First record on the cytotaxonomy of cicindelids (Insecta, Coleoptera) from an afrotropical region

Karyological investigations were carried out on five species of tiger beetles from the Afrotropical Region belonging to the tribes Megacephalini and Cicindelini. The species have distinct karyotypes either in the number of autosomes and heterosomes or in size and shape of the chromosomes: Megacephala megacephala and Prothyma lepneurii have 2n = 24+X,X 2 Y/24+X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2 , Euryarthron festwum has 2n= 22+X 1 X 2 Y/22+X 1 X 1 X 2 X 2 , Ropaloteres feisthameli has 2n = 20+X 1 X 2 X,X 4 Y/20+XiX 1 X 2 X 2 X 3 X 3 X 4 X 4 and Hipparid-ium intenuptum has 2« = 20+X 1 X 2 X 3 Y/20+XjX 1 X 2 X 2 X 3 X 3 . The existence of 12 pairs of autosomes in tribe Cicindelini is reported for the first time, being found in the genus Prothyma, the most ancient genus of this tribe. This supports the hypothesis that the chromosomal evolution in the Cicindelidae involved a reduction in number of chromosomes in the derived groups since the same number of autosomes or even more were found to occur in the most primitive tribes Collyrini and Megacephalini. All species have multiple sex chromosomes, apparently a characteristic of this family. Ropaloteres feisthameli has a sex chromosome system with four X chromosomes, only described for Cicindela maroccana pseudomar-occana and Cylindera trisignata.