Cicindela formosa formosa Say, 1817

Bousquet, Yves, 2012, Catalogue of Geadephaga (Coleoptera, Adephaga) of America, north of Mexico, ZooKeys 245, pp. 1-1722 : 247

Cicindela formosa formosa Say, 1817

Cicindela formosa Say, 1817a: [23]. Type locality: "sandy alluvions of the Missouri, above the confluence of the river Platte" (original citation). Syntype(s) lost.

Cicindela formosa luxuriosa Casey, 1913: 24. Type locality: "near Denver [Denver County], Colorado" (original citation). Two syntypes in USNM [# 45971]. Synonymy established by Horn (1915: 371).

Cicindela formosa fletcheri Criddle, 1925: 127. Type locality: "Sunshine Road, Marias River [Chouteau County], Montana" (original citation). Holotype (♂) in CNC [# 1418]. Synonymy established by Horn (1926: 262). Etymology. The subspecific name was proposed for James Fletcher [1852-1908], the first entomologist and botanist in the Dominion Department of Agriculture in Ottawa. Born in England, Fletcher worked mainly on economic insects and particularly Lepidoptera larvae.

Distribution.

This subspecies, also known as the "Big Sand Tiger Beetle", ranges from southern Saskatchewan and southern Alberta south to New Mexico and southern Texas (Gaumer 1977: 188-189); also recorded from “Manitoba” and “Minnesota” (Erwin and Pearson 2008: 135).

Records.

CAN: AB, SK USA: CO, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, OK, SD, TX, WY [MB, MN]

Note.

Gaumer (1977: 194-195) reported the presence of intergrade populations between this subspecies and the generosa form in central United States and with the pigmentosignata form in north-central and central Texas.