Tiger beetles are such fast runners that they can capture virtually any nonflying insect. However, when running toward an insect, the beetles intermittently stop, and then, a moment later, resume their attack. Perhaps they cannot maintain their pace and must pause for a moment' s rest; but an alternative hypothesis is that while running tiger beetles are unable to process the resulting rapidly changing visual information, and so quickly go blind and stop.
The statement 'In pursuing a moving insect, the beetles usually respond immediately to changes in the insect's direction, and pause equally frequently whether the chase is up or down an incline' would support one of the two hypotheses and undermine the other if discovered in experiments using artificially moved prey insects.