Rhytidophaena

Overview

Hidden against the bark of Himalayan forest trees, *Rhytidophaena* is a small, metallic tiger beetle genus whose wrinkled elytra give it both its name and its camouflage. Numbering around seven species, these nocturnal beetles spend their lives on tree trunks across the Oriental region, with larvae developing within bark burrows. Their arboreal habits set them apart from the ground-dwelling majority of tiger beetles.

Type species: Cicindela bistrigata Bates, 1872 [by subsequent designation]

1. Wiesner, J. (2020) — checklist authority 2. Horn, W. (1922) — original genus description 3. Moravec, J. (2020) — Cicindelini Vol. 2 4. Pearson, D.L. & Vogler, A.P. (2001) — Tiger Beetles: The Evolution, Ecology, and Diversity of the Cicindelids. Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, 333 pp. [ISBN 0-8014-3882-9] 5. Pearson, D.L., Wiesner, J., Uniyal, V.P., Acciavatti, R.E. & Anichtchenko, A. (2020) — A Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of India. Indira Publishing House, West Bloomfield, MI, 416 pp. 6. Putchkov, A.V. & Arndt, E. (1997–2010) — Treatments in Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera (Löbl & Smetana eds., Vol. 1). 7. Löbl, I. & Smetana, A. (eds.) (2003) — Catalogue of Palaearctic Coleoptera, Vol. 1: Archostemata–Myxophaga–Adephaga. Apollo Books, Stenstrup, 819 pp. [ISBN 87-88757-73-0] 8. 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] 9. 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] +6 citations · full list in paid edition