Some tiger beetles (especially those in the genera Cicindela and Tetracha) are brilliantly colored in iridescent purple, metallic green, blue, or bronze. They look like tiny jewels on legs.
Tiger beetles belong to the subfamily Cicindelinae. Scientists estimate there are about 2,600 species and subspecies in total. All of them share two things: an aggressive hunting style and remarkable speed. Tiger beetles are among the fastest insects on Earth.
Different species vary a lot in color and size. You can tell them apart by features like whether the head has hair on it and the texture and pattern on the wing covers. Tiger beetles are closely related to ground beetles, but there is one easy way to tell the two apart: a tiger beetle's head is wider than its thorax (the middle body section), while a ground beetle's is not.
Physical Appearance
Adult tiger beetles are usually about ½ inch long, with slender legs and long antennae. Most common species are grayish-brown to black, with white spots on their wing covers. Those wing covers are called elytra, and they protect the softer flying wings underneath.
Some species have beautiful, delicate patterns on their elytra on top of vibrant colors, making them look almost like living art.
Tiger beetles have large, bulging eyes that give them excellent all-round vision, perfect for spotting prey. Like all insects, they have compound eyes, which means each eye is made up of thousands of tiny lenses.
Their most striking feature, though, is their enormous jaws, called mandibles. These are curved and pointed, a bit like two miniature swords. They are built for gripping and cutting prey with speed and precision.
Life Cycle
Tiger beetles are solitary insects. Males and females only come together to mate. Right after mating, the male climbs onto the female's back and holds on with his mandibles. This stops rival males from mating with her, a behavior called mate guarding.
After mating, the female picks a good spot to lay her eggs. She digs a small burrow in the soil using her ovipositor (a special egg-laying organ), deposits her eggs inside, and covers the entrance with soil to hide them from predators. She prefers damp soil for this.
When the larvae hatch, they look like small grubs. Each larva has a flat head that is large compared to its body, and powerful jaws. The larva immediately digs its own cylindrical burrow in the soil, and keeps making it deeper as it grows.
The larva goes through three stages of growth called instars. In the third and final instar stage, it transforms into a pupa. To do this, it forms a sealed cell inside its burrow and blocks the entrance with soil. The pupal stage lasts three weeks or more. When it ends, the adult beetle emerges from the cell, and almost immediately begins looking for a mate.
The whole journey from egg to adult takes about 2 to 3 years. The exact time depends on the local climate and how much food is available. When food is scarce, development slows down, the larvae may not reach full adult size, and those smaller adults may have trouble reproducing later.
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5 quick questions about the world's speediest beetle.
Other Interesting Facts
A few tiger beetles are active at night, but most are diurnal, active during the day. They are especially lively in hot weather.
The largest tiger beetles belong to the genus Manticora, found in the deserts of Southern Africa. They can reach about 4.5 cm in length, big for a beetle!
Cicindela campestris, the green tiger beetle, has an iridescent green body with golden-yellow spots on its elytra.
Other species show a different range of colors: the moustached tiger beetle (Ellipsoptera hirtilabris) is gray, the northern dune tiger beetle (Cicindela hybrida) is brown, and the wood tiger beetle (Cicindela sylvatica) is black.
Tiger beetles are fierce predators. Their hunting toolkit includes sword-like mandibles, large all-seeing eyes, and blistering speed. They also spit digestive enzymes onto their prey to start breaking it down before they even swallow it.
The larvae are skilled hunters too, but in a completely different way. A larva waits patiently at the top of its burrow with just its head poking out. When an insect wanders close enough, the larva flips its head back and snatches the prey with its mandibles, then drags it underground. To stop itself from being pulled out during the struggle, the larva has small hooks on the back of its abdomen that grip the burrow walls.
Cicindela sexguttata is a species of tiger beetle that possesses a metallic-green body and legs. There are about 3 to 5 white spots on each elytra, and so the total number of spots on its body can be between 6 to 10. This tiger beetle is quite small, about ½ inch long. It is also known as the six-spotted tiger beetle.
The Salt Creek tiger beetle, or Cicindela nevadica lincolniana is a critically endangered subspecies. This beetle is endemic to the banks of Salt Creek and wetlands of northern Lancaster County.
Tiger beetles are most often found on saline flats, seashores, sand dunes, and stream edges. They love sandy soil, it lets them sprint at full speed without obstacles in their way.
Frequently Asked Questions
How fast can a tiger beetle run?
Tiger beetles are among the fastest insects on Earth, capable of running so fast they temporarily go blind and must stop to reorient.
What do tiger beetles eat?
They are carnivores that feed on small invertebrates: insects, spiders, caterpillars, ants, flies, grasshoppers, and other beetles.
Are tiger beetles endangered?
Most species are not, but the Salt Creek tiger beetle (Cicindela nevadica lincolniana) is critically endangered, endemic to Lancaster County, Nebraska.
How long does a tiger beetle larva take to develop?
Larval development typically takes 2 to 3 years, depending on climate and food availability.
Their menu includes small invertebrates such as insects and spiders. Caterpillars, flies, ants, nymphs, grasshoppers, and other beetles are all fair game. But tiger beetles are not at the top of the food chain, dragonflies, birds, robber flies, other tiger beetles, toads, and lizards all hunt them in return.
Tiger beetles are cold-blooded, so their body temperature matches the air and ground around them. But they have clever ways to manage this. When it gets too hot, they retreat to shaded or damp spots, duck into burrows, or lift their body off the scorching sand using their long legs, like tiny heat-proof stilts. These behaviors keep their temperature in a workable range.
Scientists study tiger beetles to assess the health of an environment, their presence (or absence) tells a lot about local conditions. And because they are important predators of small insects, they can help naturally control pests that damage crops.
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Fun fact for today!Tiger beetles run so fast they temporarily go blind and have to stop to re-find their prey!