Iridescent Tiger Beetle

Cosmodela duponti

''Cosmodela duponti'' is a species of tiger beetle with wide distribution range in South and Southeast Asia. They are found mainly in forested habitats.
Tiger Beetle (Cicindela duponti) || Agumbe || Aug 2021 Cosmodela duponti

Appearance

The species is distinct in its large size with iridescent blue and purple body with four white spots. There are hairs below the head and the lateral pronotal margins are smooth and unhaired.

Naming

There is considerable geographic variation and the nominate subspecies is from Southeast Asia. Specimens from India may be assigned to ''C. duponti barmanica'' but there may be more than one subspecies in India.

There are several subspecies that are recognized. The species was named after Henry Dupont, a trader in specimens from whom the French entomologist Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean had obtained a specimen noted as being collected from "Cochinchina" in 1826.

Habitat

They are found mainly along forests and near water.

References:

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Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderColeoptera
FamilyCarabidae
GenusCosmodela
SpeciesC. duponti
Photographed in
India