The tiger beetle can run so fast that it blinds itself.

Tiger beetles use this incredible speed to run down both prey and mates. But as they sprint, their environment becomes a blur because their eyes simply can’t gather enough light to form an image. They have extremely sharp vision for insects, but when they’re running, the world smears into a featureless smudge. To compensate, the beetle has to stop to spot its prey again, before resuming the chase.

It seems like a bad evolutionary joke: a hunter that loses sight of its prey whenever it runs.

But tiger beetles don’t mind because… well… they are really, really fast. They can afford to stop in the middle of a chase because they are