A systematic review was conducted for the Cicindela sexguttata group taxa. Comparative methods of examination were applied to adult structural and ecological characters for purposes of taxa diagnoses, and to establish a basis for the derivation of the group’s history.Based on 13 adult exoskeletal characters and 25 tests on populations throughout the group’s geographical range, a discriminant analysis identifies the most significant characters as being elytral maculation, body size, pilosity of the stipes, and number of sensory setae on the antennal scape. In addition, selected characters of the male and female genitalia are shown to identify all taxa within the group. Among biological comparisons the different number of mature eggs found in adult females of C. sexguttata Fabricius and C. denikei Brown indicates that their fecundity differs; and the larval burrow of C. denikei opens directly beneath rocks and stones, a habit unique in Cicindela. Seasonality profiles of taxa appear to be dictated by geographical location, and by phylogeny to a smaller degree. Species–soils associations indicate that C. sexguttata has a strong affinity to warm, moist and loamy soils, but C. denikei is correlated with sandy, silty till. For all species of the group, habitats occupied and limits of distribution to eastern Canada and the United States appear to be governed by soil and forest types.Three species of the group are recognized: C. sexguttata consisting of geographical populations varying considerably in adult characteristics and the problematic form C. harrisii Leng which may be considered a cryptic species; C. denikei; and C. patruela Dejean consisting of two subspecies C. p. patruela and C. p. consentanea Dejean.A reconstructed phylogeny of the C. sexguttata group based on methods of Hennig (1966) allies C. sexguttata and C. denikei as sister species, and C. patruela as an earlier lineage. Recognized as a stem group of the C. purpurea complex, the C. sexguttata group is postulated to have had its origins in forested eastern North America during the Late Miocene. Speciations of C. patruela and lineage C. sexguttata – C. denikei are perceived to have occurred in the Pliocene, followed by speciations of C. sexguttata and C. denikei in the Late Pleistocene effected by continental ice mass advances and recessions.