Cicindela purpurea purpurea Olivier, 1790

Majka, Christopher G., Bousquet, Yves & Westby, Susan, 2007, The ground beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae) of the Maritime Provinces of Canada: review of collecting, new records, and observations on composition, zoogeography, and historical origins, Zootaxa 1590, pp. 1-36 : 6-7

Cicindela purpurea purpurea Olivier, 1790

There has long been confusion with regard to the presence of this species in Nova Scotia. It was listed as occurring in Nova Scotia by Bousquet (1991), Bousquet & Larochelle (1993), Leonard & Bell (1999), Acorn (2001), Goulet & Bousquet (2004), and Pearson et al. (2006), but not by Wallis (1961) or Freitag (1999).

Maps in Pearson et al. (2006) show it as occurring in southern New Brunswick and throughout Nova Scotia. There are, however, no published records or voucher specimens that would substantiate its presence in the region. In the range map for the species in Leonard and Bell (1999, p. 127) a spot in south-central Nova Scotia is indicated. However, J. Leonard (pers. comm.) reports that he never examined a specimen from the province and cannot recall the source of this information. There are specimens of Cicindela limbalis in the CNC that were misidentified as C. purpurea and there is a dark specimen of Cicindela duodecimguttata in the NSMC (collected by D.C. Ferguson in Armdale, Nova Scotia in 1952) that was misidentified as C. purpurea by A.E. Brower (a lepidopterist). There are no specimens of this species from Nova Scotia in any collection in the Maritime Provinces or at the CNC. Neil (2004) found no evidence of the occurrence of the species in the province. Accordingly we conclude that past reports of this species occurring in Nova Scotia have been in error and it is removed from the faunal list of the province.