TIGER BEETLE. One of the active, preda tory beetles of the family Cieindeliffir. Of the carnivorous beetles they are among the most active, voracious, and fierce, whence they receive their name. They frequent sandy places and earthen paths, and have the habit when ap proached of running rapidly for some distance, occasionally turning suddenly back, and often taking to flight. While variously colored, and sometimes even bright green spotted with yellow ish, they harmonize as a rule with the general color of their environment. Their larvae live in deep, straight vertical burrows in the ground, and station themselves near the burrow's mouth, holding themselves in position by means of a pair of strong hooks on the fifth segment of the abdomen. The head and thorax are broad, and are used to block the month of the burrow while waiting for prey. The food consists of insects which alight on the spot or run over it. Some 1400 species are known, the majority of them in habiting the tropics. Some species are wing
less, while others are very active; some are found only on the mounds of termites; some species frequent the trunks of trees, which they ascend in a spiral manner. Less than a hundred species are known in the United States, but tiger beetles are abundant and are seen everywhere. The larg est American form is Ambly chile cylindriformis, which is found in sandy regions in the mid-Western States. Tetraeha Carolina and Tel Virginica are large greenish species found in the Atlantic and Southern States. The genus Cicindela contains more than half the species in the entire family, and a very great majority of the forms which are found in North America. A typical American species, the spotted tiger beetle ( sex-guttata), is depicted upon the ored Plate of INSECTS.