Apteroessa

Overview

Hidden in the forests of southern India, *Apteroessa* is one of the rarest curiosities among tiger beetles — a fully wingless genus, unable to fly, stalking its prey on foot through the night. With fused elytra and a single known species, it stands apart from nearly all its relatives. Tamil Nadu holds the only known populations of this remarkable, ground-bound hunter.

Type species: Cicindela grossa Fabricius, 1781 [by monotypy (Hope 1838)]

1. Wiesner, J. (2020) — checklist 2. Hope, F.W. (1838) — original genus description 3. Pearson, D.L. et al. (2020) — Field Guide India 4. Hope, F.W. (1838) — The coleopterist's manual, part the second. London, H.G. Bohn. [BHL: biodiversitylibrary.org/bibliography/9229] [original description of Apteroessa] 5. Duran, D.P. & Gough, H.M. (2020) — Validation of tiger beetles as distinct family (Cicindelidae) and reclassification within Coleoptera. Systematic Entomology 45(4): 723-729. DOI: 10.1111/syen.12440 [validates Cicindelidae as separate family] 6. Gough, H.M., Duran, D.P., Kawahara, A.Y. & Toussaint, E.F.A. (2018) — A comprehensive molecular phylogeny of tiger beetles (Coleoptera, Carabidae, Cicindelinae). Systematic Entomology 43(3): 567-586. DOI: 10.1111/syen.12324 [ML phylogeny of 328 taxa, 9 gene regions] 7. Wiesner, J. (2020) — Checklist of the Tiger Beetles of the World, 2nd edition (Verzeichnis der Sandlaufkäfer der Welt, 27. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Cicindelidae). Winterwork, Borsdorf, 534 pp. [Authoritative current world checklist] 8. Horn, W. (1908, 1910, 1915) — Coleoptera Adephaga, fam. Carabidae, subfam. Cicindelinae. In: Wytsman, P. (Ed.) Genera Insectorum, fascicles 82a, 82b, 82c. L. Desmet-Verteneuil, Bruxelles. BHL bibliography/45481 [foundational historical monograph of Cicindelidae, treating all genera known at the time] 9. Acc./Pearson (1989) — Annals of Carnegie Museum Vol.58 X.1989; The T.B. of the genus Cicindela from the Indian subcontinen +2 citations · full list in paid edition