Cicindela coerulea Pallas 1773
Creators: name: Matalin, Andrey V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Cicindelidae
Cicindela
Cicindela coerulea

description: Cicindela (s. str.) coerulea Pallas, 1773
Redescription. TL = 12.0– 15.2 mm (mean = 13.77 mm, n = 164) in males, 12.2–16.1 mm (mean = 14.4 mm, n = 132) in females.
Coloration highly variable from unicoloured black, brown, blue, green, olive, cupreous-bronze or purple to bicolored with blue head and pronotum and blue-green or green elytra, or with blue or blue-green head and pronotum and cupreous or cupreous-green elytra.
Head wider than pronotum, with protruding eyes; genae glabrous, deeply striated; clypeus asetose; frons long, virtually flat, finely striated; vertex with sparse soft hairs, shallowly rugose, with two wide shallow longitudinal depressions in the base of ocular plates; latter shallowly striated, with two long anterior and posterior setae; occiput indistinctly rugose. Labrum pale with dark brown or black narrowly infuscate wave-shaped anterior margin, unidentate, transverse, slightly trapeziform, especially in females, LW/LL = 1.83–2.50 mm (mean = 2.17 mm, n = 164) in males, 1.77–2.44 mm (mean = 2.06 mm, n = 131) in females, with 4–14 (mean 8, n = 299) submarginal setae. Mandibles medium length, in males relatively stout, ML/MW = 5.43–8.0 (mean = 6.58, n = 63), in females thinner, ML/MW = 6.0–8.5 (mean = 7.38, n = 47); black with greenish-blue tinge except long pale lateral margin up to base of apical tooth. Maxillary palpi metallic blue, bluish-green, green or cuprous-green with purple or golden reflection. Labial palpomeres 2 and 3 pale, palpomere 1 brown, palpomere 4 metallic green or bluish green.Antennae relatively long, reach basal third of elytra, antennomeres 1–4 metallic blue, bluish-green or green with purple or golden reflection, antennomeres 5–11 black, densely covered by numerous very short white setae, each with two longer apical setae; scape besides 3–5 apical setae often with 1–3 rarely with 4–5 additional setae or glabrous; antennomere 3 with 4–10 and antennomere 4 with 1–6 short white setae.
Pronotum transverse, PW/PL = 1.21–1.52 (mean = 1.37, n = 173) in males, 1.28–1.57 (mean = 1.42, n = 138) in females; widest in anterior third, with slightly rounded and convergent to the base lateral margins, slightly wrinkled, with very deep anterior and posterior grooves so that central part of pronotal disc projected as two suboval humps, midline thin but distinct; female coupling sulcus long and shallow, slightly sinuate near the middle. Legs metallic black-violet, blue or bluish-green; fore- and mid-trochanters with single apical seta.
Elytra relatively long, subparallel, indistinctly dilated near the middle, with angular shoulders; EL/EW = 1.40–1.71 (mean = 2.55, n = 173) in males, 1.40–1.62 (mean = 1.51, n = 138) in females; with smooth punctured microsculpture except more granular humeral area; suture smooth, slightly raised, ended by small apical spine; apical margins finely microserrulated; epipleura some coloured as elytra except narrow brownish outer margin. White elytral pattern extremely variable from completely undeveloped to very wide with humeral lunula, middle band and apical lunula connected by marginal band. Abdominal sternites black, violet, blue or bluish-green with golden-green or greenish-blue tinge, sparsely pubescent in central portions and densely haired by white setae laterally, with submarginal row of long white setae.
Aedeagus relatively long, distinctly depressed on apical third in right side (see in ventral view), EL/AL = 1.64– 2.0 (mean = 1.80, n = 81), apex lanceolate, clearly curved with sharp hook, short lateral carina and small groove on dorsal side. Internal sac large, distinctly rounded towards to ventral side, fl long, sp long and smoothly curved, mt long, rarely short, as a rule with smoothly curved apex, VA and DA large, B distinctly larger than DLL, VLR prolonged, VB and VLL as flat membranous fields, BLR virtually invisible.
Posterior margin of female sternum VIII with 2–4 short stout setae on each apex, asetose inner V-shaped margin or with a pair seta on it, and with 6–10 long setae along each margin. Syntergum IX&X with 10–32 long apical setae and 18–38 long setae along each margin. Base of second gonapophyses with 2–6 setae; ventral notch of second gonacoxa with 4–7 long setae; sclerite of bursa copulatrix large, and additional sclerite between gonacoxa small.
description: Published as part of Matalin, Andrey V., 2025, An intraspecific structure of Сicindela (s. str.) coerulea Pallas, 1773 (Coleoptera, Cicindelidae), pp. 201-246 in Zootaxa 5583 (2) on pages 204-205, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5583.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/14798772