West Africa, including Guinea
Fine-art photographic collection
Cratohaerea chrysopyga
A West African tiger beetle that hunts across the engineered surface of termite mounds.
About this species
Cratohaerea chrysopyga(W. Horn, 1892)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Cratohaerea chrysopyga is an African tiger beetle associated with termitaries. The hardened, elevated mound surface creates a distinctive hunting platform within otherwise vegetated landscapes.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Carabidae · Cratohaerea
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
West Africa, including GuineaBroad documented range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Open ground in tropical West African landscapes.
Diurnal ground-running predator.
Predatory on small arthropods.
What makes this species remarkable?
Adults live and hunt on termite mounds, using a structure built by another social insect as their open-ground habitat.
The mound's bare compacted surface provides long sight lines for visual pursuit while surrounding vegetation supplies a continual flow of small arthropod prey.
Its golden posterior gives the name chrysopyga — golden rump — placing the brightest metallic colour at the trailing end of the running beetle.
Sources and scientific references
More photographs
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