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COLEOPTERA 



in this position waits for its prey. This consists of Insects that 

 may alight on the spot or run over it. When an Insect ventures 

 within reach, the head of the larva is thrown back with a rapid 

 jerk, the prey is seized by the long sharp mandibles, dragged to 

 the bottom of the burrow and devoured. The burrows are often 

 more than a foot deep, and are said to be excavated by the larva 

 itself, which carries up the earth on the shovel-like upper surface 

 of its head. The female tiger-beetle is endowed with powerful 

 and elongate excavating instruments at the termination of the 

 body, and it is probable that when placing the egg in the earth 



she facilitates the future opera- 

 tions of the larva by forming 

 the outlines of the burrow. Ex- 

 tremely few larvae of Cicin- 

 delidae are known, but they all 

 exhibit the type of structure 

 mentioned above, and apparently 

 have similar habits. Our little 

 British Cicindela, most of which 

 are so active on the wing, agree 

 in these respects with the African 

 species of Mantieora, which are 

 entirely apterous, and are the 

 largest of the Cicindelidae. Per- 

 inguey found a breeding-ground 

 of M. tuberculata near Kimberley ; 

 the larvae were living in the usual Cicindelid manner; but the 

 ground was so hard that he was not able to investigate the 

 burrows, and there were but few Insects that could serve as food 

 in the neighbourhood. 



The Cicindelidae, although one of the smaller families of Cole- 

 optera, now number about 1400 species; of these about one-half 

 belong to the great genus Cicindela, to which our four British 

 representatives of the Cicindelidae are all assigned. There is no 

 general work of much consequence on this important family, and 

 its classification is not thoroughly established. 1 



Tiger-beetles display considerable variety of structure, especially 

 as regards the mouth, which exhibits very remarkable develop- 



1 The first portion of a classification of Cicindelidae by Dr. Walther Horn, 

 Revision der CicindeUden, Berlin, 1898, lias appeared since this was written. 



Fig. 90. — Cicindela hybrida. Britain. 

 A, larva (after Schiodte) ; B, imago, 

 male. 



