You Can't Beat a Tiger Beetle

These speed demons have a fun trait.

Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. BUT FIRST…one more self promo!

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And now, onto today’s fact…

Photo by Егор Камелев on Unsplash

Tiger beetles go blind while chasing prey because they run so fast.

I ran a 10K earlier this year and, at one point in my life, ran a marathon—a feat I find harder to believe with every passing day.

In both instances, by the time the finish line came into sight, I put all my remaining energy into sprinting until the end of the race. The sounds and faces of people in the crowd cheering on the finishers became a blur; the combination of that and seemingly endless sweat dripping into my eyes made it difficult to see clearly. I just knew I needed to finish.

Everything worked out in the end, though for that small timeframe, I experienced life as a tiger beetle does.

Tiger beetles are fierce little things, and they happen to be the fastest insects in the world. When they spot prey, they start scurrying at impressive speeds. On average, a tiger beetle can hit 1.2 miles per hour, with one of the quickest on record being 4.16 miles per hour.

Let’s do some fancy math, and by that, I mean let’s borrow math someone else has already done (thank you, Steven Goodheart!) Goodheart compares a tiger beetle to Usain Bolt, who runs at a much faster mph pace but is also significantly taller than a tiger beetle. So, the math is looking at body length.

Bolt runs about six body lengths per second at top speed. A tiger beetle moves at 171 body lengths per second, more than 28 times what Bolt does. If Bolt were running at 171 body lengths per second, he would break the sound barrier.

Okay, that’s very fast, but how do tiger beetles go blind? Cole Gilbert, a Cornell professor of entomology, explains it like this:

“If the tiger beetles move too quickly, they don't gather enough photons (illumination into the beetle's eyes) to form an image of their prey. Now, it doesn't mean they are not receptive. It just means that at their speed during the chase, they're not getting enough photons reflected from the prey to make an image and locate the prey. That is why they have to stop, look around and go. Although it is temporary, they go blind."

There are about 100 species of Subfamily Cicindelinae, the scientific name of tiger beetle. And their larvae are sometimes called doodlebugs, a very cute description for a vicious insect.

Though tiger beetles are beautiful to look at, don’t try catching one. It won’t devour you entirely, but it will leave a painful bite. Some things are better admired from a distance.