of the Put your observation skills to the test as you get to know New Hampshire s many tiger beetle species March/April 2009 Wildlife Journal

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1 of the DWIGHT KUHN photo Put your observation skis to the test as you get to know New Hampshire s many tiger beete species March/Apri 2009 Widife Journa

2 Stro aong a sandy riverbank in New Hampshire, and you might see a ong-egged beete running sighty ahead of you, stopping, then breaking into a run again. If you try to get a coser ook, it wi eap into the air and fy in a dizzying zigzag pattern. What sets this beete apart from other insects is that it wi then and severa feet away and face you. Ranging from 9 to 19 miimeters ong, this diminutive dynamo is the tiger beete. There are more than 2,000 different species found on neary every and mass in the word. New Hampshire is home to more than a dozen tiger beete species. Their names often describe the habitats in which they thrive. For instance, the metaic bue-green White Mountain tiger beete can be found running aong the sma sandbars of mountain brooks in the Presidentia Range; the big sand tiger beete scurries around arge dunes; the cow path tiger beete appears aong grassy meadow anes; and the common shore tiger beete can be an everyday sighting at mudfats and rivers. The number of species is amazing. If you go aong a river or wetand and you start ooking, you start seeing the more common species everywhere, says Susi von Oettingen, an endangered species bioogist with the US Fish and Widife Service. The coors and markings of each tiger beete species can be as unique as their habitats. They are ike tiny jewes. Many of them are iridescent greens and metaic reds, says Pamea Hunt, a senior conservation bioogist with New Hampshire Audubon. Tiny Tigers The six-spotted tiger beete is one beauty that many N.H. residents can see without eaving their backyards. This emerad-green beete is a frequent visitor of gardens, where it feasts on ants, spiders, mites...neary anything it can get its powerfu jaws around. Like a tiger beetes, the six-spotted species earned the name tiger for how it catches a mea. They see an ant or some other prey and they wi run after it, says Hunt. Even when a tiger beete is ony a few hours od, it is aready on its way to becoming an exceent predator. After hatching from eggs, tiger beetes are in a arva form, and ook more ike grubs than beetes; these vunerabe arvae tunne into the soi to keep safe from hungry birds and other insects and to protect themseves from intense heat, heavy rain, and even snow. The tiger beete spends neary two years iving here, so the burrow s entrance becomes a dinner tabe of sorts. With its head barey poking out above the soi, the arva uses hooks to anchor itsef to the inside of the tunne. When an unsuspecting sma insect waks by, the tiger beete arva pops up and snatches its mea with pincer-ike mouthparts. If a arva senses a threat (such as a human) cose by, it unhooks itsef and drops farther into the tunne. Researchers who study tiger beete arvae wi side a ong bade of grass down a hoe to see if it s occupied. If there s a arva inside the tunne, the bade of grass wi begin to move as the arva tries to push it out. Despite a their moxie, tiger beetes are no match for iega off-road vehices, river damming or overzeaous beete coectors. Because of a this human interference, many species of tiger beetes are under threat, incuding the cobbestone tiger beete found in New Hampshire. Isand Dweer The cobbestone tiger beete hods two tites in the Granite State: officia insect for the town of Painfied and state endangered a designation made ast year to refect the species increasingy imperied condition. by Linda Saucerman As its name impies, the cobbestone tiger beete ives amid rocks, but not just any area with stones wi do. In New Hampshire and Vermont, it can ony be found on the cobbed edges of isands aong the upper vaey of the Connecticut River. Farther down the river, the cobbestone tiger beete has been sighted in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Popuations have been recorded in New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Ohio and Vermont. Around 1997, when my daughter was about 9 years od, we discovered a popuation aong the Winooski River about a haf-mie from our house, says John Leonard, senior ecturer at the University of Vermont, founding member of the Vermont Entomoogica Society and co-author of the fied guide Northeastern Tiger Beetes. For Leonard, it wasn t the cobbestone tiger beete s oive-brown wing covers that caught his eye that day, but its bright red bey. The previous year we had been canoeing on the Winooski and I saw this fash of red and I thought, Wow, I wonder if it coud actuay be a cobbestone tiger beete, says Leonard. So the foowing year I decided to do a more extensive search with my daughter and we found them. It was the first documented ocation of a cobbestone tiger beete in the Lake Champain Basin. The cobbestone tiger beete aso once occurred in Pennsyvania, West Virginia, Mississippi and Aabama, but river damming fooded the habitat and wiped out the species from those states. Because a arge portion of the popuation is [now] in our region, Widife Journa March/Apri 2009

3 Tiger Beetes of New Hampshire Whether they are metaic green, shiny bronze, or matte back, a tiger beetes of the Granite State have white spots or patterns on their eytra (wing covers), which is one of the key factors in identifying each species. Both the common and scientific names are shown here, since the former sometimes varies. In a cases, the C. refers to the genus name Cicindea, to which a New Hampshire tiger beete species beong. Big Sand (C. formosa) Topping out at 18 miimeters, this is the argest tiger beete in New Engand; found in sand dunes. It is amost back with wide white markings. ted c. macrae photo Common Caybank (C. imbais) Varies from bright red to bronze; found on steep, cay soi. Tiger beetes are easy to identify, so it s fun to go ooking for them in different habitats. Use the photos on this page and see how many you can find this year. it is a high responsibiity, Hunt says. Cobbestone tiger beetes are very habitat-specific, so it woud behoove us to keep an eye on these habitats and make sure we don t ose them. Such was the fate for the puritan tiger beete in N.H. Once a resident of beaches aong the Connecticut River in Caremont, this beete no onger exists in the state. Damming in the eary 1900s destroyed the habitat of what is now considered the rarest tiger beete of New Engand. Because the cobbestone tiger beete aso ives at the water s edge, the N.H. Widife Action Pan proposes strategies that consider dam activity, water eves and fows. In the 1980s, the cobbestone tiger beete aso coud have become history in New Hampshire, had two hydroeectric power pants aong the Connecticut River been approved. Luckiy for the beete, Atantic samon share the same river; the power pants were voted down in an effort to protect this fish from disappearing from New Engand waters. For many bioogists, it is no surprise that another anima saved the day for the owy beete. Soon after starting his research on the tiger beete 14 years ago for the US Fish and Widife Service, bioogist and professiona faconer Chris Davis found himsef admiring these beetes for one of the same reasons he is intrigued by birds of prey both are predators. As humans, we have a fondness for the soft, fuzzy, feathery, [and] doe-eyed, says Davis. I understand someone saying, It s just a beete, but it s aso an opportunity to earn. Drive to Survive Most tiger beete popuations tend to be heathier in areas with ess impact from human activity. Bioogists generay agree that peope waking on the beach isn t Punctured (C. punctuata) Back to brown; produces a fruity odor when handed; found on dry, hard-packed soi of urban areas, incuding medians of busy roads and sidewaks. Obique-ined (C. tranquebarica) Dark bronze; found on grave or dirt roads and beaches. Six-spotted (C. sexguttata) This iridescent green beete is often the first one to be identified by those new to the hobby of finding tiger beetes; found in woods, dirt roads, trais, gardens. gerry emmo photo dwight kuhn photo March/Apri 2009 Widife Journa

4 Cobbestone (C. marginipennis) Oive green; found on rocky portions of river isands; endangered in N.H. Common Shore or Bronzed (C. repanda) This is the most common tiger beete in New Engand; found in sandbars and mudfats. Cow Path (C. purpurea) Varies from bright red to bronze; considered a sign of the spring season; found on grassy paths. a major threat to tiger beetes, but peope driving cars and off-road recreationa vehices onto beete habitat can suffocate arvae in their burrows. Because many tiger beete species can take two years to reach breeding age, a generation of beetes can be wiped out by a singe car spinning its tires. Even when peope are aware of tiger beetes, sometimes they can amost be oved to death. Insatiabe coectors can dwinde popuations. Fortunatey, the endangered status of the cobbestone tiger beete makes it iega for them to be kied or removed from their habitats; and the hobby of netting beetes and pacing them in kiing jars fied with ethy acetate is faing out of fashion. Many are discovering that digita photography is a great way to capture a tiger beete. These beete-maniacs aso are some of the biggest proponents of protecting the environments where tiger beetes exist. In genera, when you see tiger beetes in nature, it is a sign of a pace that is reativey undisturbed by peope, Leonard says. Peope ike to have these wid Smooth or Festive (C. scutearis) Usuay green or bronze, with variabe markings; found in sand pits. Widife Journa March/Apri 2009 gerry emmo photo gerry emmo photo paces to see and visit, and a tiger beete popuation is an indicator of such paces. For those new to the word of tiger beetes, taking the time to ook for them is more than just a chance to find a brighty coored insect in a diverse habitat; it aso can be an opportunity to find yoursef. Working with tiger beetes is a whoe other eve of activity that you don t have an insight into unti you sow down and just ook, expains Davis. It is a time to go out to the beach and take the time to focus. Once you do, there is so much to see. I often describe the process that we do [netting and cataoguing] as a combination of hunting and meditating. Linda Saucerman is a freeance writer from Dover, N.H., who speciaizes in environmenta journaism and trave writing. She wrote about bobcats in the Nov./Dec issue of New Hampshire Widife Journa. Tweve-spotted (C. doudecimguttata) Dark brown with severa sma spots; found in sandy areas near water, often with arge rocks. not pictured... Hairy-necked (C. hirticois) Long, white hairs on egs and thorax (area between head and abdomen), found on wet sand near fresh or sat water. Borea Long-ipped (C. ongiabris) Matte back with faint white dots and ines on wing covers; found on sandy roads and sandy parts of bogs; one was found at the summit of Mount Washington at 6,288 feet (1,917 meters). Patterned Green or Northern Barrens (C. patruea) Rare in New Engand, this du green species is found in areas of sandy soi. White Mountain or Appaachian (C. ancocisonensis) Head, thorax, and abdomen are metaic bue-green to vioet, whie the rest of the body is bronze; found in mountain brooks in the Presidentia Range. Puritan (C. puritana) Dark bronze-brown to green with cream-coored markings; white hairs on underbody. State-endangered and federay threatened. No onger occurs in N.H., but is found in Massachusetts aong the Connecticut River.

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