Center for Systematic Entomology, Gainesville, Florida
Date of this Version
January 1985
Abstract
Cicindela nigrior Schaupp (1884) has a complex taxonomic history as a subspecies, variety, and aberration of the morphologically plastic tiger beetle C . scutellaris. Schaupp gave the varietal name nigrior to what he apparently thought was a melanistic form of Cicindela scutellaris unicolor Dejean. Leng (1902) listed both nigrior and unicolor as varieties of scutellaris Say. However, Horn (1905) llsted nigrior and unicolor as aberrations of obscura Say (=scutellaris). Later he listed nigrior as a variety of scutellaris unicolor (Horn 1916). The Leng catalog (1920) shows both nigrior and unicolor as subspecies of scutellaris, while Vaurie (1950) and Boyd et al. (1982) placed nigrior as a synonym of unicolor. In this paper we raise the name "nigrior” to species level and present morphological, behavioral, and ecological data to Justify species status.
Comments
Published in Insecta Mundi Vol. 1, no. 1, January 1985. Copyright © 1986 Vick.
Insecta Mundi, published by the Center for Systematic Entomology, is available online at http://centerforsystematicentomology.org/.