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Cicindela

{{Short description|Common tiger beetles}}

{{Automatic taxobox

| image = Cicindela sexguttata.JPG

| image_caption = Cicindela sexguttata

| display_parents = 3

| taxon = Cicindela

| authority = Linné, 1758

| type_species = Cicindela campestris

| subdivision_ranks = Subgenera and species

| subdivision = Many (see List of Cicindela species).

}}

Cicindela, commonly known as common tiger beetles,{{cite web |url=http://bugguide.net/node/view/563 |title=Genus Cicindela |work=Bugguide |accessdate=January 21, 2015}} are generally brightly colored and metallic beetles, often with some sort of patterning of ivory or cream-colored markings. They are most abundant and diverse in habitats very often near bodies of water with sandy or occasionally clay soils; they can be found along rivers, sea and lake shores, sand dunes, around dry lakebeds, on clay banks, or woodland paths.

Etymology

The word "Cicindela" comes from the Latin word "cicindela", meaning "glowworm". This comes from the fact that members of the genus Cicindela are metallic and sometimes flashing.

Systematics

The genus Cicindela is (in its broadest historical sense) the largest genus of tiger beetles, and they occur worldwide. The status of the genus is constantly in a state of flux, as various authorities on different continents have vastly different opinions about which (if any) of the dozens of subgenera traditionally recognized within the genus are deserving of being accorded status as independent genera. Moreover, this is one of the few insect taxa in which the rank of subspecies has traditionally been used repeatedly, and essentially no two classifications consistently treat the various members of the genus as to which are species and which are subspecies.

Treated as a single genus, and even with a fairly conservative estimate of species, there are over 850Cardoso, A, Vogler, A.P. DNA taxonomy, phylogeny and Pleistocene diversification of the Cicindela hybrida species group (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). Molecular Ecology (2005) 14, 3531–3546 (or even up to 2,300) species in the groupProença, S.J.R, Cytogenetic variability in three species of the genus Cicindela (s.l.) (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae): Karyotypes and localization of 18S rDNA genes.Genetics and Molecular Biology, 27, 4, 555-560 (2004) (thus being almost equal to the subtribe Cicindelina (W.Horn, 1908), with several thousand published names applied, collectively. Currently most of the subgenera below are not settled, being considered genera of their own by some, and subgenera of the genus Cicindela by others. The genus is divided into the following subgenera:

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For a list of species, see List of Cicindela species.

The subgenus Cicindela (Cicindela), or Cicindela sensu stricto contains the following species:

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Gallery

File:Cicindela depressula ssp depressula Washington 081015.jpg|Cicindela depressula ssp depressula

File:Cicindela duponti in Kadavoor.jpg|Cicindela duponti

Image:Cicindelid bangalore.jpg|Cicindela aurofasciata

Image:Cicindela.campestris.1809.jpg|Cicindela campestris

Image:Cicindela chinensis flammifera MHNT.ZOO.2004.0.175.jpg|Cicindela chinensis

Image:Dünen-Sandlaufkäfer.jpg|Cicindela hybrida

File:Cicindela marginata Fabricius - ZooKeys-245-001-g012.jpeg|Cicindela marginata

Image:Salt Creek Tiger Beetle.jpg|Cicindela nevadica lincolniana

Image:Green tiger beetle 1.jpg|Cicindela sexguttata

Image:Cicindela sexguttata - six-spotted tiger beetle - desc-iridescent in sunlight on ground.jpg|Cicindela sexguttata

Image:Cicindela sylvicola01.jpg|Cicindela sylvicola

File:Cicindela tranquebarica.jpg|Cicindela tranquebarica

File:Cicindela albissima.jpg|Cicindela albissima

File:Cicindela clypeata.jpg|Cicindela clypeata

Notes

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References

  • Northeastern Tiger Beetles: A Field Guide to Tiger Beetles of New England and Eastern Canada by Jonathan G. Leonard and Ross T. Bell. CRC Press (1999).
  • Tiger Beetles of Alberta: Killers on the Clay, Stalkers on the Sand by John Acorn. University of Alberta Press, 2001.
  • Tiger Beetles: The Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity of the Cicindelids by David L. Pearson and Alfried P. Vogler. Cornell University Press, 2001.
  • A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the United States and Canada by David L. Pearson, C. Barry Knisley and Charles J. Kazilek. Oxford University Press, 2005.

External links

  • {{Commons cat inline|Cicindela|Cicindela}}

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Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus