Laboratory Rearing of Common and Endangered Species of North American Tiger Beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae: Cicindelinae)

Abstract

Abstract North American tiger beetles (Cicindela spp. L.) have been reared in the laboratory for more than a century, and here we summarize the relevant literature to develop a general rearing protocol. We used this protocol to experimentally overwinter adults in the laboratory and observe variation in oviposition and fecundity among several species. Overwintering experiments, involving five North East North American Cicindela species with spring-fall life histories—Cicindela repanda (Dejean), Cicindela hirticollis (Say), Cicindela purpurea (Olivier), Cicindela scutellaris (Say), and Cicindela tranquebarica (Herbst) —demonstrated that both a long cooldown (20 to 4°C by a degree a day) and a short photoperiod (8:16 [L:D] h) maximized survival and minimized overwintering weight loss, which varied between species and sex. Observations of oviposition, larval abundance and larval development involving five Cicindela species with summer life histories revealed that Cicindela punctulata (Olivier) produced more first-instar larvae than Cicindela abdominalis (F.), Cicindela dorsalis dorsalis (Say), Cicindela puritana (Horn), or Cicindela unipunctata (F.) and that high mortality due to accidental desiccation may be overcome by rearing larvae individually in tubes rather than in bins. We also present a first account of larval rearing of the federally threatened species C. puritana and the northern Martha's Vineyard population of the federally threatened species C. d. dorsalis. Notably, C. d. dorsalis produced fewer larvae than more common species reared in this study. We conclude that rearing large numbers of larvae is feasible with endangered as well as common species and we propose future improvements for rearing as part of conservation efforts.