Pennsylvania Ambush Bug vs Cliff Tiger Beetle

Side-by-side species comparison

Attribute Pennsylvania Ambush Bug Cliff Tiger Beetle
Scientific Name Phymata pennsylvanica Cicindela germanica
Order Hemiptera Coleoptera
Family Reduviidae Carabidae
Size 8-12 mm 9-12 mm
Habitat Farmland Farmland
Diet Predators Predators
Regions Eastern North America from Canada to the Gulf states Europe, from Britain to Central Asia
Conservation Least Concern Near Threatened

Pennsylvania Ambush Bug

A small chunky yellow and brown bug with thickened raptorial forelegs that hides in flower heads to ambush pollinators. It can capture prey many times its own size.

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Did You Know?

It can capture and kill bumble bees and butterflies that are more than ten times its own weight.

Cliff Tiger Beetle

A small, dark green tiger beetle with faint pale markings found on exposed clay and chalk slopes. It has declined severely across its European range due to habitat loss.

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Did You Know?

In Britain, it is among the rarest beetles, known from only a handful of exposed cliff sites in Wales and the English Midlands.