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Project Noah Nature School
Cicindela sexguttata
A quick little beetle with six white spots and large white mandibles for preying on caterpillars, ants, spiders, and many other kinds of arthropods. This is not an Emerald Ash Borer.
Woods
These things are everywhere
Spotted on Apr 27, 2011
Submitted on Apr 27, 2011
3 Comments
You're quite welcome. We don't appreciate the environmental services provided by insects very much. In fact, we have a tendency to dislike most insects as being creepy, crawly things (perhaps except for the brightly-colored butterflies). As EO Wilson once wrote something to the effect of it's the little things that run the world. If we lost grizzly bears or bald eagles (as cool as they are) the world would pretty much go on; if we lost solitary bees or ants, however, we'd notice immediately and the consequences would be dire. Yeah, gotta love tiger beetles--fascinating insects....
This is indeed an amazing beetle. Thanks for helping with the identification!
One of the coolest beetles anywhere! Love these little guys. What you have here is a six-spotted tiger beetle (Cucindela sexguttata). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six-spotted... for more information. These are fast moving predators that track down their prey, often ants and other insects, and subdue them with their enormous jaws. Very, very cool sighting (but I'm biased...grin).