CICINDELA. 



315 



of Cicindela, Iresia, Euprosopus, &c, appear to lose some of the 

 habits of their congeners of more moderate climes, since it is upon 

 the leaves and trunks of trees that they are generally found, where, 

 like their terrestrial relatives, they carry on a ferocious war against 

 other insects, flying from leaf to leaf with the agility of flies, and 

 darting upon their prey with great quickness." Mr. H. Leslie 

 Andrewes has also observed in the Nilgiri Hills, India, that 

 G. hamiltoniana and the recently described 0. venus are semi- 

 arboreal in their habits. A few species, in which the legs are 

 extraordinarily developed, appear to be able to proceed on the 

 water from one aquatic plant to another, but as a rule they are 

 attached to sandy places either inland away from water, or on 

 the margins of rivers, or near the sea ; in the latter case, either 

 on sand-hills or on the sea-shore itself. They are extremely active 

 and often very difficult to capture, as they run with great swiftness 

 and very quickly take to flight ; these nights are not long, but 

 sufficient to take them beyond the reach of a pursuing enemy, 

 and on alighting they very swiftly run to a place of safety and 

 concealment. They are all very rapacious. The most brilliant 

 • species, in spite of their colours, are not nearly so conspicuous as 



might be expected, as they are usually more or less in harmony 

 with their surroundings ; in many cases the duller and less bril- 

 liantly coloured species closely resemble their environment, espe- 

 cially those which have the elytra of a light sand-colour with 

 darker markings. Mr. H, C. Robinson, whom we have already 

 quoted, gives the following note by Dr. Annandale on 0. auru- 

 lenta, Pabr. (Fasc. Malay, i, 1903, p. 172):— " This wide-spread 

 species was common everywhere in open country in the Siamese 

 Malay States from sea-level (though its place was taken on the 

 shore by G. sumatrensis) to 3000 feet, but we did not ourselves 

 meet with it in Perak or Selangor. In habits it exactly agrees 

 with those of G. campestris, being found running with great 

 rapidity along roads or on patches of damp or dry sand, often in 

 the hottest sunshine, and readily making use of its wings when 

 disturbed. The mode of flight and the dense white pubescence 

 of the lower surface * give the insect a close resemblance to certain 

 of the smaller wasps, which it resembles also in the buzzing sound 

 it produces when handled. Its variegated colour, however, renders 

 it inconspicuous in broken light when on sand strewn with scat- 

 tered leaves and twigs." He further quotes Mr. Ridley, who, in 

 a paper published in the Proceedings of the Straits Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, says that " the Tiger Beetles of the Malay 

 Peninsula fall very readily into two divisions, those wdiich, like 

 our European species, are essentially denizens of the open country 

 or of the sea-shore, and those which are exclusively found in the 

 jungle. To the latter section great interest attaches, for they act 



* C. aurulenta is not strongly pubescent on the underside compared with 

 many other species, but this observation shows how conspicuously the pube- 

 scence at the sides must appear in flight. 



