beach-living beetles obtain their moisture from

their food.

In deserts, there are much fewer options as

there is no sea to supply organic matter. Almost all

desert beetles in true deserts belong to the family

Tenebrionidae, most frequently the subfamily

Pimeliinae. They are flightless, with fused elytra,

and are covered with a waxy substance to prevent

evaporation. In Africa, species of the genera

Stenocara and Onymacris bury themselves in sand

to avoid the heat of the sun, and have long legs to

raise their bodies off the hot sand surface. They

scavenge the desert for fragments of plant and

insect matter that have blown in, or in the case

of insects, flown in and died. Of course, such

material is completely dry, so many species of

Tenebrionidae in the world’s driest deserts need

to obtain liquid from the atmosphere, which they

do by the unique behavior of “fog basking,”

harvesting minute droplets of water from the

atmosphere at specific times of day.

left | Phycosecis litoralis One of four

species of Phycosecidae (Cleroidea),

which, at only 1–2 mm long, live

between grains of sand on beaches

in Australia.

below | Cicindela hybrida (Carabidae)

Larvae of this fast-running hunter are

ambush predators, awaiting small prey

in a burrow in the sand, which they

close with their head.