TIGER BEETLES 169 
Consequently the anchor analogy is used here for the sake of simplicity. The form 
is a stylised pick anchor with two curved flukes at the distal end of a shaft, and a cross 
stock towards the inner end (but necessarily transverse in the same plane as the flukes), 
The Neocicindela perhispida pattern (Figs, 12-45). The basic pattern of dark marks on 
perhispida specimens, on light-coloured sands from the northern west coast of the 
North Island (Muriwai to Ninety Mile Beach), is of anchor form. The shaft lies on the 
elytral suture and is widest near the base tapering sharply to the stock then continuing 
to about three-quarters. From the terminal end of the shaft the base of each fluke is 
curved beyond the end of the shaft then straightens anteriorly to the point which is 
recurved (hooked) more or less postero-laterally; the point is pointed or thinly 
truncate and the postero-lateral extension usually elongate. The stock is thin and 
transverse basally with thinning distal extensions angled antero-laterally. 
The darker campbelli pattern can be seen to be a thickening of the perhispida 
pattern, together with extension of the stock to (or almost to) the lateral edges, on 
specimens taken further south (from Muriwai) getting darker on the darker ironsands 
southwards. At the type locality (Waikato Heads) the thick-lined anchor form can still 
be seen but further south at Kawhia the pattern is darkened more by the presence of 
a dark streak along the lateral edges joining the fluke and the traverse stock on each 
side. 
Conversely, the giveni pattern (recorded by van Nidek 1965), on specimens from 
pale or white sands in the far north, is seen to be a reduction of the thin perhispida 
pattern with a loss of the transverse stock and the flukes represented by only two short 
curved lines or also entirely lost. 
The intermediate areas between these three pattern forms are two long beaches, 
Muriwai Beach in the south and Ninety Mile Beach in the north. At the south end of 
Muriwai Beach, where ironsands still occur, the dark pattern is thicker as in campbelli 
but as the ironsands diminish the pattern also gradually changes and dark marks thin 
out into the perhispida pattern 10-20 km to the north. On Ninety Mile Beach the 
perhispida pattern continues to Hukatere but reduces as the sand gets paler between 
there and the Bluff 30.5 km to the north. The perhispida marks gradually thin then 
reduce into the giveni pattern 19-26 km north of Hukatere. 
While these gradual progressive changes can be seen, they are not absolute and 
occasional specimens on both sides of the immediate change zone can show tendencies 
to the patterns of the other side. At Waimamaku beach, south of Hokianga Harbour, 
specimen patterns are quite variable and the giveni forms are present there, a long way 
(ca. 90 km) south of the actual change zone. 
