Alpine tiger beetle (Cicindela gallica)

_Note_: The English name “Alpine tiger beetle“ might be misleading, since that is also used for Cicindela plutonica. I haven't encountered an official English common name yet. But the individual in this photo has been confirmed as C. gallica in this German-speaking forum:
https://www.kerbtier.de/cgi-bin/deSnapSearch.cgi?logic=0&selcrit=1_&it1=1&op1=3&crit1=Cicindela+gallica&SortItem=2&SortDir=1&SortMode=3&FltAnz=1&ClustItem=0&ClustSort=0&chkLimit=1&nitems=3&trigger=Suchen

Snapping pictures of tiger beetles can be a lesson in patience. They are able to take off and fly a few meters in the blink of an eye. And they are wary of anything large that approaches them. In this case, I got lucky - it was still quite early in the day and because of remaining clouds the mountain slope had not yet warmed up. So this beetle was still a bit a bit sluggish and tolerated my approach.

There are various Tiger beetles to be found in Europe, but this species is endemic to the western and central Alps.