Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright) Brzoska & Knisley & Slotten, 2011

Brzoska, David, Knisley, C. Barry & Slotten, Jeffrey, 2011, Rediscovery of Cicindela scabrosa floridana Cartwright (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) and its elevation to species level, Insecta Mundi 2011 (162), pp. 1-7 : 2-6

publication ID	https://doi.org/ 10.5281/zenodo.5163975
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/480C4D14-5265-DD3E-FF55-FAF23DB3BD07
treatment provided by	Felipe
scientific name	Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright)
status	New Status, New Combination

Treatment

Cicindelidia floridana (Cartwright) View in CoL , New Status, New Combination

( Fig. 1-3 View Figure 1 View Figure 2 View Figure 3 , Table 1)

Cicindela abdominalis var. floridana Cartwright 1939: 364 View in CoL

Cicindela scabrosa floridana Cartwright View in CoL : Choate 1984: 76

Description. Cartwright’s original description of Cicindela abdominalis var. floridana consisted of two paragraphs, as follows:

“Differs from abdominalis in the shining green color of head, thorax and elytra, the later with purplish reflections posteriorly at the sides, and in the strong deep punctures and fovea of the elytra. The green color will also separate this variety from the species scabrosa Schaupp. ”

Material examined. Holotype male and six paratypes ( USNM), one paratype ( FSCA), one paratype (Snow Entomol. Museum, Univ. of Kansas).

Forty additional specimens from the study site will be deposited at Florida State collection of Arthropods, Gainesville, FL; The Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburg, PA; University of Kansas Entomological Museum, Lawrence, KS; and the private collections of the authors.

Redescription. General habitus. Body small (6.5- 8.2 mm males, 7.4- 9.0 mm females), elytral maculation reduced to apical lunule confined to edge. Dorsal coloration shiny metallic green, with some individuals showing a cuprous wash. Ventral surface metallic blue; abdomen rufous.

Head. Labrum long, white, edentate, slightly flattened anteriorly, with usually 6, rarely 4 submarginal setae. Clypeus and gena glabrous with purple reflection. Frons glabrous (except for two pairs of supraorbital setae), faintly striated, purple reflection laterally. Mandibles with four teeth, anterior third dark brown/black, posterior two-thirds testaceous, white laterally. Antennal segments 1-4 metallic green, 5-11 testaceous. Segment 1, widened anteriorly with 1 subapical sensory seta; segment 2 small, glabrous; segments 3 and 4 thin with apical and lateral setae; segments 5-11 covered with dense tomentose setae.

Thorax. Pronotum slightly tapering to posterior, v-shaped impression anteriorly, 40-50 wide flattened setae laterally, disk smooth, ventral surface smooth with dense setae around coxal margins. Mesosternum glabrous, mesepimeron covered with dense decumbent setae. Metasternum with scattered setae on anterior margin; metepisternum with dense decumbent setae.

Abdomen. Rufous, sternites 1-3 with dense lateral decumbent setae.

Legs. Testaceous to yellow, with metallic green reflection.

Elytra. Deeply punctured throughout with subsutural foveae. Apex with microserrations and short medial spine. Maculation includes only a thin apical lunule confined to distal and lateral apex.

English name. Miami tiger beetle

Discussion. Abdominalis Group. Choate (1984) gave a detailed description of C. scabrosa . The identification key in Pearson et al. (2006) will have C. floridana keying to C. scabrosa , although couplet 8, dealing with the number of labral setae, may cause some problems as this character is variable in both forms. Of the four small sand dwelling Cicindelidia species with red venters, the“abdominalis group” [ C. abdominalis Fabricius ( Fig. 1c View Figure 1 ), C. highlandensis ( Fig. 1d View Figure 1 ), C. scabrosa ( Fig. 1b View Figure 1 ) and C. floridana ( Fig. 1a View Figure 1 )], C. floridana is most similar to C. scabrosa but can be separated by the key and the discussion below.

Maculation. Cicindelidia scabrosa ( Fig. 2b View Figure 2 ) is more maculated than C. floridana ( Fig. 2a View Figure 2 ). All specimens of C. scabrosa from seven Florida sites have a post median marginal spot anterior to the apical lunule ( Figs. 1 View Figure 1 , 2 View Figure 2 ) while only 3 of 43 C. floridana have this maculation and in two of these, it is connected to the apical lunule ( Table 1). The apical lunule is thin in 33 of 43 C. floridana and medium or thick in 86 of 101 C. scabrosa ( Fig. 2 View Figure 2 ). Thirty-seven specimens of C. scabrosa have a vestige of a middle band, typically one or two small dots ( Fig. 2b View Figure 2 ), but no C. floridana ( Fig. 2a View Figure 2 ) exhibited this character. A microscopic examination of the elytra at 25 x showed that C. floridana ( Fig. 3a View Figure 3 ) has distinctively deeper elytral punctures than C. scabrosa ( Fig. 3b View Figure 3 ), C. abdominalis ( Fig. 3c View Figure 3 ) or C. highlandensis ( Fig. 3d View Figure 3 ).

Color. Although color is often variable and problematic as a sole diagnostic trait in tiger beetles, it is useful when combined with other factors. All specimens of C. floridana we examined were bright metallic green dorsally, with purplish lateral highlights. Some freshly collected individuals showed a bronze cast and appeared almost black in the field (possibly teneral individuals), but these become typically green when pinned and dried. Most individuals of C. scabrosa are metallic black dorsally, but a few have the head and pronotum green. The leg color of C. floridana is lighter and more yellow than most specimens of C. scabrosa .

Distribution. Cicindelidia scabrosa is widespread in peninsular Florida and extends south to Collier County on the west side of the state. The intervening wet habitat of the Everglades of South-central Florida from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay limits suitable habitat. On the east side of the state it is found as far south as St. Lucie County. There is an older record for Ft. Lauderdale in Broward County, but extensive survey of this area failed to find any specimens. The known range of C. floridana includes only the type locality (now apparently urbanized) and the three new sites within the Richmond Heights area of Miami. We do not reveal the exact location of these sites because of the extreme rarity of this beetle.

Habitat. Cicindelidia scabrosa is found in sand pine scrub, a xeromorphic plant community dominated by evergreen oaks and often with an open canopy of sand pine ( Pinus clausa [(Chapm. ex Engelm.)Vasey ex Sarg.]) on well-drained, infertile, sandy soils. Cicindelidia floridana is found in small sandy pockets of pine rockland habitat ( Fig. 4 View Figure 4 ), which in Florida is confined to Miami-Dade County and parts of the Keys. Pine rockland is a savanna-like forest on limestone outcrops with a single canopy species, Florida slash

pine ( Pinus elliotti var. densa Little and Dorman ), and a diverse understory of scrubs and herbs. This habitat is maintained by periodic fire.

Seasonality. Adults of C. scabrosa are active from late spring to mid- summer throughout its range, with a few individuals found into August while C. floridana adults have been observed every month from early May through mid-October. This prolonged adult activity period suggests there is either continual emergence or two emergence periods.

Continuing Studies. The results of surveys to date at many potential scrub and pine rockland sites in Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties suggest C. floridana is rare and a likely candidate for endangered status by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Studies of distribution and abundance, biology, and habitat of C. floridana are ongoing and will be presented in a separate paper.