Cicindela severa

From about Cameron Parish, LA. Exact location was about five miles west of Erbelding Road (Johnson's Bayou) - the westernmost beach access road in Louisiana. A four-wheel drive vehicle is absolutely essential for reaching this area - the only way to get west of Johnson's Bayou is to drive along the beach, and getting assistance for a vehicle stuck in the sand would be difficult at the very least. My cell phone had zero sigal strength, and that was a year before Hurricane Rita.

I saw five individuals on the sandy banks of a small bayou / slough which came out of the marshes north of the beach but did not connect to the Gulf (although an individual crabbing there told me that it would do so during wet weather). In that area there are not many visible openings in the marsh grass such as mud flats, so it is not easy to locate severa. The beetles in this area were foraging about ten meters from the beach, which was between 50 - 100 m wide (from low tide across tidal flats to marsh above the normal high tide zone). On a later trip, I observed a great number of C. severa, along with C. togata on mud flats north of Hwy 83 between Cameron and Holly Beach. However, I have never observed C. severa along any marine beach - in LA or TX. As such, I have never found C. severa and C. dorsalis alongside each other.

LeConte, 1856.
GROUP XXI.
Elongate species, sometimes of large size, having the eyes very large and prominent; the labrum is either one-toothed or three-toothed; the middle tooth of the mandibles is conspicuously smaller than the others; the palpi are pale with black tips in the male, and sometimes also in the female. The thorax is more or less rounded on the sides. The elytra are punctured, the markings are either marginal spots, or a broad slightly lobed margin, which is confluent with the edge, at least towards the apex. The apex is somewhat obliquely narrowed, and very finely serrate, the sutural spine is distinct, but in the females known to me the suture is more or less retracted and the tips are separately rounded. Body beneath densely hairy on the sides, anus testaccous or piceous. Tarsi of the male very slightly dilated. Of this group are known to me three principal forms, which might almost form distinct groups.
 1. Front glabrous, deeply striate; elytra with a marginal spot and apical lunule. C. severa.
 2. Front glabrous, finely striate; elytra with broad white margin. C. circumpicta, praetextata.
 3. Front densely pubescent; elytra with broad white margin. C. togata.
56. C. severa, olivacea, vel viridi-nigra, subnitida, capite thoraceque fere politis, illo glabro utrinque valde striato, hoc parce rugoso, convexo lateribus rotundato, elytris ad apicem subtilissime serrulatis, antice fortiter, postice obsoletius punctatis, gutta marginali ad medium lunulaque apicali antice inflexa albis; subtus viridi-aenea, lateribus pilosis, ano vel obscuro vel testaceo; labro acute tridentato. Long. 57--7.
 Mas elytris cylindricis, sutura prominula, palpis pallidis articulo ultimo nigro-aeneo.
 Femina elytris planiusculis, sutura parum retracta, palpis maxillaribus basi piceis.
 La Ferté, Revue Zoologique, 1841, 41.
Texas and New Mexico: the male, although unique, was very liberally given me by Dr. Schaum: the female was found at Tampico by Lieut. Haldeman.
References
  • Graves, R.C., and D.L. Pearson. 1973. The tiger beetles of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. 99:157-203
  • LeConte, J.L. 1856. Revision of the Cicindelae of the United States. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society XI:27-64.
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All images © 1999 by Jay Comeaux unless otherwise noted.