''Cicindela aurofasciata'' (sometimes called the "gold cross") is a species of

tiger beetle Tiger beetles are a family of beetles, Cicindelidae, known for their aggressive predatory habits and running speed. The fastest known species of tiger beetle, ''Rivacindela hudsoni'', can run at a speed of , or about 125 body lengths per second. ...

endemic to

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. It usually occurs in open grass dominated habitats and varies in size between 12 and 14 mm long. It is closely related to ''

Cicindela goryi ''Cicindela goryi'' is a species of tiger beetle from southern India. It was earlier treated as a subspecies of the closely related '' Cicindela aurofasciata''. Unlike in ''Cicindela aurofasciata'', ''goryi'' has the two yellow elytral bands bro ...

'' which was treated as a subspecies. The larval stages build angular turrets.Shivashankar, T., Kumar, A.R.V., Veeresh, G.K., Pearson, D.L. 1988 Angular turret-building behavior in a larval tiger beetle species from South India (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae). Coleopterists Bulletin 42 (1), pp. 63-68

References

aurofasciata Beetles described in 1831 Endemic fauna of India {{Cicindelinae-stub