The Puritan tiger beetle now only exists in small numbers in three spots–two in Connecticut along the Connecticut River and one in the Chesapeake Bay area. The beetle is New England’s most endangered species. The beetles are part of a healthy river; if the beetles disappear, the river is not healthy.
A group of entomologists have been growing beetle larva in a lab. They placed 436 of the immature beetles in trenches along the Connecticut River in October. If everything goes right, they will emerge as adults sometime next summer.
They aren’t as cute as pandas or as visible as polar bears, but they are part of the web of life on our planet. I am glad that someone cares about them.
For more info, see “A Colony of Puritans” by Karen Weintraub, New York Times, (Dec., 4, 2018), pp. D1, D3.
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