According to lore, British evolutionary biologist J.B.S. Haldane declared that God had an "inordinate fondness for beetles." But whether this oft-repeated sentiment is real or apocryphal, the Creator—or his proxy, evolution—certainly cobbled together a huge congregation of these insects into the order Coleoptera, which, worldwide, has almost 400,000 species. (North America has about a tenth that number.) My guess is that of the total, the Lord was particularly happy with the handiwork that led to the Tiger Beetles, which are brilliantly colored, often iridescent, and always fast-moving members of the "little biter"—that's the translation of the Old English word for beetle—family Carabidae. These fierce predators are quite common, but they're exceeding hard to spot or document, since they don't hang around for very long and are reputed to be able to run at speeds of more that five miles per hour. Of the ones that I've actually been able to photograph, this Six-spotted Tiger Beetle is the one that appears in the archives most often. I've seen, albeit briefly, Cicindela sexguttata on numerous hikes through the woods. This Six-spotted was interrupted working the sandier areas of the garden for caterpillars, spiders, and other potential prey.