My name is Harry Thorax, reporting live from the beautiful (and packed) Plainfield Entomology Auditorium. It’s an honor to participate in this inaugural event—the first annual Western Hemisphere Tiger Beetle Convention, otherwise known as “Tiger Con I.” We are here in New Hampshire to cover this epic gathering of tiger beetles, and I don’t have to remind you that it was here, way back in 1986, that a half-inch long beetle known as the cobblestone tiger beetle (Cicindela marginipennis) was elected the Plainfield Town Insect, appeared on posters and T-shirts, and even became a hot topic in the national media. Little did they know at the time but reporters and photographers who descended on the Connecticut River town of Plainfield to cover the rare beetle’s story forever and indelibly cemented their status as “paparazzi.” You see, this derisive term grew from the Italian word for “a kind of buzzing insect.” But we’re not here to talk about reporters, we’re here to talk about tiger beetles. . .oh, look, here comes one now!
Pardon me, sir, could you take a minute to talk with us?
You mean me? Sure.
You look stunning tonight with your shiny bluish green color and six white markings on those wing covers; what kind of tiger beetle are you?
Okay, I’m with the common genus Cicindela, and I’m a six-spotted tiger beetle (C. sexguttata). I’m from eastern North America. As you know, although tiger beetles are found throughout the world, most species are subtropical or tropical, so I feel sorta special carrying the banner for a good chunk of the New World. Gotta go, okay? Catch ya later (no pun intended) at the reception.
As background, tiger beetles are a family of beetles known for their aggressive predatory habits and running speed. Often, they are brightly colored, but when not, almost uniformly black in color. There’s about 2,600 species and subspecies worldwide. That’s a lot of tigers! It makes sense that there’s many variations, but, in general, tiger beetles have large bulging eyes, long, slender legs, large, curved mandibles and they all run like the wind. These bugs are bad to the bone—both as adults and as larvae—highly predatory of other insects. The genus we just met (Cicindela) is found nearly everywhere on earth. There are other well-known genera, some of which are nocturnal, others are active in the daytime.
Oh, wow! Look at this one. Boy, he’s huge! Let me see if I can flag him down.
Sir, sir! —over here. Can I have a word?
What’s up, man?
Would you share with the folks at home a little about yourself? You know, who you are, where you come from, etc.?
(Grabbing the mike) My name is Big Tex. My official handle is Amblycheila hoversoni, AKA the South Texas giant tiger beetle. Texas is home to more than 60 varieties of tiger beetle, but I’m the largest one in all the Western Hemisphere. My kind can grow over 1 ½ inches long and I live in the thorn-scrub country in South and West Texas. (Waves at the camera) Hi mom!
Thanks, Tex.
If you want to get out and spot some of Texas’ tigers, they can often be found active after a rain or on the shorelines of lakes and rivers from spring through fall. Aside from their ferocious appearance, tiger beetles are known for their speed, both on the ground and in the air. Like grasshoppers, tigers are not great at long-distance flight, but they can launch short distances like rockets. This helps them get away from dangerous situations or escape predators. On the ground tiger beetles are wicked fast. The fastest documented running insect in the world is an Australian tiger beetle, clocked at 5.6 mph. That’s ten times faster than the best human sprinter, on a relative basis.
If you observe tiger beetles running to capture their prey, you’ll notice an odd behavior: they run in fits and starts. That is, the beetle will dart off, stop momentarily, then charge off again in a stop-and-go fashion. Until recently, this stumped researchers. Let’s see if we can uncover the mystery (walks over to a Cornell University exhibit booth).
Hello, Mr. uh (searches for a name tag)
Gilbert. Cole Gilbert, Cornell professor of entomology at your service.
Thank you. Professor Gilbert what gives with the strange way tiger beetles start and stop when pursuing their prey?
If tiger beetles move too quickly, they don’t gather enough photons (illumination into the beetle’s eyes) to form an image of their prey. Now, it doesn’t mean they are not receptive. It just means that at their speed during the chase, they’re not getting enough photons reflected from the prey to make an image and locate the prey. That’s why they must stop, look around and go. Although it is temporary, they go blind.
You mean they actually can’t see their prey?
For an instant, that’s right. In nature, such stop-and-go chase patterns are unusual, but the tiger beetle is unique. During hot pursuit, it stops three or four times to reorient itself toward the prey. Even after a few stops, the tiger beetle usually has enough speed to overtake its prey anyway.
Wow! Thanks professor.
True to form, baby tiger beetles come with viciousness baked right in. The larva is an ugly, hump-backed grub lurking in a vertical burrow in the soil. It has an enlarged head fused with a circular plate bent at a right angle to its body. The larva uses this plate to plug the burrow opening. Another body modification is a hump bearing curved spines that are used to anchor the larva inside his burrow. So, here sits this menacing little demon, in its hole, lid-like head and mandibles flush with the top of the burrow, just waiting for an insect—any insect—to happen by. Like a jack-in-the-box, it jumps out and grabs the unsuspecting prey, pulling it down into the hole and sucking out all the juices. Both larvae and adults are fluid feeders, secreting digestive chemicals into their prey while crushing it with their mandibles. We’ll take a quick break for these commercial messages, and when we come back, a close and personal look at the life of an adult tiger beetle (camera fades away).
After the break:
While you were away, I’ve been speaking with Metallica, a Cicindela lemniscate who hangs out from West Texas all the way to California. He’s got an eye-catching metallic green outer shell and a unique perspective on life as a tiger beetle in North America:
Yeah, that’s right Harry. The Media always misrepresents what life as a tiger beetle is really like.
How’s that Metallica?
Well, first off you name us after a top jungle predator, implying all we do is hide in the weeds and ambush prey. You of all people should know we live our lives on the edge of danger, always trying to escape being eaten. The reality is that the dangers of being a tiger beetle in the U.S. add up quickly, and as the saying goes, “it ain’t easy being green.” Avoiding predators is a big part of our lives. Wolf spiders, dragonflies, toads, lizards, and shore birds—we have to constantly be on the lookout for these wanton killers.
Harry, you mentioned when we run too fast, we go blind. Go blind, man. . .do you know what that’s like? Lunch being chased by a tiger beetle can sometimes escape by just not moving! What’s more, robber flies swoop up from a perch and snatch flying bugs out of the air. On the ground, we’re safe. But what happens when we get chased by a lizard that’s much faster than we are? We have to fly, and what attacker waits to grab us in flight? You guessed it, the robber fly. To run or not to run. How do we know which decision to make?
Besides avoiding fights with neighbors and not being eaten, there’s another big problem. Being cold blooded means when it gets too chilly, we stop functioning well and become vulnerable. For this reason, we tend to live in warm climates but, here lately, that’s become a major risk due to climate change. Most of us have little white hairs on the undersides of our bodies that help insulate against ground heat, but heat can still kill us. When temps hit triple digits, we have to burrow down into the dirt to survive. Life as we know it comes to a stop. We can’t hunt, find mates, raise families—none of that.
Thanks Metallica for that viewpoint.
Well folks, there you have it. This is your host, Harry Thorax, saying “so long” from Tiger Con I in beautiful downtown Plainfield. As a proud member myself of the Hairy-necked Tiger Beetle clan (Cicindela hirticollis hirticollis), I can attest tigers are terrifying at any size. Remember—if you’re an insect—the streets are never safe when tiger beetles roam!
By Larry Gfeller