LEAPING SOMERSAULTS BY LARVAE ARE PHYLOGENETICALLY WIDESPREAD AND LIKELY PRIMITIVE FOR TIGER BEETLES (COLEOPTERA: CARABIDAE: CICINDELINAE)

Leaping somersaults and their associated behaviors are documented in four distantly related genera of tiger beetles and are therefore likely a primitive ability. When prodded or pinched on their abdomen, simulating the sting of a methochine thynnid wasp, larvae of the tiger beetles Omus dejeani Reiche, Tetracha carolina (Linnaeus), Cicindela duodecimguttata Dejean, Cicindela lengi Horn, and Cicindela tranquebarica Herbst rapidly flex and arch their bodies, which often rolls them forward for short distances or even launches them into aerial somersaults. These behaviors are similar to, if less dramatic than, those previously reported for Habroscelimorpha dorsalis (Say) and appear to be exaptations for wheel locomotion.