C1CINDEL1D.E. 



53 



Most of the CiciKDELiDiE have long legs, but in some cases these 

 are abnormally long and slender, and as most of these long-legged 

 species are also very quick on the wing, they are exceedingly 

 difficult to capture. The largest members of the family belong to 

 the African genus Mantichora ; these are entirely black or brown 

 and have no wings, as is the case with several other small genera 

 (Ctenostoma, etc.); when pursued they open their enormous 

 mandibles and adopt a " scare attitude " after the fashion of 

 Ocypus olens ( Staph ylinid.e). Dr. Sharp states that Pe'ringuey 

 found a breeding ground of M. tuberculata, de G., 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 genus Poyonostoma, containing about thirty 

 species, is peculiar to Madagascar and is remarkable for the great 

 development of the palpi ; the species are arboreal in their habits. 



Dr. W. Horn, the great authority on the family, divides it 

 into eight subfamilies : — Ctenostomix.e, Collykix.e (including 

 Collyris and Tricondyla), Therati^^;, CiciNnELix^:, Mega- 

 €Ephali]s t je, jN T EOMA]s T TicnoEi>7.E, PaltEoma^tichohin-e, and 

 Platychilix^; (the latter including only one genus and one species 

 from South Africa). 



Westwood (Modern Classification of Insects, i, p. 52, 1839) says 

 that "the number of insects belonging to this family scarcely ex- 

 ceeds 250 " ; at present some 1500 species are known and they are 

 perpetually being added to. Some recent writers on classification 

 apparently desire to include the Cicindelid.e under the Carabid^e ; 

 but the two families appear to be distinct by reason of their 

 general facies, the formation of the head, the absence of the 

 areola oblonr/a on the wings, and their development and life- 

 history ; it is probable too that they differ in other points which 

 have not been much noticed. At all events Packard (Text-Book 

 of Entomology, p. 254), in speaking of the sensory organs of 

 beetles says that " in the Cicindelid je the epipharynx bears a 

 sensory field quite different from that of the Caeaeio.i;. There 

 are no normal taste-cups, except a few situated on two large, 

 round, raised areas which are guarded in front by a few very long 

 seta?. On the surface of each area are numerous very long setae, 

 which may, if not tactile, have some other sense, as they arise 

 from cup-like bases or cells. Those on the outside are like true 

 taste-cups, with a bristle but little longer than normal in taste- 

 cups generally." This sensory field Packard is disposed to regard 

 as a highly specialized gustatory apparatus ; probably it has to do 

 with other senses as well, but at all events it appears to afford 

 characters absent in the CARABiDiE. Packard does not it is true 

 say whether it is universal in the CicikdelidtE, and it would hardly 

 appear likely that all the genera have been investigated for these 

 characters. 



