About Cicindela duponti Dejean, 1826
Cosmodela duponti (scientific name Cicindela duponti Dejean, 1826) is a species of tiger beetle with a wide distribution in Southeast Asia, where it occurs mainly in forested habitats, particularly along forest areas and near water. This species is distinguished by its large size, an iridescent blue and purple body marked with four white spots, hairs on the genal region below the head, and smooth, hairless lateral pronotal margins. The species shows considerable geographic variation; the nominate subspecies is native to Southeast Asia. Several subspecies are currently recognized. Two taxa that were previously treated as subspecies of this species—Cosmodela barmanica and Cosmodela indica—are now classified as separate full species. A population from India that was formerly treated as the subspecies C. duponti barmanica is now recognized as the full species Cosmodela barmanica. The species was named in honor of Henry Dupont, a specimen trader who provided a specimen noted as collected from "Cochinchina" (now Vietnam) to French entomologist Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean, who formally described the species in 1826.
