Cicindosa obliquealba Motschulsky, 1864: 173 Cicindela morio obliquealba FLEUTIAUX (1892: 68) HORN (1915: 405) Cicindela morio ” acompsa Cicindosa morio obliquealba SCHILDER (1953: 561) Cicindela ( Cylindera ) morio obliquealba FREITAG & BARNES (1989: 320) Cylindera (s. str.) morio obliquealba WIESNER (1992: 185) C. morio Klug, 1834 Cylindera confluentesignata (W. Horn, 1915 ) C. obliquealba Cylindera ( Cylindera ) obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864 ) Cicindosa obliquealba (ZMUM) Cylindera ( Cylindera ) obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864 ) C. acompsa Cylindera ( Cylindera ) obliquealba ( Motschulsky,1864 ) C. acompsa Cylindera Cylindera obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864 ) C. acompsa Cylindera confluentesignata (W. Horn, 1915 ) Taxonomic revision of the current concept of Cylindera morio and allied taxa (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) Moravec, Jiří Šafránek, Ondřej Acta Entomologica Musei Nationalis Pragae 2025 2025-08-09 65 1 105 147 [267,644,1313,1336] 31 136  ( Figs 181–212)      Cicindosa obliquealba Motschulsky, 1864: 173.    Cicindela moriosyn.  obliquealba:  FLEUTIAUX (1892: 68);  HORN (1915: 405).   Cicindela morio“aberration ” acompsa: HORN (1938: tab. 84, fig. 26).    Cicindosa moriosyn.  obliquealba:  SCHILDER (1953: 561).    Cicindela( Cylindera) moriosyn.  obliquealba:  FREITAG & BARNES (1989: 320).    Cylindera(s. str.) moriosyn.  obliquealba:  WIESNER (1992: 185)– as a junior synonym of  C. morio Klug, 1834(the synonymy followed by all subsequent authors until the present revision).    Typelocality.“Des rives du fl. des Amazones” [= From the banks of the Amazon River].  Type material. LECTOTYPE(designated here): ♀( ZMUM), labelled: “Amaz.” [dark green label, handwritten] // “ Cicindosa/ obliquealba / Motsch. / Amazones” [dark green label, handwritten] // “ Cicindosa/ obliquealba / Motsch.” [red label, handwritten] // “ Lectotype/ Cicindosa/ obliquealba / Motschulsky, 1864/ design.Jiří Moravec 2025” [red label, printed] // “  Cylindera(s. str.) obliquealba( Motschulsky, 1864)/ det Jiří Moravec 2025” [printed].  Other material examined.HISTORICAL SPECIMENS: 2 JJ 1 ♀( MNHN), lacking labels, standing there as  C. acompsa. 1 J ( MFNB): “42567” // “v. / acompsa / Chd. Amazon” / “307” // “Hist. - Coll. ( Coleoptera) / Nr 3719 / Cicindela morio Kl. var. acompsa Chaud./ Amazonia / Coll. Schaum / Zool Mus. Berlin”. 1 J ( BMNH):“Bowring / 63.47*”.1 J 1 ♀ ( BMNH): “ Brazil/ Santarem” // “52/96” [on the opposite side of the label]. 1 J ( BMNH), with the same label data and: “ C. morio/ v.acompsa / Chaud.” // “named by Dr. W. Horn / G.J.A.”. 1 J ( BMNH): “Santarem” // “53/72” [on opposite side of the label] // “528”. 1 J ( BMNH), “ Amazones” // “Acompsa/ t. Horn” // “F. Bates Coll. / 1911–248”. 1 ♀( BMNH): “Amazon” // “F. Bates Coll. / 1911–248”. 1 ♀[with separately stored female genitalia] ( BMNH): “ Para/ acompsa Chd./ t. Horn” // “F. Bates Coll. / 1911–248” // Cicindela morio/ acompsa Chd./ det. / R. Freitag, 1984. RECENT SPECIMENS: 1 J ( SDEI): “Est de Para/ Santarem / VI. 1922/ H. C. Boy” // “denticulata Kl.” // “aberrant specimen / with reduced elytral / whitish maculation / det.Jiří Moravec 2025”.1 J ( SDEI), with the same locality label. The examined specimens also labelled: “ Cylindera (s. str.) obliquealba ( Motschulsky, 1864)/ det Jiří Moravec 2025” // “Provisionally / separated from / Cylindera (C.) acompsa ( Chaudoir, 1852)/ det.Jiří Moravec 2025”. Differential diagnosis and brief redescription.Adults of  Cylindera obliquealbaare immediately recognizable from all other taxa of this species-complex due to their mostly conspicuously wide white elytral lateral area consisting of oblique subhumeral band running transverse-obliquely mesad, laterally sometimes dilated and covering also humerus and apex (exceptional characters within the species-complex as all other species entirely lack both humeral and apical maculae); large lateral area almost or entirely connected with the subhumeral (or humeral) band, as well as with anteapical-apical area, and divided in middle into postero-mesad running band ( Figs 181–182, 188, 206–211) – yet see “Variability” below. Other characters, including the shape of the pronotum ( Figs 189–191) and aedeagus ( Figs 192–198) are basically as in  Cylindera acompsa.    Cylindera confluentesignata(W. Horn, 1915)possesses rather similar whitish elytral pattern ( Fig. 213) as in  C. obliquealba, but is clearly distinguished by a complex of other characters, including its four-dentate mandibles with outer subapical lobe on the right terminal tooth in males (recognized within the present revision) and denser setae on its pronotal disc.  Figs 181–187.  Cylindera( Cylindera) obliquealba( Motschulsky, 1864), ♀, lectotype of  Cicindosa obliquealba(ZMUM). 181 – habitus, 8.2 mm; 182 – elytron; 183 – original labels; 184 – mandibles with labrum; 185–187 – female genitalia: 185 – sternum VIII, ventral view; 186 – syntergum IX–X, dorsal view; 187 – second gonapophyses (stylets), dorsal view. Scale bars = 1 mm. (Image credit A. Matalin and V. Savitsky, ZMUM).  Figs 188–198.  Cylindera( Cylindera) obliquealba( Motschulsky, 1864)from Brazil. 188–190 – J, Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB): 188 – habitus, 7.7 mm; 189 – pronotum; 190 – thorax in lateral view, showing proepisternum; 191 – pronotum, J, historical specimen ex collection “Bowring / 63.47” (BMNH); 192–198 – male aedeagus or its apex: 192 – Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB); 193 – its dorsal view; 194 – ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN, as  C. acompsa); 195 – its dorsal view; 196 – Santarem (BMNH); 197–198 – its internal sac in left and right lateral aspects. Scale bars = 1 mm.  Figs 199–205.  Cylindera( Cylindera) obliquealba( Motschulsky,1864)from Brazil. 199–200 – labrum: 199 – J, Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB); 200 – J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN as  C. acompsa); 201–202 – J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN): 201 – head; 202 – terminal tooth of right mandible in lateral view; 203–204 – mandibles with labrum, Santarem (BMNH): 203 – J; 204 – ♀; 205 – head, J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN). Scale bars = 1 mm.  Figs 206–213. Two species of  Cylindera. 206–212 –  Cylindera obliquealba( Motschulsky, 1864)from Brazil, elytron. 206 – J, Amazonia, historical specimen Nr 3719 (MFNB); 207 – J, ex collection Chaudoir (MNHN as  C. acompsa); 208–209 – Santarem (BMNH): 208 – J; 209 – ♀; 210 – ex Bowring (BMNH); 211 – J, Santarem (SDEI); 212 – J, Santarem (SDEI), with reduced whitish maculation yet with indicated thin lateral band and well-developed apical macula; 213 –  Cylindera confluentesignata(W. Horn, 1915), elytron, J, Paraguay, Salazar (CCJM). Scale bar = 1 mm. Body ( Figs 181, 188) 7.30–8.20 mmlong, 2.80–3.10 mmwide. Labrum ( Figs 184, 199–200, 203–204) as in other taxa of the species-complex, similarly variable in shape and number of teeth. Mandibles ( Figs 184, 201, 203–205) with only three teeth (apart from basal molar), no additional rudiment of tooth observed in examined specimens, and with smooth outer margin of right terminal tooth in lateral view ( Fig. 202).   Variability. One malespecimen (SDEI) possesses reduced elytral maculation consisting of sublateral-median and apical large maculae, while the lateral whitish area is reduced into very thin interrupted lateral band ( Fig. 212). Such reduced maculation occurs in other genera of tiger beetles and in this case does not represent an intermediate character towards  Cylindera acompsathe adults of which (and of all others of the species-complex) never possess juxtasutural and apical white areas and never have whitish humeri like in some specimens of  C. obliquealba( Figs 209–210).   Remarks.Because of the very different, markedly wide white elytral maculation, and lack of exactly intermediate maculation,  C. obliquealba( Motschulsky, 1864) comb. nov.is maintained here as a separate species. Its synonymy with  C. acompsacould not be proved not only due to scarcity of specimens with exact locality labels, but also due to the sympatric occurrence of most taxa of this species-complex. The only exception is represented by two malesdeposited in SDEI, bearing identical locality labels: “Est de Para/ Santarem / VI. 1922”, the male with the same wide whitish elytral pattern ( Fig. 211) as in other examined specimens of  C. obliquealba, while the elytral maculation in the second male is exceptionally reduced. However, the male with the reduced, isolate maculae possesses large apical macula and faintly indicated juxtasutural, elongate-interrupted band ( Fig. 212), thus possessing maculae which have never been observed in numerous examined adults of  C. acompsa(nor in others of the species-complex). Consequently, this reduced maculation pattern is classified here within the variability of  C. obliquealba(see also “Variability” above). It is fully in accordance with occurrence of aberrant adults with similarly reduced maculation in some other tiger beetle genera, for instance in the genus  Calomera Motschulsky, 1862as demonstrated by MORAVEC et al. (2025).  Fig.214.Biomes in Brazil.(Approximately compiled according to a map by Toda Matéria https://www.todamateria.com.br/biomas-brasileiros/). At this point it should be remembered that HORN (1938: tab. 84, fig. 26) misleadingly illustrated the same elytral pattern characteristic for the type of  C. obliquealbaunder “  Cicindela morioab.  acompsa”, thus entirely contrary to the original description of  C. acompsaby CHAUDOIR (1852)describing small, isolate whitish maculae as in the holotype( Fig. 102). It must be mentioned here that (as commonly known) the elytral coloration in some species of some tiger beetle genera may depend on the substrate colour of their habitats, e.g. the adults occurring on light sands are prevailingly whitish (with reduced background black area), while those from dark sand have their background coloration prevailingly or almost entirely black (and white maculation reduced). Nonetheless, this can hardly be the case of adults of the  C. moriospecies-complex, because the recently collected adults with black elytral background, such as those of  C. moriofrom Bolivian Concepción and those of  C. amayai sp. nov.from Bolivian Palmarito were never found on black sand, but on paths through the cerrado areas, also with usually reddish or yellowish laterite soil ( Figs 217, 219). The adults of  C. obliquealbaare explicitly known only from the areas near Santarem where the sandy substrates might be both whitish and dark as it is in some other Amazon riverbank areas, yet no record comes directly from the same sandy beaches where adults of the nocturnal species of the genus  PhaeoxanthaChaudoir, 1850were found (see MORAVEC & DHEURLE 2023). Consequently, it is clear that the adults of this species complex with whitish elytral pattern are not confined to light-sand substrates. Such whitish elytral areas as in  C. obliquealbawere never found in prevailingly black  C. moriodespite their sympatric occurrence in Santarem. It is in accordance with PEARSON et al. (1999), who mentioned that all adults of  C. moriocollected in Boliviawere black and immaculate although found on light sand. Notwithstanding, the concept of  C. obliquealbaas a separate species is presented here provisionally (yet with stronger arguments for considering it to be a separate species). Naturally, if some exactly syntopic adults of  C. obliquealbabearing evidently intermediate elytral maculation are found in the future, the synonymy with  C. acompsacould be confirmed; alternatively, it can be also done by molecular analysis if fresh specimens of these taxa are acquired. Although unimportant, it is noteworthy that ERWIN & PEARSON (2008)wrongly addressed the original name combinations as  Cicindela acompsaand  Cicindela obliquealbadespite the fact that the two taxa by MOTSCHULSKY (1864)were originally described under the genus-group name  Cicindosa.