Carolina Metallic Tiger Beetle vs Western Balsam Bark Beetle

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Carolina Metallic Tiger Beetle Western Balsam Bark Beetle
Scientific Name Tetracha carolina Dryocoetes confusus
Order Coleoptera Coleoptera
Family Cicindelidae Curculionidae (Scolytinae)
Size 16-21 mm 3.2–4.5 mm
Habitat Deserts & Drylands Mountains
Diet Omnivores Wood Feeders
Regions Southeastern United States from Texas to the Carolinas Western North America
Conservation Least Concern Not Evaluated

Carolina Metallic Tiger Beetle

A large nocturnal tiger beetle with dark metallic green elytra and a bright green thorax. It is most active on warm summer nights and is attracted to lights.

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Did You Know?

Unlike most tiger beetles, it is primarily nocturnal and hunts by moonlight rather than sunlight.

Western Balsam Bark Beetle

A bark beetle that primarily attacks subalpine fir in western North America. It often colonizes trees already weakened by root disease.

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Did You Know?

It produces a pheromone called exo-brevicomin that attracts other beetles to mass-attack weakened trees.