Cicindela nevadica knausii                             Cicindela nevadica makosika    Perkins County, S.D                                         Pennington County, S.D.

Mating Cicindela nevadica makosika

Until the summer of 2002, the occurrence of Cicindela nevadica was an enigma in South Dakota. A specimen was reported in Willis* (1967) from Hand County but we had not collected this species. In July of 2002, Doug Backlund collected specimens from a stream bed in the badlands of eastern Pennington County. These specimens are not typical of C. nevadica knausii, the subspecies that is expected in the northern plains. The Pennington County specimens are more typical of the southwestern subspecies, C. n. tubensis and C. n. olmosa. The maculations are greatly expanded in comparison to C. n. knausii and C. n. lincolnianai. This variety has been described as a new subspecies, Cicindela nevadica makosika, by Steve Spomer**. Additional specimens typical of C. n. knausii were collected in the summer of 2002, in Perkins County, by Doug Backlund.

Collection sites of Cicindela nevadica in South Dakota

*Willis, H. L. 1967. Bionomics and zoogeography of tiger beetles of saline habitats in the central United States (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). UNIV.KANSAS SCI. BULL. 47: 145-313.

**Spomer, S. M. 2004. A New Subspecies of Cicindela nevadica Leconte (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae) from the Badlands of South Dakota. The Coleopterists Bulletin 58(3): 409-412

 

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