Tag Archives: beetles

North America’s largest tiger beetle (I think!)

Posted on June 22, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

The generous among us might call it serendipity, while the rest of us would just call it luck.  By whatever name, I had it in spades in June last year when I made my first visit to the Glass Mountains of … Continue reading →

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

Swift Tiger Beetle – good news, bad news

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

Sorry about the noisy video – it was shot in one of our walk-in growth chambers with fans going full-bore! Anyway, the video shows a couple of mating pairs of Cylindera celeripes (swift tiger beetle) that I brought back from … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Where’s Ted now?

Posted on June 13, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

…in the Loess Hills of northwest Missouri, looking for additional sites for Cylindera celeripes (swift tiger beetle). Recall that we (Chris Brown and I) finally found this rarely collected species last year in Missouri (after many years of looking) in high … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

An irresistible sight!

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

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 →

Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

When is a locust borer not a locust borer?

Posted on June 7, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

…when it is a hickory borer! The hickory borer, Megacyllene caryae, is perhaps the most frequently misidentified beetle in eastern North America due to its almost perfect resemblance to the closely related locust borer, M. robiniae.  Unlike the latter species, … Continue reading →

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , | 24 Comments

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

Posted on June 4, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

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

“Trying” to photograph whirligig beetles

Posted on June 1, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

Nobody figured out exactly what I was doing in the photograph shown in the previous post (does anybody now see the whirligig beetles in the lower left corner of the photo?), but I sure enjoyed the guesses.  Several people alluded to dropping … Continue reading →

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

Long Weekend Bug Collecting Trip!

Posted on May 28, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

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