Iconic Beetles · Pre-order · Vol. 1 · 2026

Cicindelidae of North America

A curated narrative on Nearctic tiger beetles · by Vladimír Štrunc

The opening volume of the Iconic Beetles sub-collection. North America hosts some of the most photogenic Cicindelidae on Earth — and the most accessible. From the metallic green flashes of Cicindela sexguttata in eastern hardwood forests to the giant flightless Amblycheila of the southwestern deserts, this volume selects what to see and explains why it matters.

€19 pre-order · rising to €24 · final €29 · all future editions included free

About this volume

The Nearctic Cicindelidae fauna is one of the world’s best-studied — and one of the most photographed. Decades of work by Pearson, Knisley, Schultz, and many others have given us an unusually complete picture of where each species lives, what it does there, and how it differs from its neighbours. What has been missing is a curated, narrative entry point: a book that selects what to see, explains why it is iconic, and connects the reader to the field photographs and life-history details that turn a name on a checklist into a living animal.

This volume treats selected Nearctic genera in field-to-laboratory depth. Each genus is introduced with diagnostic morphology, continental distribution, and three to five iconic species profiled with habitat, behaviour, phenology, and field-identification notes. Where conservation matters — the federally listed Habroscelimorpha dorsalis, the localised endemics of the Gulf Coast and Pacific Northwest — the volume says so plainly. Where the photography rewards effort, it shows how.

Iconic Beetles, Vol. 1 is the lightest entry to the Iconic Insects series and a calibration of the curatorial method: depth over completeness, narrative over checklist, field-tested species choice over taxonomic exhaustiveness. Readers who finish this volume will know what to look for the next time they see a flash of metallic colour break from a sandy trail.

What’s inside

Selected genera treated in depth: Cicindela, Cicindelidia, Ellipsoptera, Habroscelimorpha, Cylindera, Amblycheila, Omus, and Tetracha.

Featured iconic species (selection): Cicindela sexguttata (eastern hardwoods), Cicindela formosa (continental sand specialist), Cicindela hirticollis (riparian and coastal sand), Habroscelimorpha dorsalis (federally listed beach endemic), Tetracha carolina (Gulf Coast night hunter), Amblycheila cylindriformis (giant flightless desert specialist), Omus californicus (Pacific Northwest forest floor), Ellipsoptera lepida (gypsum and white-sand specialist).

Habitats covered: eastern hardwood floor, continental sand dunes, gypsum and white-sand deserts, Pacific Northwest forest understory, Gulf Coast night beaches, salt marsh edges, riparian sand bars, and the federally protected coastal beach endemics.

Who this volume is for

→ Field naturalists and photographers planning North American trips and wanting to know which species reward effort.

→ Amateur entomologists moving from generalist field guides into a focused single-family treatment.

→ University students needing an accessible narrative entry to Cicindelidae before tackling primary literature.

→ Library reference collections serving public outreach and undergraduate curricula.

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Pre-order pricing rises in stages as we approach publication. All future editions of the volume are included free of charge.

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€19 now · rising to €24 · final retail €29 · Stripe secure payment · VAT invoice

Recommended citation

Štrunc, V. (2026). Cicindelidae of North America. Iconic Insects — Iconic Beetles, Vol. 1. EntoLibry, Rožnov pod Radhoštěm. ISBN [to be assigned].

MARC 21 record and institutional licensing available on request.

About the author and publisher

Vladimír Štrunc is a Coleoptera taxonomist and the founder of EntoLibry, an independent academic publisher based in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm, Czech Republic, specialising in beetle monographs. He maintains an active research database of world Cicindelidae taxonomy and distribution, the open companion to which is published at world-tiger-beetles.com. Species have been described in his honour. The Iconic Beetles sub-collection draws on two decades of accumulated field experience, photographs, and primary literature.

Other volumes in this sub-collection

Carabidae of Southern Africa — Iconic Beetles, Vol. 2 · 90 pages · pre-order €19

Cicindelidae of Africa — Iconic Beetles, Vol. 3 · ~150 pages · pre-order €19

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