198 HISTORY OF THE EUROPEAN FAUNA. 



Some of the Cicindclas may have come with the 

 Oriental migration. I think this was the case with 

 the only Irish species of the genus, C. campestris. It 

 occurs all over continental Europe and Northern Asia, 

 and varieties of the species are known from Corsica, 

 Sicily, Crete, the Cyclades, Sardinia, Asia Minor, 

 Greece, and Spain. Five species of Cicindela^ as I 

 said, are known from England, of which C. silvatica 

 and C. maritima are certainly Siberian migrants, and 

 perhaps C. hybrida too. Neither of the two first 

 species is found in Southern Europe or in Spain, 

 where we should expect them to occur had they 

 originated on our continent. C- silvatica and 

 maritima have no doubt entered Europe from 

 Siberia in recent geological times, probably soon 

 after a way was opened up across the Tchornosjem 

 district of Southern Russia that is to say, in 

 inter-glacial times. The former spread along the 

 Central European plain as far west as the south-east 

 of England when Great Britain still formed part of 

 France. C. maritima y which preferred the proximity 

 of the sea, migrated along the shores of the Caspian 

 and then across Russia to the shores of the Baltic 

 and North Sea, and has penetrated a little farther 

 north and west in England than its near relative. 

 C. litterata has a very similar distribution and origin, 

 but instead of wandering so far west as the British 

 Islands, it seems to have preferred extending its 

 range southward, and has just reached Northern 

 Italy. 



