NEW ZEALAND COLEOPTERA. 



PART V. 



Group-CICINDELIDJE. 



Cicindela. 



1757. C. helmsi, n.s. (Sharp; Trans. Boy. Dub. Soc., 1886, 

 p. 358.) Nigm, parum metalliscente, labro elytrorumque margine 

 albidis; hoc baud lato, post humeram interrupto, post medium 

 fasciam sat elongatum emittente ; pronoti margine laterale simplice. 



Long., 8mm. 



Antennae entirely dull-black, rather elongate ; head small ; 

 labrum large, pallid-yellow, slightly oblique on each side (in the 

 male), and with a short tooth in the middle ; sculpture of head and 

 thorax very fine ; elytra moderately broad, of a dull-slate colour, 

 with a few indistinct green spots scattered over them ; the cream- 

 coloured margin is narrow, and is interrupted, so that the basal 

 portion forms a slender lunule ; the post-median fascia is slender and 

 irregular ; the legs are elongate, the femora green, the tibiae dark, 

 slightly fuscescent at the knees. 



This insect is allied to C. feredayi, Bates, from which it differs 

 by the surface of the elytra being smooth, the very numerous blue 

 specks seen in C. feredayi being here very obsolete and very few, 

 while on the other hand there are some larger, round, green spots 

 scattered over the surface, not arranged in a series ; the humeral 

 lunule is small and isolated, and the post-median fascia short and 

 irregular. It more resembles C. austro-montana, Bates, but that 

 species is remarkable by the large development and duplication of 

 the side margin of the pronotum. 



The only specimen I have seen of this species was sent me 

 some years ago from Texas, North America, by Mr. Belfrage, who 

 also informed me that it came from Greymouth. It was probably 

 found there by the naturalist who has been so persevering and 

 successful in collecting the invertebrates of New Zealand, and after 

 whom I have, with much pleasure, named it. 



[Notes added during press. Both sexes of this species have now 

 been received ; and, although the examples are in bad preservation, 

 they are sufficient to confirm the species as a very distinct one ; the 

 surface of the wing-cases is much marked by large but extremely 

 obsolete pits ; the pallid lateral margin has some brown specks in its 

 1 PT. v. 



