Adult beetles are fast runners and fliers. When they fly, they usually stay within three feet of the ground. Tiger beetles catch prey on the ground and in the air. Six-spotted Tiger Beetles eat small insects, spiders, and other arthropods. Favorite foods include other beetles, springtails, sawflies, caterpillars, flies, ants, and grasshoppers.
Podisus maculiventris, the spined soldier bug is a species of insect common in North America. They are predators of gypsy moth caterpillars and the larvae of beetles such as the Colorado potato beetle and the Mexican bean beetle. Because they eat Mexican bean beetles, they are regarded as good things to have in the garden.
Badlands National Park, in southwest South Dakota, preserves 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles, and spires blended with the largest protected mixed grass prairie in the United States.
