Mishy has been noticing a pretty scary
looking little green fella in and around the woods lately! Actually the last time I seen this green,
shiny spotted beetle, he seemed quite comfortable on the cement too! Luckily I didn’t step on him, so I reached
out and got closer to him only to notice he had 1-2-3-4-5-6 polka dots on his
back wing!
This is why he’s called the 6-spotted Tiger
beetle! Much like its distant cousin,
the carrion this little guy loves the water, and is found most often close by
watershed, or floodplains, muddy creek banks and really anywhere where there is
lots of plant life!
In the grown up world of biologists, this little
guy is considered a PREDATOR! and very AGGRESSIVE because they eat bugs like
crickets, fleas, gnats and even cute little grasshoppers (Mishy’s
favorite).
On a good note, Mishy has come to realize
that everything serves a purpose and for this reason, a large tiger beetle will
feed on spiders and other pesky bugs and have become known as a great helper
for our gardens and our farmer fields!
Oh one last thing, don’t ever be discouraged
if you haven’t spotted one for longer than 10 seconds, they are clocked as the
fastest moving insects ever, so it was gone before I could say thank you!
