NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



Family CICINDELIDJS. Cicindelidans. 



I. Genus CICINDELA. Linn. 1 

 * Labrum unidentate. 

 (1) 1. Cicindela hirticollis. (Say.) Hairy-necked Cicindela. 



Cicindela hirticollis. Say. Amer. Trans. N. S. i, 411, 2, t. xiii,/. 2. 

 Length of the body 6| lines. 



Locality not stated. 



DESCRIPTION. 



This species not a little resembles C. hybrida, but the labrum is prominent in the middle, and 

 more conspicuously unidendate; the colour of its upper surface is browner with less of a purple tint; 

 the prothorax is rather more hairy ; the lateral margin of the elytra is white, from which proceed 

 five white branches; the two first forming a humeral crescent with the lower limb bending 

 obliquely towards the base of the elytrum, the third becoming a broken or S-shaped band, the 

 extremity of which nearly reaches the suture ; and the two last, forming a crescent at the apex of 

 the elytrum, to produce which the whiteness of the margin is subinterrupted : the suture terminates 

 in a minute point, and the apex of the elytra is serrulate. Underneath the body is green or golden- 

 green, with the sides rather more thickly covered with snowy hairs than in the other species of the 

 genus. 



N. B. In the male the S-shaped band is interrupted. 



: The larva of this genus, as well as that of Aristus, lies in wait for its prey, suspended by its dorsal hooks, in a little 

 burrow it has formed. Its body is depressed. Its head corneous with eight eyes, the two external or lower ones being 

 very minute. The plates that cover the trunk are coriaceous. The abdomen is fleshy, armed on its back with a pair of 

 suspension-hooks. It has no anal processes. In many respects it exhibits an analogy both with spiders and the larva of 

 the ant-lion. 



Our present acquaintance with the species of this splendid genus is not so intimate as might be expected, since we have 

 not yet attained to such a knowledge of them as will enable the Entomologist to distinguish with certainty the species from 

 the mere variety. Count De Jean ( Species General des Coleopteres, i, and Supplement to ii) has described 144 species of the 

 genus as now restricted ; but whoever looks at his specific characters will perceive that, in general, they are taken from the 

 white spots or bands of the elytra. These by no means, however, afford a certain and constant diagnostic. For instance, 

 one individual confessedly of the same species, will have a white humeral crescent, an angular or broken discoidal band, with 

 a terminal crescent, all extremely well defined. Another will exhibit the same characters, but become less distinct, and 

 more faintly traced ; in a third the humeral and terminal crescents of the elytra will have each become two distinct spots ; 

 which in a fourth will altogether disappear ; lastly in a fifth, to name no more variations, the discoidal band will be almost, 

 as it were, unbent. So that, in some species, without the aid of other characters, these markings of the elytra will often 

 be insufficient. 



