Category Archives: Buprestidae

Jewel Beetles, metallic woodboring beetles. About 15,000 species worldwide. Larvae are predominantly borers in trunks and branches of dead or dying woody plants, occasionally living plants are attacked. Some species form galls or mine leaves.

Call for paratypes!

Earlier this year, I featured this small jewel beetle in the genus Acmaeodera (family Buprestidae).  It was collected a few years ago in southeastern Arizona by my hymenopterist friend Mike Arduser, who over the years has given me a great variety … Continue reading

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An irresistible sight!

One of the few highlights of my Memorial Day weekend collecting trip came in the earliest moments of my visit to Ha Ha Tonka State Park.  My destination was Ha Ha Tonka Savanna Natural Area, and a short walk through fire-restored woodland … Continue reading

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Are we loving our prairies/glades/woodlands to death?

I had such high hopes for last weekend’s collecting trip – late May is boom time for insects across Missouri, we have had good moisture this spring, and I would be visiting some high-quality natural communities that I had not … Continue reading

Posted in Buprestidae, Cicindelidae, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Saturniidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Long Weekend Bug Collecting Trip!

On Saturday, I’ll be joining a number of other Missouri biologists as a Group Leader for a BioBlitz at Penn-Sylvania Prairie (“C” on the map above).  Penn-Sylvania Prairie is a 160-acre tract of native tallgrass prairie in southwestern Missouri owned by … Continue reading

Posted in Acrididae, Buprestidae, Coleoptera, Orthoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Introducing Chrysobothris caddo

This set of photographs comes from my June 2009 trip to northwestern Oklahoma, which I found at Boiling Springs State Park in Woodward County. They represent only the second buprestid species that I attempted to photograph with my (then) new … Continue reading

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The Marvelously Cryptic Dicerca lurida

This is Dicerca lurida (family Buprestidae), another of several woodboring beetle species that I found on the trunk of a large, wind-thrown mockernut hikcory (Carya alba) tree during my early April hike of the lower Wappapello Section of the Ozark Trail.  Actually, I … Continue reading

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A Horridus Birthday

For many years now, I’ve celebrated my birthday each year with the “season-opener-birthday-bug-collecting-trip.”  This happens regardless of what day of the week it falls (although two years ago I did get roped into a business trip – I made up … Continue reading

Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera, Reptilia, Vertebrata | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments

Josef Knull was wrong!

A few weeks ago I received an email from Kyle Schnepp, an entomology student at Purdue University.  Kyle has taken on the rather ambitious project of developing an illustrated key to the Buprestidae of eastern North America, for which he has … Continue reading

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