Central and northern Asia, including parts of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.
Fine-art photographic collection
Cicindela coerulea nitida
A polished blue tiger beetle of open Mongolian ground that has already vanished from part of its former range.
About this species
Cicindela coerulea nitidaLichtenstein, 1796
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Cicindela coerulea nitida is a xerophilic tiger beetle of open sandy and loamy habitats in eastern Asia. Recent Mongolian work records it watching for prey, competitors and mates on exposed ground, while South Korea now treats it as regionally extirpated.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Carabidae · Cicindela
Accepted subspecies of Cicindela coerulea. · checked 2026-07-15
Central and northern AsiaBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
What makes this species remarkable?
Field observations in eastern Mongolia recorded adults stationed on open loose sand, visually monitoring prey, competitors and potential mates.
The subspecies is xerophilic yet occurs across several open-ground habitat types, from loose sand to dry loam.
It has been excluded from the modern South Korean fauna as regionally extirpated, showing how an apparently wide-ranging predator can disappear from an entire country.