Tiger Beetles!

I'm pretty sure I saw two bright metallic green tiger beetles last week... thanks to this post and your youtube videos, I actually knew what they were!

 
Ok... when I said I knew what they were, I meant that I know they were tiger beetles...

:-)

Plus, one of them I saw when I was out on a run without my glasses on.

 
Awesome! I love the look of tiger beetle larva, very unusual! I hope I can find some this summer, I have yet to see a live tiger beetle in person.

 
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Salmonsaladsandwich said:
Eh, they were probably six spots. I think they're the only common green species in Minnesota.
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The description of their behavior seems to match... I was running along a path in a wooded area, which is noted on wikipedia and bugguide as frequent locations to see them.

I don't think I'll try to collect any... I have too much stuff already. But thank you for opening my eyes to their habits through this post!

 
Hisserdude said:
Awesome! I love the look of tiger beetle larva, very unusual! I hope I can find some this summer, I have yet to see a live tiger beetle in person.
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Usually a lake or river with a loose, sandy shore/beach will yield many tiger beetles. They're quite obvious, they fly away at your approach but don't go far and are easily captured with a long- handled net. Here in new england in late summer and fall you can see swarms containing huge numbers of gregarious C. repanda, often mixed with a few duodecimguttata. Apparently both of those species are found in idaho as well.

 
Just caught a bunch of an unknown species. I have a few questions for ya. How often do you feed them, and what kind of substrate do you keep them on? Humidity levels?

 
I feed them every day. Crickets, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, small beetles (basically any insect), moistened dry cat food, bits of raw meat, honey, and fruit (especially banana). I learned from experience that they will cannibalize if not fed daily.

I keep them on moist sand collected from the beach where I caught them. Humidity and moisture are kind if tough. They want their sand nice and moist, but they also need a hot incandescent lightbulb above their cage or they will spend most of their time buried. So you need to spray down the sand at least once a day to keep it moist. This is especially important after they start to breed as when the sand dries, the larvae's burrows will collapse leaving them stranded on the surface where the adults will probably eat them.

After the adult beetles have bred you don't need the hot lightbulb anymore.

 
Sorry for the quality, still getting used to my camera. As far as the location goes I'll take a picture of that when I get a chance. It's an old abandoned quarry. They were found on sand/clay substrate next to a fairly wet area.









 
Hmm... Well, by location I actually meant what state since you don't have location under you're username. But that helps too.

That looks like cicindela punctata. I actually also encountered some of these recently, gave me a little bit of nostalgia since I haven't seen em' since I was a kid and they were common around my school.

However, you're habitat description doesn't quite match where I tend to see them (poorly maintained dry lawns and sports fields with bare patches and no clear association with water) and I don't have my field guide in front of me, so I could be wrong. Especially if you live out west and have species I'm not familiar with.

Actually I read you're first post too fast. Sounds like the right kind of habitat.

 
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