The Dispirited Tiger Beetle is named for the less-spirited “elbow” on the middle band. In most individuals, this band bends smoothly and is unbroken. The middle band of the Oregon Tiger Beetle (see Insects menu), on the other hand, usually has a very “bony” elbow and the band is often broken. Cicindela depressula also lacks the “eyebrow” bristles characteristic of C. o. oregona (slide 6).
Colors vary from green to brown, and may depend somewhat on the angle of the photo.Cicindela depressula appears not to stand so tall as C. o. oregona (the so-called stilting behavior common in Tiger Beetles).

Tiger Beetles often dig into sand during the day. I’ve seen these oval, cavelike holes scattered on the sand in many locations where I’ve observed tiger beetles (video slide 10).

Two subspecies probably occur on the Olympic Peninsula, C. d. depressula in the high country and C. d. eureka at lower elevations along rivers. We have seen C. d. eureka on the banks of the Elwha River and the Dungeness River. On the Olympic Peninsula, I’ve only seen C. d. eureka occurring along with C. o. oregona, and always in much smaller numbers.

Some of these photos are from 2008 and 2009, at a small, sandy beach at the southeastern shore of Lake Mills in Olympic National Park. The lake has been drained after the breaching of the Glines Canyon dam (slides 7 and 8). The lake bed is the site of the United States’s largest revegetation project, but still has a lot of sandy tiger beetle habitat accessible by trail.

C.d. depressula are numerous in gravely areas of trails in the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier National Park (slide 9).