Endangered
Cicindela puritana
Cicindela puritana
Cicindela puritana is a beetle in the family Carabidae (order Coleoptera), recorded as Endangered.
Appearance
Their wings can range from bronze-brown to green. On their underside they are a metallic blue with small, white hairs. But, these beetles are most well known for the distinct cream-white pattern that outlines the margins of their wing covers.
The Puritan tiger beetle is a medium-sized terrestrial beetle that can grow up to 0.56 inches in adulthood.
Range and habitat
The Puritan tiger beetle is found in terrestrial wetlands, among them rivers, streams, creeks, and even waterfalls. Its habitat varies based on the state it is found, as New England and Maryland differ in their environmental characteristics. The Puritan tiger beetle is found in only three states.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Diet
In Connecticut and Massachusetts, the beetles forage along the water’s edge in the sandy area of the beaches and rivers. The Puritan tiger beetle is classified as an invertivore, that means they prey on invertebrates.
While they both prey on small arthropods, adults grab their prey with their jaws, imitating a “tiger-like” behavior. Because larvae live in burrows in the ground, they use hooks on the sides of their midsection to attach themselves to the entrance of the burrow, allowing them to quickly capture their prey.
In crisis
The past population counts of the Puritan tiger beetle in Calvert County, Maryland peaked in 1998 with a population size of almost 10,000, while the Sassafras river population dropped to below 500 in the early 2000’s. The Connecticut subpopulation peaked around 2012 with a population count of around 1,600 and at Rainbow Beach, Massachusetts in 2008 with a population count of around 80. The Sassafras river population has risen in the past years and had a population count around 3,500.
The Connecticut subpopulations numbered around 600. At Rainbow Beach in Massachusetts the population size was about 60 individuals.
Cicindela puritana is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Cicindela puritana, Wikidata item Q1316428. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
