In late June I visited Chalk Bluff Natural Area in northeastern Arkansas. Situated at the northeastern-most corner of the state, it is here where the St. Francis River enters Arkansas from Missouri, slicing through the loose Tertiary conglomerates of Crowley’s Ridge before settling into its lazy, meandering course between the two states in the Upper Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The site’s geological history, however, is not what attracted me to it, but rather its status as the state’s only known locality for Cylindera cursitans (ant-like tiger beetle). It was the existence of this population that convinced my colleagues Chris Brown and Kent Fothergill and I that the species must occur in southeast Missouri not only along the Mississippi River, but also along the St. Francis River some 50 miles to the west. Persistence eventually paid off last year when Kent captured a single individual on the Missouri side of the river at Chalk Bluff Access in Dunklin Co. (MacRae et al. 2011).
Kent had to really work for that specimen, spending several hours crawling through the underbrush in wet, bottomland forests before eventually finding the lone individual. I was confident, however, that my search at the Arkansas site would require far less effort, as Kent had also observed this population during his attempts to locate the species on the Missouri side of the river, writing “I saw more cursitans in an hour than I have seen lifetime total!” The playground/picnic area where Kent had seen them sits right next to the parking lot and is as un-curitans a habitat as one can imagine—tidy and neat, with a nicely-mowed grass lawn under the shade of large oak trees rather than the sweltering, poison ivy choked understory habitats with their attendant swarms of mosquitoes and deer flies that we’ve braved in order to find the species in Missouri. Only the small, intermittent patches of barren sandy loam soil gave a clue that this might be good tiger beetle habitat, and even then one might expect only the more pedestrian species such as Cicindela punctulata and Tetracha virginica and not something as exciting as C. cursitans.
But occur there it does, and hardly a few steps had been taken from the parking lot before I saw that familiar “dash” of movement, looking for all intents and purposes at first like a small spider. A closer look confirmed its true identity, and during the next hour or so I would see countless such individuals—all scrambling rapidly for cover on my approach. I have seen a number of cursitans populations during the course of our surveys for this species in southeastern Missouri, and this population was as robust as any of them.
Despite my earlier work with this species, I still lacked photographs I was completely happy with—i.e., field photographs of unconfined beetles taken with a true macro lens and flash to control lighting. All of my previous photographs were either taken with a small point-and-shoot camera or had to rely upon beetles confined in a terrarium. The species is not easy to photograph in the field—the small size of the adults (6–8 mm in length) and their cryptic coloration matching the soil surface makes them almost impossible to see until they move. They are also very skittish and are quick to flee when approached, necessitating very slow, deliberate movements in order to approach them closely enough for photographs. Oftentimes adults will run towards and hide up against the base of a clump of grass, where they are even more difficult to photograph, but sometimes they will hide beneath fallen leaves or other debris. Interestingly they do not flee immediately if the leaf/debris is very carefully lifted up and removed—almost as if they think they’re still hidden. I’ve found exposing adults hiding under leaves to be an easier way to get field photographs of the species, although I have noted that some individuals (but not others) seem eventually to adjust to my presence and resume normal activity despite having a camera lens hovering inches away from them.
Once I had my fill of photographs, I walked the trail to the river and back but did not see any beetles along the trail within the forest (too much leaf litter) or along the river. Surely the beetles occur in these other areas and are not confined in the area just to that small, man-made habitat that is the picnic ground. Seeing this population gives me greater confidence that the species does indeed occur more broadly along the St. Francis River in Missouri than suggested by single individual caught on the Missouri side by Kent.
REFERENCE:
MacRae, T. C., C. R. Brown and K. Fothergill. 2011. Distribution, seasonal occurrence and conservation status of Cylindera (s. str.) cursitans (LeConte) (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelitae) in Missouri. Cicindela 43(3): in press.
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2011
For some reason, I love head-on shots of Tiger beetles like the one at the bottom.
Me too – big-eyed, toothy-jawed charisma at its finest!
I think these are the nicest cursitans photos I’ve ever seen.
Why thank you Ben – I finally got some that I’m happy with!
What a great find! I’ll have to keep that Tiger in mind the next time I head down east.
Thanks, Jon – small but worth the effort.
hi ted! i almost never have time for anything but work these days, but i’m still hooked on tiger beetles because of your influence. love this metallic bronze beetle. hoping to start getting outside again by end of year. keep fingers crossed.
Hey, Amber – nice to hear from you, and I’m glad to know I’ve had such a positive influence 😉
No outside because of work? Sounds like you need a new gig 🙂
if i wasn’t self-employed, i’d quit.
😉
Your boss is a slave-driver!
Nice work, Ted! You know what I’m thinking? How far can the leap be from ant-like beetles to ants themselves? :~)
Ordinal level shifts are difficult but not impossible – I’ve always fancied treehoppers (another group characterized by a set of wings modified into a hard body covering), and lately orthops have captured my interest. However, with the great Myrmecos looming over antdom it almost seems pointless to even try. 🙂
Ted these are some really amazing shots that you got. To have so many great pictures of such a rarely encountered species is a real treat. The first shot that shows the green pits on the elytra is wonderful. Thanks for sharing them with all of us!
Thanks, Heath – your kind comments are greatly appreciated (not to mention a real confidence booster!).
Great beetles! But I don’t think that river has been called the St. Francois for over a hundred years or so. It’s always been St. Francis on all my maps and that’s how it was referred to in northeastern Arkansas, at least.
Doh! I do that all the time, as there is a St. Francois Co. just to my south. Spelling errors corrected.
An interesting looking creature and I love the photos, especially the last one.
Thanks, Sarah – some wonderful photos at your site (esp. the June 17 grasshopper).
Great shots, and such a delicate little tiger.
Add to that their tiny size and they are the most un-tiger-beetlish of tiger beetles.
Another amazing specimen, wouldn’t want to get bit by those mandibles. Nice work.
Aw, tiny little thing couldn’t hurt a fly… uhm, well actually it could kill a fly, but you get what I mean 🙂
Your photos really show off the wonderful bronze and green on this little guy!
Hi Anne – yes, the green doesn’t really show until you see them up close and with the right light.
Great set of photo’s wonderfully captured and great lighting.
Thanks, Scott!
Awesome photos!
Thanks Marvin. I hope you’re enjoying my “Arkansas series.” I’ve got lots more from that great state, and I’m actually returning next weekend for another look around Calico Rock.
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