A Stunning Punctured Tiger Beetle Seen in Canada - Observation of the Week, 9/21/20

Our Observation of the Week is this Punctured Tiger Beetle (Cicindèle Ponctuée), seen in Canada by @jeongyoo!

“I have loved watching insects since my childhood, fascinated by their near endless diversity,” says Jeong Yoo, a graduate student in entomology.

Whenever the opportunity provides, I take a hike to small urban parks in my neighborhood, take a sit, and observe and photograph the insects. Though I’m into all insects in general, my favorite is and will always be Chalcid wasps (a group of mostly parasitic wasps). As an avid student of Chalcidoidea systematics, I’ve been working on various Chalcidoidea research projects with Dr. Chris Darling at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Tiger beetles, Jeong tells me, are among the most difficult insects to photograph (which I can attest to) because they are so fast, so skittish, and have great vision. So he originally thought this one was dead because it kept still as he approached.

So I was very surprised when the beetle flinched as I removed the grass for clear shots! Fortunately, the beetle was kind enough to stay a little longer for me to take a few shots before scurrying off, presumably to sleep somewhere else. I was very lucky to photograph this beautiful beetle.

As you can tell from Jeong’s excellent photos, tiger beetles have some impressive mandibles, which they use to catch, kill, and consume their prey after chasing it down. At least one species has been clocked at running 2.5 meters per second, which is the equivalent of about 125 body lengths per second. And interestingly, they’ll often stop briefly to reorient themselves because they’re not able to process enough visual information at those speeds. This particular species, Jeong tells me, gets its common name from the “green punctures lining the length of its elytra.”

While he’s always enjoyed sharing this photos of insects, Jeong (above) credits Dr. Darling with encouraging him to use iNat.

I soon realised that iNaturalist is an excellent tool for deepening our knowledge and appreciation for the natural world. Since then, I’ve been vigorously taking and uploading insect photos to my iNaturalist project, hoping for whatever small contributions they would make. I would be happy to see people other than myself stooping down in the park to watch insects.

- The Royal Ontario Museum is one of the organizations managing iNaturalist Canada!

- Nice overview of tiger beetles by Florida Museum PhD student Harlan Gough.

- Roll that beatiful tiger beetle footage!

Posted on September 21, 2020 09:35 PM by