Tag Archives: beetles

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

“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

Tortoise beetles on the job

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

Back in late February and early March I did my annual tour through the soybean growing regions of central and northern Argentina to look at insect efficacy trials (pretty amazing to me still when I think about it—I actually get paid to spend time … Continue reading →

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

A Crossidius hirtipes subspecies blend zone…

Posted on April 12, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

…or, “There’s something fishy going on here!” After a day in the vicinity of Yearington, Nevada  looking for (and eventually finding) a population of Crossidius hirtipes longhorned beetles assignable to subspecies “rubrescens“, field mate Jeff Huether and I dropped a little further south to … Continue reading →

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Introducing Acmaeodera chuckbellamyi

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

Of the many entomology journals I subscribe to, there are few that I await with as much anticipation as The Coleopterists Bulletin. Focusing exclusively on the largest order of life on earth, it’s a quarterly dose of elytral ecstasy that no beetle enthusiast should be without. I … Continue reading →

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

Tiger beetles in Argentina’s Chaco forest

Posted on April 1, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

The day after I photographed Brasiella argentata on the mud/san banks of the Rio Paraná in Corrientes, Argentina, I decided to drive westward into the heart of Chaco Province. The destination: Chaco National Park, where some of the best remaining examples of … Continue reading →

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

Crossidius hirtipes rhodopus in Adobe Valley, California

Posted on March 16, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

On Day 7 of last August’s Great Basin Collecting Trip, we left Bishop and headed back north to the Mono Basin to look for Crossidius hirtipes rhodopus, a distinctive reddish subspecies known only from the Mono Basin. I’d seen this beetle before—almost 20 … Continue reading →

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

Beetle Collecting 101: How to rear wood-boring beetles

Posted on March 11, 2014 by Ted C. MacRae

I’ve been collecting wood-boring beetles for more than three decades now, and if I had to make a list of “essential” methods for collecting them I would include “beating,” “blacklighting,” and “rearing.” Beating is relatively straightforward—take a beating sheet (a square … Continue reading →

Posted in Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments