Category Archives: Arthropoda

Arthropods – insects, arachnids, crustaceans, myriapods, & relatives

Why I went to Georgia

Posted on June 10, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

Call me biased, but for my money few groups of beetles can match the maddening combination of beauty and difficult taxonomy of jewel beetles (family Buprestidae) (I can already hear the protestations of weevil and scarab workers). In the case of … Continue reading →

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

Who likes mole crickets?

Posted on June 6, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

On a recent collecting trip to southeastern Georgia, we spent the night in Swainsboro. We found a hotel and went to the restaurant across the street for dinner. It was dark by the time we got back to the hotel, and since … Continue reading →

Posted in Gryllotalpidae, Orthoptera | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Mrs. Monday Jumper

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

In my previous post, Monday Jumper, I featured a photo of a strikingly colored jumping spider (family Salticidae) that apparently represents an adult male Phidippus princeps. Far too skittish to attempt photographing in the field, I placed him in a vial and photographed … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Monday Jumper

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

A couple of weeks ago, shortly after my friend Rich and I began hiking a 9-mile stretch of the North Fork Section of the Ozark Trail in the far southern reaches of Missouri, we encountered this colorful jumping spider (family Salticidae) … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

One-shot Wednesday: pale green assassin bug

Posted on May 14, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

As my friend Rich and I set out a week ago Sunday on the final stretch in our quest to hike the 350-mile Ozark Trail in its entirety, I saw this slender, green assassin bug (family Reduviidae) sitting on a tender young leaf … Continue reading →

Posted in Hemiptera, Reduviidae | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Picudo negro” (black weevil) on soybean in Argentina

Posted on May 7, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

During my recent tour of soybean fields in Argentina, I traveled north to Tucumán Province and met with entomologists at the Estación Experimental Agroindustrial Obispo Columbre (“Obispo Columbre Agricultural Experiment Station”). This provincial station, established more than 100 years ago (1909), … Continue reading →

Posted in Coleoptera, Curculionidae | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

An arboreal fishing spider

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

Last week was my birthday, and as is my usual custom I took the day off in favor of the season’s first “official” bug collecting trip. Falling in late April as it does, my birthday usually coincides nicely with insect activity … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

The importance of post-processing

Posted on April 29, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

One of the most frustrating realizations I had when I began photographing insects was the fact that photographs didn’t come out of the camera “ready-to-go”—i.e., they still needed to be processed to some degree to make them look good. Even … Continue reading →

Posted in Gryllidae, Orthoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments