Feb., '06] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. 43 



The Races of Cicindela tranquebarica Hbst. 

 BY H. F. WICKHAM, Iowa City, Iowa. 



Almost every writer who has had occasion to treat of Ci- 

 cindela tranquebarica Hbst. (C. vnlgaris Say), makes some 

 mention of the extraordinary range of variation exhibited. 

 Nor need we wonder at this variation, when we consider 

 for a moment the vast extent of country inhabited by 

 tranquebarica in some of its many forms. From the low- 

 lands of the Gulf States, Mississippi, Georgia and Louisi- 

 ana, it reaches northward through the Carolinas to Up- 

 per Canada and the maritime provinces. It occupies prac- 

 tically the entire region drained by the Mississippi River and 

 its tributaries, from the Alleghenies to the Rocky Mountains, 

 extending far into the British possessions of Manitoba and 

 Alberta. On the great interior plateau between the Wasatch 

 and the Sierra Nevada, it runs and flies along the scanty 

 streams, or hunts its prey on the bitter flats of the alkaline 

 lakes. To the south the Rio Grande basin is also invaded, 

 and the western outposts, split more or less into beautiful 

 local races, occupy the vales and mountains of the Pacific 

 Coast. 



In spite of the differences in size, color and hairiness ex- 

 hibited by specimens from different parts of the country, it is 

 no easy matter to settle upon characters whereby the races 

 may be accurately defined. In some districts a form may 

 occur which, within a limited area, seems to be definable by 

 features of constancy and apparent importance and we are 

 tempted into describing it as a new race or subspecies. But in 

 another locality, we find these characters utterly unstable and 

 consequently have to abandon them as bases of subspecific 

 separation, unless we make the citation of a locality label the 

 most important part of our diagnosis. 



The separation of the species into " varieties " by Mr. Leng, 

 in his recent " revision " is to my mind, open to certain ob- 

 jections. Some of the characters used are shown by sufficient 

 material to be entirely ephemeral and not confined to speci- 

 mens from any special district. In one case, I believe, he has 



