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CICI]S T DELIDvE. 



Genus CICINDELA. 



Cicindela, Linne, Syst. Nat. ii, 1735, p. 657 ; Lacordaire. Gen. CoL 

 i, 1854, p. 17. 



Type, Cicindela camjoestris, Linne. 



This is by far the largest and most important genus of the 

 family. The species are very variable in size and colour, but they 

 bear a strong superficial resemblance one to the other, and even the 

 most obscure among them cannot be confounded with the members 

 of any other family. The following are their chief characteristics : — 



Head large, more or less excavated and nearly always more or 

 less striated between the eyes, which are large and, as a rule, very 

 prominent ; antennae long, filiform, with the basal joints metallic 

 or shining, and the apical joints dull ; labrum usually large, but 

 never covering the whole of the mandibles as in Tkerates, some- 

 times considerably reduced and leaving the greater part of them 

 exposed ; mandibles large and powerful, with strong and sharp 

 teeth ; labial and maxillary palpi much resembling one another, 

 slender or comparatively slender, the penultimate joint of the 

 former very long; mentum with a strong sharp central tooth; 

 pronotum usually quadrate or subquadrate, sometimes transverse, 

 sometimes longer than broad, but not markedly so, with or without 

 setae, which are often present at the sides, and sometimes invade 

 the upper surface ; scutellum. usually well developed ; elytra very 

 variable, but always considerably broader than the pronotum, and, 

 as a rule, with the shoulders well marked ; the sutural apical 

 angle often terminates in a small sharp spine ; the underside is 

 more or less brilliantly metallic, with pubescence varying from a 

 few scattered hairs to a tomentose covering which conceals the 

 whole except just in the centre ; the legs are long, or very long, 

 and very slender, and the posterior coxae are large and strong, 

 with the trochanters well developed. 



The sexes are easily distinguished by the fact that the male has 

 the first three joints of the anterior tarsi (and rarely of the inter- 

 mediate tarsi as well) dilated and pilose or spongy-pubescent 

 beneath ; in the female they are simple. It is very probable that 

 good characters will hereafter be found in the apophyses (or gona- 

 pophyses as they are sometimes called) of the genital segments of 

 the female ; these are very valuable, but the last dorsal sclerite is 

 often furnished with hook-like processes resembling those of the 

 Collvrin^ ; they differ, however, very considerably, and are often 

 more or less hidden. The small sharp processes which are found 

 on the posterior margin of the last ventral segment in Colh/ris are 

 apparently wanting, but the margin is usually cleft and a pointed 

 process is left on each side which is utilised in ovipositing. 



The species of Cicindela are apparently seldom arboreal, like 

 those of Colh/ris and Tricondyla, but several exceptions occur. 

 Westwood, for instance (Modern Classif. Insects, i, p. 49), says : — 

 "In the warmer climates of the New World some of the species 



