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Tiger Beetles of the Madagascan Region
by Jiri Moravec
This book is the third and last of the author’s revisions of Madagascan tiger beetles (Cicindelidae), and follows the previously published monographs (Moravec 2002, 2007) in the series “Tiger Beetles of Madagascar”, titled “A Monograph of the Genus Physodeutera” and “A Monograph of the Genus Pogonostoma”.
In contrast to the previous monographs, the book presented here is a taxonomic and nomenclatorial revision of the remaining 17 different genera occurring in the whole Madagascan region which in the geographical division includes Madagascar and its neighbouring small islands, as well as archipelagos including the Comoros, Seychelles and Mascarenes.
The total number of taxa, revised and recognized by the author (including the two previously monographed genera), comprises 19 genera, 28 subgenera, 237 species and 21 subspecies which represent one of the richest tiger beetle faunas in the world.
The comprehensive revision presented here, based on the author’s examination of more than 8500 specimens including relevant type material, comprises 17 genera and four subgenera, all of them belonging to the tribe Cicindelini. These include six genera of subtribe Prothymina and eleven genera of subtribe Cicindelina, encompassing 60 species and seven subspecies, including three new species, two new subspecies and one new subgenus described here. Some important changes in taxonomy and nomenclature are proposed according to ICZN.
Most of the genera, for instance the extremely rare Mascarenian genera Diastrophella and Megalomma, are revised and illustrated in detail for the first time, including illustrations of their larvae. Due to the enormous variability of adults in a number of species, the author has emphasized the variability not only in detailed descriptions, but demonstrated it mainly in numerous colour illustrations of diagnostic characters. The explanatory figures of diagnostic characters, namely of the elytra and internal sacs of aedeagi, enable identification of all taxa within the genera and subgenera. The dichotomous keys to subtribes, genera, species and subspecies are also presented.
Biology and distribution of each species and subspecies including the behaviour of adults and larvae (if known), based also on the author’s own fi eld rexsearch and observations of his colleagues during their numerous excursions to different areas of Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands (Reunion, Mauritius and Rodriguez), are treated and accompanied with maps of distributions.
The author believes that by using the detailed descriptions and illustrations presented in the book, most taxa can be identified not only by specialists, but also by less experienced lovers of tiger beetles.
As the taxa revised here belong to so many genera with highly diverse descriptive characters, and since some of the genera are of a widespread occurrence, the relevance of this publication, apart from its primary objective, goes beyond the range of the Madagascan region.