Adults are commonly about 11–15 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Lophyra flexuosa
A heat-loving sprinter that hunts beside water yet tolerates salt, dunes and desert margins.
About this species
Leopard Tiger Beetle
Lophyra flexuosa(Fabricius, 1787)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Lophyra flexuosa is a day-active Mediterranean tiger beetle patterned with pale looping marks. Adults chase prey over open ground; larvae wait in vertical burrows with their heads forming a trapdoor.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Coleoptera · Carabidae · Cicindelinae · Lophyra
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Mediterranean Europe, North Africa and the eastern MediterraneanBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Mediterranean Europe, North Africa and the eastern Mediterranean
Coastal dunes, sandy or gravelly river margins, saline shores and damp ground near water.
Diurnal and active in bright sun, running and flying in short bursts.
Ants, flies and other small arthropods.
Solitary predator.
What makes this species remarkable?
The species occupies an ecological contradiction: it is strongly associated with water margins, yet thrives in some of the hottest and driest landscapes around the Mediterranean.
Its larvae dig vertical burrows in sand or gravel and anchor themselves with dorsal hooks, allowing them to seize prey larger than themselves without being pulled out.
Across North Africa the beetle varies strikingly in body shape and pattern, and research shows that geography and habitat can leave measurable signatures on its morphology.