Tiger beetle

“ But what they lack in beauty they make up for in other ways. There are many of their handsomer cousins whose history [2] is not half as interesting as that of this poor beetle that we tread upon in the grass. His neighbor insect, the tiger-beetle, running hither and thither with legs of wonderful speed, and with the agility of a fly on the wing, readily escapes our approach; but this clumsy, helpless blue beetle must needs plead for mercy by his color alone, because he has no means to avert our crushing step. ”

“ Several of them create marvels with a view to settling their family: cotton satchels, baskets made of leaves, towers of cement. Some live permanently in ambush, lying in wait for their prey. The Tiger-beetle, for instance, digs himself a perpendicular hole, which he stops up with his flat, bronze head. If any other insect steps on this deceptive trap-door it immediately tips up, and the unhappy wayfarer disappears into the gulf. The Ant-lion makes a slanting funnel in the sand. ”

“ Should a large, strong insect walk over the burrow, the tiger-beetle larva retreats precipitately to the bottom of its hole, which is sometimes eighteen inches below the surface of the ground.
There are many other insects which, [Pg 96] when young, live below ground, and become above-ground flying creatures, when full grown, which have not the carnivorous tastes of the forms we have just mentioned. Many of these species live on the roots of plants and others upon the vegetable mold of rich soils. The large white grubs so often found in the soil of grass lands belong to both of these classes. ”

“ Its body is about three and a half feet long, and its tail about three feet long. Its ground color is brownish gray, and the dark markings are irregular stripes, spots, and rings, but there are always two dark bands on the face, one extending back from the eye, and one from the angle of the mouth. Called also tortoise-shell tiger. — Mexican tiger (Zoöl.) , the jaguar. — Tiger beetle (Zoöl.) , any one of numerous species of active carnivorous beetles of the family Cicindelidæ. They usually inhabit dry or sandy places, and fly rapidly. ”

“ Every few minutes they come to the surface and lift their wings to get a little air under them, then down they go into the brook. They are very hungry beetles, eating other insects which they find in the water. The boldest often try to take a bite out of a fish. Just think of calling a baby beetle a water-tiger! Well, these babies are as savage and ferocious to the little creatures living about them in the water as a big tiger would be to us, if we should happen to meet one. ”

“ The tiger-beetles, like most other Insects that capture living prey, do not consume their victims entire, but subsist chiefly on the juices they squeeze out of them; the hard and innutritious parts are rejected after the victim has been thoroughly lacerated and squeezed; the mouth forms both trap and press; the palpi spread out in order to facilitate the rapid engulfing of a victim, then close up under it and help to support it in the mouth; while the labrum above closes the cavity in the other direction. ”

“ They can not exist in very cold countries, and they are rarely found in cultivated land, as they prefer burrowing in loose, sandy soil, where their little homes are not in danger of being disturbed by the gardener's spade. A remarkable tiger-beetle is the gold-cross of India, which has a deep velvety black body, and a golden mark on its wings in shape like a St. ”

“ Beetles are world-wide in distribution and more than 100,000 species have been catalogued. They are divided into a great number of families, among which those mentioned below contain the most noteworthy forms.
The tiger beetles are large-headed, predacious forms, most numerous in the tropics, which live in holes in the soil and rush out to seize passing prey. The ground beetles (Carabidæ) are a very extensive family, represented in all parts of the world, and are [Pg 122] insect hunters, destroying hosts of injurious insects. ”

“ Their food consists of the young of other insects; in fact it is better to keep them by themselves unless we wish to have the aquarium depopulated. When the tiger has reached his full size, his form changes and he rests for a time as a pupa; then comes forth as a hard, shiny beetle like Fig. ”

“ The tiger-beetles are so called because they are such fierce and voracious insects, spending most of their time in chasing and devouring other insects. The commonest of them is about half an inch long, and is bright green above and coppery below. You may often see it darting about in the hot sunshine, and if you try to catch it you will generally find that it flies away as quickly as a bluebottle. ”

“ The Dytiscus is a true water-beetle, being aquatic in both its larva and perfect forms. The larva, known as the water-tiger, is found in plenty in the muddy ditches round London, and is a strong, stubborn, ugly, and ravenous worm, with a tail formed for respiration, and curved mandibles to tear its prey to pieces. It is very active, and may be kept without difficulty ”

“ One by one the marbled tiger beetles tumbled at our feet, dazed from the exertion of an aërial flight, then scrambled and ran a little way, or darted into the wire grass, where great brilliant spiders eyed them askance from their gossamer hammocks. ”

“ Its food therefore naturally differs from that of the preceding species, and consists largely of adult beetles and wasps, which it frequently captures on the wing, after the fashion of flycatchers. Grasshoppers also form an important part of the food. The red-head has a peculiar habit of selecting very large beetles, as shown by the presence of fragments of several of the largest species in the stomachs. Among the beetles were quite a number of predaceous ground beetles, and unfortunately some tiger beetles, which are useful insects. ”

“ TAMBUKI GRASS, also TAMBOOKIE, and sometimes TAMBUTI (n) , a very rank grass; in places reaches 15 feet high and stem diameter half inch.
TICK, or RHINOCEROS, BIRD, the ‘ox-pecker’ (Buphaga Africana) .
TIGER. In South Africa the leopard is generally called a tiger; first so described by the Dutch—tijger.
TOCK-TOCKIE, a slow-moving beetle, incapable of flight. Gets its name from its means of signalling by rapping the abdomen on the ground (tenebrionid beetle of the genus Psammodes) .
TREK (d) (literally to pull) , to move off or go on a journey ”

“ The sides of the valley rose steeply, and a fair view was obtained from the tramway in the centre over the shrubs and small trees on each side, so that the walk was not so hemmed in with foliage, as is usual in the forest roads. Insects were plentiful by this path. In some parts brown tiger beetles ran or flew with great swiftness; in others, leaf-cutting ants in endless trains carried aloft their burdens of foliage, looking as they marched along with the segments of leaves, held up vertically, like green butterflies, or a mimic representation of a moving Birnam wood. ”

“ As a general rule the species were smaller and much less brilliant in colours than those of Mexico and South Brazil. The species too, although numerous, were not represented by great numbers of individuals; they were also extremely nimble, and therefore much less easy of capture than insects of the same order in temperate climates. On the sandy beach I found two species of Tetracha, a genus of tiger-beetles, which have remarkably large heads, and are found only in hot climates. They come forth at night, in the daytime remaining hid in their burrows several inches deep in the light soil. ”

“ As supper-time approaches, the tigers begin to roar and growl, and march restlessly up and down the cage. When the keeper approaches with the great pieces of raw beef, their roaring makes everything tremble. With ferocity glaring in their eyes, the tigers spring for the food, and begin to devour it eagerly. They often lie down to eat, holding the meat in their fore-paws like a cat, rolling it over and over while they tear it in pieces, growling savagely all the while.
The royal tiger is found only in Asia ”

“ The tigers that inhabit high grass jungle are more dangerous than those which are found in forests. The reason is obvious; the former cannot be seen, neither can they see, until the stranger is almost upon them; they have accordingly no time for consideration, but they act upon the first impulse, which is either to attack in self-defence or to bound off in an opposite direction. If the same tiger were in a forest it would either see the approach or it would hear the sound of danger, and being forewarned, it would have time to listen and to decide upon a course of retreat ”

“ This obscure coloring may be either for the purpose of securing prey, or for concealment. The banded colors of the tiger perfectly blend with the lights and shadows in the jungle-grass. Those forest animals which live on the ground, as game-birds, deer, rabbit, or squirrel, are of brown or neutral hues, which assimilate to the color of dead leaves and tree-trunks; and they are quite impossible to discover as long as they remain motionless. Animals of the desert are dull or rust colored, or of some light tint. Insects, frogs, and lizards, which live among the leaves, are green ”

“ In the hot season the animal is easily discovered, as it invariably haunts the banks of rivers, when all the brooks are dry and the tanks have disappeared through evaporation. The tiger loves to wallow in shallow water, and to roll upon the dry sand after a muddy bath; it will swim large rivers, and in the Brahmaputra, where reedy and grassy islands interrupt the channel in a bed of several miles' width, the tigers travel over considerable distances during the night, swimming from island to island, and returning to the mainland if no prey is to be found during the night's ramble. ”

“ Afar a peacock calls from a ruined tomb, and through all the jungle concert runs the continuous screech of the cicada.
A loud signal from a treed scout suddenly tells us my tiger is located. Relentlessly, foot by foot, the man-eater is tracked. We are guided always by the scouts in the trees; for that terrible bamboo-like grass swallows even elephants, swaying noisily to their moving bulk. At length we emerge in a little clearing; and even as we glance around, the stalks part harshly, and the tiger leaps forth at an unarmed beater, burying fangs in a soundless throat. ”

“ Ever and anon, he crouches close among the little clods as a tiger would crouch for his prey. He seems to be listening, or smelling down into the earth, as if to discover his prey by every sense which he possesses, He goes round every stalk, and descends into every hollow about them. When he finds the spider, he dispatches him in a moment, and seizing him by the centre of his chest, commences dragging him off backward.
He conveys his prey to a place of safety. Frequently he carries it up some inches into a plant, and lodges it among the green leaves. ”

“ Such a specimen affords a poor example of the grand animal in its native jungles, whose muscles are almost ponderous in their development from the continual exertion in nightly rambles over long distances, and in mortal struggles when wrestling with its prey. A well-fed tiger is by no means a slim figure, but on the contrary it is exceedingly bulky, broad in the shoulders, back, and loins, with an extraordinary girth of limbs, especially in the fore-arm and wrist. ”

“ We have now traced the long line of the Carnivora from the lordly Lion, the slayer of man and his flocks and herds, and the Tiger, equally formidable and no less specially developed for a life of rapine on a great scale, to creatures as small and insignificant as the Meerkat, which is at least as much an insect-feeder as a devourer of flesh, and the Ichneumons and Civets. ”

“ Incidents of any special kind, however, reveal the tiger’s nature only in part. What sort of a being is this in whole; how much mind does he possess; what are the traits common to his species; and what their individual peculiarities? Do tigers roar like lions and jaguars, and is it probable that their neighborhood would be announced in this manner? Are they in the habit of going about by day; and if not, on what kind of nights is the beast most active and aggressive? How does a tiger take his prey, especially man? How far can one spring; in what way does he kill ”

“ The paws, moreover, are fitted with large soft pads which enable this bulky animal to move without a rustle over ground where the lizard can hardly stir without being heard; while its coloring, though it seems conspicuous enough when seen in a cage behind bars and against a background of whitewash, assimilates with astonishing exactness to its surroundings when the tiger lies in ambush under the overhanging roots, or crouches amongst the cane-grass.
For the tiger makes no pretence to invincible courage. On the contrary, he prefers, as a rule, to enjoy life rather than die heroically. ”

“ The tigress goes with young for about fifteen weeks, and produces from two to five at a birth. I remember once seeing four perfectly formed cubs, which would have been born in a day or two, cut from a tigress shot by my brother-in-law Col. W. B. Thomson in the hills adjoining the station of Seonee. I had got off an elephant, and, running up the glen on hearing the shots, came unpleasantly close to her in her dying throes. When about to bring forth, the tigress avoids the male, and hides her young from him. The native shikaris say that the tiger kills the young ones if he finds them. ”