Two years ago I got hooked on tiger beetles as insect loving naturalists often do. Tiger beetles are members of the Family Cicindelidae, within the Superfamily Caraboidea. Actually I've been aware of these little predatory beetles for years. I photographed my first Six-spotted Tiger Beetle back in 2011 at Boykin Springs in east Texas while while on an ode trip. (Sometimes they are spotless.)
Being a tiger beetle lister is a little different from being a bird or butterfly lister. There's far few species to deal with. Texas has only 55 species of tiger beetles on iNaturalist. After two years I've seen twenty one species in Texas and twenty eight in total. My goal for the year was to add six new species to my state list. Before this trip I had seen two new species this year.
When I have my coffee in the morning I like to check out what's new on iNat. Besides checking my mail and new records approvals, I also like to see what butterflies or maybe tiger beetles have been seen. Saturday morning I was checking the new tiger beetles from the past couple of days and noticed that Jeff Black, top tiger beetle lister for Texas on iNat, had found some good stuff north of Abilene on the Salt Fork of the Brazos. Those finds included, the uber rare for Texas, Wetsalts Tiger Beetle and several members of the genus Ellipsoptera among maybe eight species total. Wow! Those are some species I'd like to see. I looked at the clock and thought I could be on my way in a couple of hours. I hit the road at 10:30 am. As an old bird chaser, spontaneous trips are no big deal. Strike while the iron is hot!
The 460 mile drive to San Angelo where I overnighted wasn't too bad. Saturday traffic was light on I-10. I just missed a storm as the road was wet and angry clouds were in the distance as I drove into town. Sunday morning I had another couple of hours to go. I headed north to the dying town of Aspermont. Along the way I observed lots of wet fields and freshly filled ponds. It had rained hard. I hoped all the rain was south of my destination as I was planning to walk the dry salty flats of the Salt Fork of the Brazos.
At Aspermont I veered up to the small village of Peacock and then took obscure dirt road CR 437. As I rounded a corner I saw the river and my heart sank. It was full of muddy red water. After 600 miles of driving my plans were shot.
I didn't know what to do. This was not what I had planned on. The salt flats and sand bars were all under water. Then I saw a little sand bar about 200 feet down stream. I thought to myself "If I was a little homeless tiger beetle I would be on that sand bar."
So I scrambled down the bank and under the old abandoned iron bridge, jumped the fence and bushwacked over to the sand bar. That wasn't too bad. And there were the tiger beetles! First an Ellipsoptera, then a Cream-edged and then... Wetsalts Tiger Beetle! This salt loving species is common in the salty playas of the southwest but this is the only known location for Cicindelidia hemorrhagica in Texas.
Later I found a copulating pair.
There were several red Ellipsoptera that I am calling cuprascens but Jeff Black called them macra. I will wait to see what the tiger beetle experts say on iNaturalist. (Morning edit: Alex Harman agrees with Jeff that these are Panhandle Tiger Beetles Ellipsoptera macra fluviatilis.) I think he might be using the hook on the central maculation for the ID.
