Largest tiger beetle

The largest species of tiger beetle is the aptly named monster tiger beetle Manticora latipennis. Native to South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique, it often attains a total length of 6.5 cm (2.55 in), and the male is rendered additionally formidable by virtue of its huge antler-like mandibles, which resemble those of the familiar stag beetle. Yet whereas those of the latter are principally ritualistic, they are fully functional in the monster tiger beetle, using them to grasp and hold its prey while the beetle chops it up before devouring it.

Tiger beetle species belonging to the genus Manticora are named after a very formidable monster of legend called the manticore. This ferocious (albeit fictitious) man-eating creature was said to possess the head and body of a lion, a long tail tipped with a deadly scorpion sting, and a human face with a grinning pair of jaws containing no fewer than three separate rows of teeth.