Widespread across Europe and extending into North Africa and western Asia.
Fine-art photographic collection
Cicindela campestris
A speed hunter whose larva becomes a living trapdoor in the ground.
About this species
Green Tiger Beetle
Cicindela campestrisLinnaeus, 1758
Information reviewed15 July 2026
The green tiger beetle is a fast visual predator as an adult and an anchored ambush predator as a larva. The two stages hunt above and below the same sun-warmed ground using entirely different machinery.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Carabidae · Cicindela
Accepted species; English common name follows established UK usage. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe, North Africa and western AsiaBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Sunny open ground with bare or lightly vegetated soil.
Adults are diurnal and run or fly rapidly in sunshine.
Adults and larvae are predatory on small arthropods.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
The larva waits at the mouth of a vertical burrow with its jaws open, then explodes upward when an insect crosses the rim.
Hooks on the larva’s abdomen brace it against the tunnel wall, preventing struggling prey from pulling the hunter out of its burrow.
Adults run so quickly while chasing prey that they must pause repeatedly to regain a sharp visual image before continuing the pursuit.