Compared to two of its congeners, adults of the tiger beetle Cicindela repanda (Dejean) are unsuccessful predators. Fewer encounters with prey lead to attacks and fewer attacks lead to captures. Many small arthropods in repanda’s habitat are immune to attack from all three species of tiger beetles. However repanda adults also refused to attack insects that were easily captured by adults of the other two species, and also by larval repanda. Adult repanda’s ’prudence’ may have evolved to increase the amount of food available to its larvae.