Salt Creek Tiger Beetle
One of North America’s rarest insects survives beside Lincoln where an ancient inland sea still salts a few muddy stream edges.
Artwork inspired by Leonard Thiessen
For Salt Creek Tiger Beetle (Cicindela nevadica lincolniana), record the whole form before isolating details. For Salt Creek Tiger Beetle, use “Metallic olive-brown back” for the first hypothesis and “Cream wing markings” for confirmation.
Place the sighting of Salt Creek Tiger Beetle in context by recording “exposed saline mudflats and stream banks in Lancaster County wetlands” and “Adults mainly June–July”. For Salt Creek Tiger Beetle, the detail “Sickle-shaped jaws” makes the observation easier to check.
- Best clue
- Tiny metallic olive-brown tiger beetle racing across white-crusted saline mud
- Habitat
- exposed saline mudflats and stream banks in Lancaster County wetlands
- Regional status
- Nebraska-endemic federally endangered beetle
Quick guide
- Read the form
- Metallic olive-brown back
- Cross-check
- Cream wing markings; context: exposed saline mudflats and stream banks in Lancaster County wetlands
Read Salt Creek Tiger Beetle in four field decisions
- Begin with structure
- Begin with Metallic olive-brown back.
- Challenge the first impression
- After the overall form, confirm Cream wing markings.
- Check when and where
- Search exposed saline mudflats and stream banks in Lancaster County wetlands, using habitat as supporting evidence rather than proof by itself.
- Keep behavior natural
- Leave Salt Creek Tiger Beetle and its habitat exactly as found.
Good to know
For Salt Creek Tiger Beetle, repeated quiet observation from one position generally reveals more diagnostic information than following, handling, or repositioning the subject.
Notice these
- Metallic olive-brown back
- Cream wing markings
- Sickle-shaped jaws
- White saline mud