APRIL has certainly been a month of contrasts. The beginning of the month was cool and spring-like, the end of the month was wet and cool, while the middle of the month was hot and summery.

It was on one of those sweltering summer-like days that I began my quest to find one of Britain's rarest and most spectacular beetles, the tiger beetle.

Tiger beetles are almost exclusively found on lowland heath and get their name, not from being striped, but because of their ferocious character.

Tiger beetles are up to 3cm in length, which is large for a beetle. They are mostly metallic green with gold spots and large golden eyes. You might think this would make them easy to spot, but this is far from the case.

Heather is a common plant out on the heaths and at this time of year it is a rather drab colour, so you would have thought the tiger beetle's coloration would make it stand out well against this backdrop.

To my surprise though, a beetle shot into the heather and I spent ages trying to find it, as it was almost completely camouflaged.

The other problem when trying to spot tiger beetles is that they have very good eyesight and a healthy fear of people, so when they see you approaching they often make a run for it into some cover.

Unlike other heathland beetles, such as the dor and minotaur beetles, the tiger beetle is fast. In fact it is one of the fastest running animals in the invertebrate world and could probably keep pace with a marble rolled across a polished wood floor.

Not only this, if it has half a though that you might try to keep pace with it, it opens up its wing case and takes to the air, as it is quite an accomplished flier, for a beetle.

Faced with such a talented creature it is hardly surprising that I have only been close to one of these beetles once or twice.

This April though, I was certainly going to try again.

My technique was to walk briskly up the wide sandy paths, which the beetles like to hunt on, and try to scare them into the air.

This worked well, as when they are in flight the even brighter iridescent green of their abdomen under their wing cases shows up really well. This allowed me to visually follow them to their landing spot where I would then try to sneak up on them.

After what seemed like endless failures I finally succeeded in getting close to one, and it was beautiful. I put my hand out and the beetle clambered on to it.

It seemed to be regarding me with its golden eyes as its antenna waved in the breeze. It was magnificent. Then it twitched its mouth parts, which opened up to an alarming diameter and looked wickedly sharp.

I was fascinated right up to the moment it plunged them into my skin. Well, I suppose it is called a tiger beetle...