…an inordinate fondness for beetles!
It seems therefore that a taste for collecting beetles is some indication of future success in life!--Charles Darwin
I feel like an old war-horse at the sound of a trumpet when I read about the capture of rare beetles.--Charles Darwin
The Creator, if He exists, must have an inordinate fondness for beetles.--J. B. S. Haldane
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Ted C. MacRae is an agricultural research entomologist with "an inordinate fondness for beetles." Primary expertise includes taxonomy and host associations of wood-boring beetles, with more recent interest also in tiger beetle survey and conservation. I am currently serving as Managing Editor of the The Pan-Pacific Entomologist, Layout Editor for the journal Cicindela and Newsletter Editor for the Webster Groves Nature Study Society. Visit me also at these other sites:
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Monthly Archives: September 2011
Cicindela formosa gibsoni… or not!
Last Friday I began the 2011 Annual Fall Tiger Beetle Trip™. This year’s edition was actually a last-minute change—my original plans to collect wood for rearing wood-boring beetles in south Texas thwarted by that state’s long and continuing drought (along … Continue reading
ID Challenge #12
This should be a relatively easy ID Challenge compared to previous editions—2 points each for the correct order, family, genus, species, and subspecies. Additional points will be awarded on a discretionary basis for relevant natural history comments. Standard challenge rules apply, including moderated comments … Continue reading
My Canon 8X Macro Lens
For the past few months I have started routinely using extension tubes with my 100mm macro lens for photographing tiger beetles. I do this primarily because for most tiger beetles and other insects in the smallish to medium-sized range I … Continue reading
A cicindelophilic wish list
Cicindelia obsoleta vulturina disjuncts bolting across lichen-covered sandstone balds. Cicindela scutellaris yampae—red, white and blue in all its glory! Big, bold, hugely white Cicindela formosa gibsoni bouncing across the sand. Cicindela arenicola dancing across the St. Anthony dunes. Hugely-mandibled male … Continue reading
Not all Florida tiger beetles are rare
I fear my recent series of posts from Florida might leave readers with the impression that all of that state’s tiger beetle species are rare endemics occurring in tiny remnants of relictual habitats and encountered only by the most intrepid collectors enduring the … Continue reading
Two things I love about glades during fall…
…prairie dock (Silphium terebinthinaceum) in bloom… …and prairie tiger beetles (Cicindelidia obsoleta vulturina) on the prowl… On the last weekend of August I made another trip to the White River Hills of north-central Arkansas in a last gasp effort to … Continue reading
Crazy Eyes
Spissistilus festinus (three-cornered alfalfa hopper) is one of the few truly economic pests in the otherwise bizarre and innocuous family Membracidae (treehoppers). Its common name alludes to one of the crops it affects, but my encounters with this species are most often in soybean … Continue reading
Mini-review of the Cicindelidia abdominalis species-group
Now that I have seen and photographed in the field all four species of the Cicindelidia abdominalis species-group, I thought some might find it useful to have a summary of each species with comparisons, photographs and a key to distinguish … Continue reading