This is my entry for the Insects of the World contest.
Cicindella sexguttata, or the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, is a species of tiger beetle in the Cicindelinae subfamily. It is a common North American species that inhabits wooded areas and is often found along dirt trails or other patches of more open terrain.
Like other tiger beetles, it is flashy with a metallic green body and six white spots slong the elytra or wing-covering. In these photos you can see the three white spots towards the rear end of the body on each side. These beetles were bestowed the tiger moniker for being fearsome and quick ground predators that chase down their prey.
The female might require sandy patches within the woods to lay eggs. I have personally come across these beetles several times while out for a hike in the northeast United States. On a sunny day, the light filtering down through the tree canopy lights up their shiny green making them glow intensely, almost like little forest fairies or sparkling emeralds moving along the forest floor.
For a beetle I'd say they make for good photographic subjects (if you can catch up to them). Occasionally I've stumbled across one that seemed to 'patrol' an small area of rocky outcropping or trail. If I notice this then I can eventually get some good photos if I'm patient enough with the insect.
I hope to find some more of these beauties this summer :)
That is a beautiful one ! .. I really like that shiny green color .. I already knew this beetle for being a super fast one, hehe .. Thank you for providing some more information on this one ;)
If I may, I would leave some suggestion for you ^^
.. I browsed through your other posts. They are all really nice, but I would suggest that you work up a little bit your formatting and markdown to make your posts look even far better 😉 .. Also it would be great if you leave just a little sentence beneath your posts which states that the pictures are your own and maybe also the system you recorded them with and the source where you got your information if you use one ^^ .. I personally use this phrase here:
All pictures were taken by myself, ©@adalger, with a Huawei P30 Mobile Phone. For information gathering I used several articles on Wikipedia.
If you like, I can send you and discord invite to TheTerminal. This community is dedicated to help out all the newcomers in Hive and are supporting them with valuable information and help for their start into the Hiveasphere.