Purple tiger beetle
Cicindela purpurea
The purple tiger beetle is a shiny, flashy beetle from North America. Tiger beetles are super fast runners and fierce little hunters. They chase down other small insects on the ground.
Lives in
North America, on open, sunny ground
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. A tiger beetle can give a little nip with its jaws if you hold it.
What does it eat?
It hunts small insects, which it grabs with its big, sharp jaws.
How fast is it?
A tortoise about 0.3 km/h (0.19 mph)
Purple tiger beetle about 1.2 km/h (0.75 mph)
A person walking about 5 km/h (3.1 mph)
A kid running fast about 13 km/h (8.1 mph)
cool stuff
Fun facts
1
Its other name is the cow path tiger beetle.
2
There are five slightly different kinds of it in different places.
3
Tiger beetles are among the fastest running insects in the world.
you asked
Most asked questions about Purple tiger beetle
?What does the purple tiger beetle eat?
Other small insects that it chases and catches.
?Does a tiger beetle bite?
It can give a little nip if you pick it up, but it is not dangerous.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Cicindela purpurea
- Named by
- Olivier, 1790
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Carabidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Carabidae
- Lives on
- North America
- Also known as
- Cow path tiger beetle
Where the facts come from
- Cicindela purpurea (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Laura Gaudette. CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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