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Tiger Beetle Zoom Gallery

By Dr. Biology

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  • Common name: a name used to describe a plant and animal by a local community. Many plants and animals have several common names, but only one scientific name. Example, Leaf-Cutter ant is one of the common names for Acromyrmex versicolor.
  • Scientific name: the Latin name used by scientists around the world to describe a particular plant or animal. Scientific names have two parts. Example: Acromyrmex versicolor is the scientific name for the Leaf-Cutter ant. There is only one scientific name for each plant or animal and are always italicized.

Up-close with tiger beetles

Some of the fastest animals on Earth are below. That’s right, if these tiny insects were as large as a horse they would be running 200 miles an hour. These tiger beetles were captured using a special microscope and software that takes many pictures at different depths and then builds a single sharp image. The work was done at the International Institute for Species Exploration.  A special thanks to April Ramirez for her help with this gallery and to David Pearson for loaning these specimens from his personal collection.

<em>Cheilonycha auripennis</em> - Bicolored Mound dwelling <em>Phaeoxantha klugii</em> - Klug’s Xanthine Tiger <em>Chaetodera albina</em> - White Sand Tiger Beetle <em>Calochroa octonotata</em> - Giant Riverine Tiger Beetle
Cheilonycha auripennis
Bicolored Mound dwelling Tiger Beetle
Bolivia		 Phaeoxantha klugii
Klug’s Xanthine Tiger Beetle
Bolivia		 Chaetodera albina
White Sand Tiger Beetle
Northern India		 Calochroa octonotata
Giant Riverine Tiger Beetle
Northern India
<em>Cicindela pulchra</em> - Beautiful Tiger Beetle <em>Pancallia angulicollis</em> - Teak Tiger Beetle <em>Tetracha carolina</em> - Carolina Metallic Tiger <em>Pseudotetracha corpulenta</em> - Stout Tiger Beetle
Cicindela pulchra
Beautiful Tiger Beetle
Southwestern USA		 Pancallia angulicollis
Teak Tiger Beetle
South India		 Tetracha carolina
Carolina Metallic Tiger Beetle
Southern North America		 Pseudotetracha corpulenta
Stout Tiger Beetle
Western Australia
<em>Pometon bolivianus</em> - Bolivian Ornate Tiger <em>Manticora latipennis</em> - Broad-winged Manticora <em>Habroscelimorpha circumpicta</em> - Cream-edged Tiger Beetle <em>Tricondyla gounellei</em> - Gounell’s Trunk Tiger Beetle
Pometon bolivianus
Bolivian Ornate Tiger Beetle
Bolivia		 Manticora latipennis
Broad-winged Manticora
South Africa		 Habroscelimorpha circumpicta
Cream-edged Tiger Beetle
Southwestern USA		 Tricondyla gounellei
Gounell’s Trunk Tiger Beetle
Southern India

In case you are wondering why there are grey lines on each image, they are used to show the size of each tiger beetle. Microscopists call these lines scale bars, because they let a person know the size of an object. All the grey lines below are equal to 5 millimeters, or half a centimeter.

ant, photo by Alex Wild

It's like having your own microscope! Visit our Zoom Gallery to explore and have fun zooming in and moving around each image.

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