THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 1 0'.» 



THE CICINDELID/E OF KANSAS. 



P.Y WARREN KNAUS, McPHERSON, KANSAS. 



One of the most popular families among the Coleoptera to the 

 student and collector is that of the Cic'mdelidcE. Generally bright 

 coloured and handsomely marked, quick to take flight and rapid runners, 

 it requires some skill and considerable patience to become a successful 

 hunter of the " tiger " beetle. Their capture is generally attended with 

 considerable personal discomfort, as their favourite haunt is the muddy 

 bank of a stream, the hot sand bar or dune, or the burning flat of a salt 

 marsh, from which the noon-tide breezes on a July or August day seem to 

 remind one of the temperature of the home of the evil-doer in the here- 

 after. It is in the hottest part of the day, from lo a. m. to 3 p. m., that 

 most species of this family appear in the open. 



The first collector of Kansas tiger beetles was undoubtedly that 

 notable entomologist, Thomas Say, who crossed the plains of Kansas in 

 1822 or 1823. At the base of the Rocky Mountains he found a single 

 specimen of the noblest "tiger" of them all, which he afterwards de- 

 scribed as Amblychila cylindriformis. For the past twenty-five years, or 

 from 1873 or 1874, the homes of the Kansas tiger beetle have been de- 

 spoiled by such noted collectors as Cooper, Williston, Snow, Brous, 

 Popenoe, Dyche, Ashton, and others of lesser fame, not to speak of the 

 eastern collectors who have ranged over the State along the lines of the 

 principal railways. 



In his paper on the " Habits of the American Cicindelidse," Mr. H. 

 F. Wickham, of Iowa City, la., refers to the Kansas collectors as follows : 

 " Perhaps the tiger beetles of Kansas and the adjacent States have 

 received more biographical attention than those of any other i)ortion of 

 the continent, and we find articles treating of their lives from the pens of 

 Profs. Snow and Popenoe, Dr. Williston, Messrs. Cooper, Brous, Knaus, 

 and Jones." My own collections in this family began in 1880, and each 

 year has added to the knowledge of specific habits and haunts. 



That Kansas, with her wooded streams, undulating plains, wide 

 stretches of sand and bare saline deposits, is the favourite resort of the 

 Cicindelid?e, is shown by the number of species and their varieties in the 

 cabinets of Kansas collectors. In my own collection are thirty species and 

 varieties, all from well-authenticated Kansas localities. 



First on the list comes Amblychila cylindriformis, Say, from the clay 

 bluffs south-west of and near Wallace. This large and very desirable 



