220 



C1C1NDELIDJS. 



absent in some cases ; abdomen with the three anterior segments 

 connate, with six ventral segments visible in the female, and 

 seven, as a rule, in the male : legs slender, long or very long, 

 adapted for running swiftly ; posterior coxa) dilated internally, 

 not reaching the sides of the body ; all the tarsi five-jointed. 



Comparatively little is known of the life-history of the 

 members of the family, and we are quite ignorant of the develop- 

 ment of any species of certain of the most important genera, 

 e. g. Tricondyla and literates. The chief points that have been 

 ascertained with regard to Gicindela and Gollyris will be found 

 referred to under these genera. 



The family comprises about 1200 species, just half of which 

 belong to the genus Gicindela ; the latter genus is spread through- 

 out the world, but most of the other genera are confined to 

 tropica] or subtropical countries. 



The Cicindelid^ afford excellent examples of protective 

 resemblance and mimicry. In the genus Gicindela we find 

 chiefly protective resemblance, but in the case of Gollyris and 

 Tricondyla we have excellent instances of true mimicry. In 

 some cases species of these genera serve as models for insects 

 belonging to quite another order. One of the strangest of these 

 is found in Condylodera tricondyloides, Westw. This curious 

 Locustid was originally described by Professor AVestwood from 

 Java (Trans. Linn. Soc. Lond., Zool. xviii, p. 409), and was first 

 placed by him among the Cicindelid.e, as he regarded it " as an 

 immature ColUuris or Tricondyla''' (I, c. p. 419). Another Javanese 

 specimen was actually named Tricondyla rufipes by Duponchek 



Mr. E. Shelford has fully discussed the case of this insect with 

 others (Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1902, vol. ii, pp. 230-232), and gives 

 excellent figures. His first two specimens were fully grown and 

 exactly resembled in shape, colour, environment, and even gait 

 T. cyanea var. tuallacei. A third was found in the Sarawak 

 Museum, smaller, and imitating Tricondyla gibba ; a fourth was 

 taken at Kuching in the flowers of a flowering tree frequented by 

 Collyris sarawakensis : this was smaller and imitated G. sara- 

 wali-ensis in every way. The insect at this younger stage is 

 entirely dark blue, except the legs, which are dark brown, and 

 the greater part of the antenna), which are ochreous, the four 

 basal joints only being blue ; the pronotum shows no trace of the 

 coloration of the adult, nor is it swollen as in the later stages, 

 but is more or less cylindrical like that of the model, in which it 

 is comparatively longer and more cylindrical than in almost any 

 other species of the genus. This, as Mr. Shelford points out, is a 

 unique case of an ametabolous insect mimicking different genera 

 and species of metabolous insects at different stages ; although 

 Hymenopus bicomis, a well-known Mantid, which imitates flowers 

 through most of its life, in its early stages mimics an Hemipteron. 



Mr. Herbert C. Eobinson has given an interesting account 

 (Fasciculi Malayenses, Zoology, Part i, October 1903) of the 

 Tiger Beetles met with by Dr. Nelson Annandale and himself 



