Geographical Distribution and Ecological History of Tiger Beetles (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) of the Indian Subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent has one of the most diverse tiger beetle faunas in the world. A combination of dispersal and vicariant events together with biotic and abiotic ecological factors are used to interpret present-day patterns of distribution and diversity. Within the single genus, Cicindela (sensu lat.), 150 species in the subcontinent, and all but thirty-five species in the subgenus Jansenia are interpreted as relatively recent arrivals from the Palaearctic (55%), China-Malaysia (32%) or Africa (9%). Endemism and unique ecological and habitat specialization are associated with the long-term presence of species of Jansenia, ancestors of which probably were present on the Greater Indian plate when it separated from Madagascar and Africa and rafted across the Tethys Sea to collide with the Asian mainland during the Oligocene 20 million years BP.