Species Cicindelidia highlandensis - Highlands Tiger Beetle

Cicindela highlandensis Choate, 1984

Distinguished from similar species - C. abdominalis (Eastern Pinebarrens Tiger Beetle), widely distributed throughout the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plain, and C. scabrosa (Scabrous Tiger Beetle), confined to the Florida Peninsula and adjacent southeastern Georgia - by an absence of flattened, white setae on the sides of the prothorax and the abdomen and by the reduced or absent elytral maculations.

Only found in Polk and Highlands counties along the Lake Wales Ridge of FL.

sand scrub and pine woodland remnants

The dark metallic blue coloration of the adults is suggested to function in making the beetle resemble bits of charred wood that are common in the open, fire-mediated habitats where it occurs