Peninsular Florida, USA
Fine-art photographic collection
Cicindela (Cicindelidia) scabrosa
A tiger beetle confined to island-like patches of Florida’s white-sand scrub.
About this species
Scabrous tiger beetle
Cicindela (Cicindelidia) scabrosaSchaupp, 1884
Information reviewed17 July 2026
Cicindela scabrosa is a Florida endemic tiger beetle of very dry, open scrub. It is restricted to peninsular Florida and occupies small patches of bleached sand with low scrub oaks, a habitat that can be separated from the next suitable patch by many kilometres.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Carabidae · Cicindela
Source checked · checked 2026-07-17
Peninsular Florida, USARestricted Florida range and representative habitat anchors — not a complete occurrence map.
Open xeric scrub on white, bleached sand with low oaks; suitable sites typically lack turkey oak.
Diurnal; adults run and fly over exposed sand in warm weather.
Predatory on small arthropods; larvae ambush passing prey from vertical burrows.
Solitary.
What makes this species remarkable?
Its habitat is unusually specific: white, bleached sand, low scrub oaks and no turkey oak provide a field signature for the beetle’s tiny habitat islands.
The two life stages hunt in opposite ways — the adult pursues prey across open sand while the larva waits at the mouth of a vertical burrow.
Suitable scrub patches are often naturally separated by many miles, so even a beetle confined to one state lives in a highly fragmented landscape.