Brushstrokes of colors between iridescent and vibrant tones, this is how it is seen when tiger beetle, one of the most beautiful insects on planet Earth, but. It looks like it came out of a famous painter’s painting because of the patterns on its shell, although its vibrant hues depend a lot on the angle at which you look at it, since they are iridescent colors that depend on sunlight.
tiger beetle
Tiger beetles have a large family, with more than 2,600 species that often inhabit pockets of clay and sand along coasts and dirt roads in North America, Australia and Africa.
Its main characteristic is that it lives up to its name, with brindle patterns on its shell. But in addition, these patterns are accompanied by a series of extraordinary colors that make them very attractive; from greenish blues to fiery reds, His back is a rainbow of iridescent hues.
But such iridescent beauty is elusive in its natural habitat, with its enormous beetles among nature’s fastest. If you manage to see one, consider yourself lucky, because They are capable of running at 8 kilometers per hour, undoubtedly a dizzying speed for a small insect.
Their speed, combined with their large arched jaws, make them the strongest link in the food chain among insects.s are fearsome predators for the microscopic world. They feed on other insects such as other beetles, caterpillars, ants and larvae, and they do so extremely intelligently: they usually hunt by digging a small burrow and then wait on the surface for the desired prey to approach.
Bioindicators of their natural habitat
Tiger beetles are of utmost importance for their natives, because according to various researchers, they are bioindicators, which means that Your current status as a species helps determine the overall health and quality of the ecosystem. Any change in the health of the species would indicate that there are disturbances in ecosystem dynamics.
Although they are predatory predators, tiger beetles are extremely sensitive to changes in the environment. Any disturbance in temperature, humidity, alterations in the soil and even light affects the health of the species. This is the reason why they have been named bioindicators, since any change in the species shows changes in the environment.
They are in danger of extinction
Unfortunately, tiger beetles are a species considered endangered. In the United States they are protected by the Endangered Species Act and according to the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, the greatest threat to the species is the loss of natural habitat.
Many of the tiger beetle subspecies inhabit sandy areas, so climate erosion and anthropogenic activities have significantly decreased their preferred environment.