedly in rapid short 



flights. The larvse of earth-living Cicindelidse 



1 ive in deep burrows sunk more or less 



vertically in the soil and probably partially 



formed by the female, who is furnished with 



powerful and elongate excavating instruments 



at the end of her body, at the time of 



ovipositing. In these pits the larvae take 



up a peculiar position for which their 



shape is particularly adapted ; the head and 



•p - 22 prothorax are broad, the rest of the body 



Larva of a Tiger-beetle. slender, the 5th segment of the abdomen is 



20 



Fig. 



121.— The Eight-spot- 

 ted Tiger-beetle (Ci- 

 rindbla octonotata) 

 (Assam). 



