Category Archives: Coleoptera

Beetles. The largest order of animals with more than 300,000 species in about 2000 genera.

Eye to eye to eye to eye with a tiger beetle larva

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

After the past few years of hunting tiger beetles, I’ve learned not only how to find the larval burrows but—at least for most of the species occurring in Missouri—how to identify the larvae in the field. While conclusive identifications rely upon … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Beautiful box of Buprestidae

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

I’ve been working on identifying Buprestidae accumulated from a variety of sources over the past year—mostly exchanges and gifts, before beginning the processing specimens collected during this past season. Once identified, and combined with specimens gleaned from material submitted by … Continue reading →

Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Book Announcement: Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

It’s not often that I anticipate the release of a book as much as I have with the soon-to-be-released Field Guide to the Jewel Beetles (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) of Northeastern North America. Fortunately, the wait is now almost over—Morgan Jackson, author … Continue reading →

Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , | 19 Comments

One Bad Beetle

Posted on December 4, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

Almost every tiger beetle trip that I take has a mix of gimmes and stretch goals. That’s alright—it’s impossible to find everything every time out, and if I eschewed the common and was happy only when I found something truly … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Where siblings mingle: Ellipsoptera marginata vs. E. hamata

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

When Erwin & Pearson (2008) formally broke up the great genus Cicindela by elevating most of its former subgenera to full genus rank, it caused a bit of consternation amongst some North American cicindelophiles. The argument went something like, “Now we have all these … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Persistence Pays

Posted on November 12, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

For the past three years I’ve crisscrossed the country in search of some of North America’s rarest tiger beetles, each time hoping to get that “perfect” photograph of an unconfined beetle exhibiting natural behavior in its native habitat. I’ve managed … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Black olives with legs

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

While searching the open red-cedar woodland at Oklahoma’s Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge back in September, I rather regularly encountered these darkling beetles (family Tenebrionidae) that I recognized as the species Eleodes tricostata. I really wanted to photograph the first several that … Continue reading →

Posted in Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Black is beautiful!

Posted on November 7, 2012 by Ted C. MacRae

As much love as I give to tiger beetles, I tend to be just as indifferent to the non-cicindeline ground beetles. Why this is I don’t know; ground beetles sensu lato are super diverse taxonomically, morphologically, and ecologically, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Carabidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments