Category Archives: Insecta

Insects – Collembola, Protura, Diplura, Archaeognatha, Thysanura & Pterygota (winged insects).

A belated Happy Birthday

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

It seems that November 24th came and went without me even realizing that BitB turned six years old that day! Six years—wow, has it really been that long? I guess forgetting birthdays officially puts me in the old-timer camp (both … Continue reading →

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

Pedantic Sunday: Blister beetles don’t suck

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

The beetle featured in today’s photo is the blister beetle (family Meloidae), Nemognatha cribraria cribraria. The genus Nemognatha and its relatives in the subfamily Nemognathinae are distinctive due to the greatly elongated adult mouthparts that are modified for feeding on flowers. Specifically, parts … Continue reading →

Posted in Coleoptera, Meloidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

T.G.I.Flyday: Soybean nodule fly

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

I’ve been walking the rows of soybean fields for many years now, and while it might seem that I would have very quickly seen all there was to see in terms of insects associated with the crop, this is not … Continue reading →

Posted in Diptera, Platystomatidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

One-shot Wednesday: Hawk moths suck!

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

I admit it—I give short shrift to Lepidoptera compared to other groups of insects. This is not because I don’t think they deserve attention; they are a stunning group with an amazing suite of adaptations to life on earth. It’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Lepidoptera, Sphingidae | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

A winter longhorned beetle

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

According to the calendar it’s still autumn; however, in practical terms winter has settled in across much of the U.S. For those of us who study wood-boring beetles in the families Buprestidae (jewel beetles) and Cerambycidae (longhorned beetles), our time … Continue reading →

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Q: How do you photograph cactus beetles?

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

A: Very carefully! This past June I went out to one of my favorite spots in northwestern Oklahoma—Alabaster Caverns State Park in Woodward Co. The park, of course, is best known for its alabaster gypsum cavern—one of the largest such in … Continue reading →

Posted in Cactaceae, Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Red-eyed poop!

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

I was looking at some of my older files and ran across these photographs taken in early 2011 in Campinas (São Paulo state), Brazil. They’re not my best photos from a compositional and technical perspective, as I was still on … Continue reading →

Posted in Formicidae, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Membracidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Hooray for iStock—I finally have an ID for my photo

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

I was all set to make a “One-Shot Wednesday” post today, but sometimes big news strikes and plans must change. The news today was in the form of a random tweet by Alex Wild: The link in the tweet led me … Continue reading →

Posted in Hemiptera, Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Pentatomidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments