…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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Copyright Statement
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- Orchid Valley Natural Area
- “62nd” Annual “Season-Opener-Birthday-Bug-Collecting-Trip”
- When hardcore botany meets hardcore nature photography—nature geekery at its finest!
- 2019 WGNSS Nature Photo Contest
- T.G.I.Flyday—Black horse fly (Tabanus atratus)
- Revisiting the Highlands tiger beetle (Cicindelidia highlandensis)
- Another look at North America’s most beautiful longhorned beetle
- 2018 Arizona Insect Collecting Trip “iReport”
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Tag Archives: arachnids
2018 New Mexico/Texas Insect Collecting Trip “iReport”
This is the fifth in a series of Collecting Trip “iReports”—so named because I’ve illustrated them exclusively with iPhone photographs (see previous articles for 2013 Oklahoma, 2013 Great Basin, 2014 Great Plains, and 2015 Texas). Note that I continue to use … Continue reading
When is an ant not an ant? When it’s a jumping spider, of course!
This past weekend my good friend and long-time collecting partner Rich and I visited one of our favorite insect collecting spots in all of Missouri – Victoria Glades Conservation Area. Together with an adjacent parcel owned by The Nature Conservancy, … Continue reading
An arboreal fishing spider
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
Mother and daughter (perhaps)
Back in May I visited the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Plant Pest Diagnostics Laboratory in Sacramento. While I was there to visit my friend and colleague Chuck Bellamy and see him receive Honorary Membership in The Coleopterists Society, … Continue reading
Araneus marmoreus encore
Here is the full-sized photo from which the crop shown in Super Crop Challenge #14 was taken. The small finger-like structure in the upper right of the photo—the object of the challenge—is the epigyne (or epigynum) of Araneus marmoreus (marbled orb weaver spider). Spiders … Continue reading
A non-black background is better… often!
In my previous post, A black background is better… sometimes, I came to the defense of the oft-maligned pitch black background. Some macrophotographers studiously avoid black backgrounds (BBs), claiming that they look ‘unnatural’. However, as I discussed in my previous post, there are situations—primarily … Continue reading
A black background is better… sometimes
If there is one subject that causes more disagreement among macrophotographers, it is the pitch black background. Granted, black backgrounds are common—almost ubiquitous in macrophotography, since they are easily created by using full flash illumination and ensuring that nothing lies behind … Continue reading
Damon diadema—Tanzanian giant tailless whip scorpion
I’ve reared more than my share of arthropods over the years—from easy ones like Madagascan hissing cockroaches to hard ones like certain tiger beetles (in fact, I’m the only person to have ever seen the larva of Cylindera celeripes, much … Continue reading