Tag Archives: entomology

Giving me the weevil eye!

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

The order Coleoptera (beetles) is, of course, the largest single group of animals on earth, and by most accounts the Curculionidae (weevils) and their close relatives are the largest family-level group within the order. At 60,000 species and counting, weevils account … Continue reading →

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

Group mimicry in Cerambycidae… and more

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

During last year’s extended visit to Argentina, I had the chance to spend the early part of April in the northern province of Chaco. Though much of this hot, arid plain has been converted to agriculture, remnants of thorn forest remain along … Continue reading →

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Battle of the Bug Blogs

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

Something tells me that one of our bug blogging professors has charged this semester’s crop of students to go out and figure out what makes a good bug blog. My, how classwork assignments have changed since I was in grad … Continue reading →

Posted in [No taxon] | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

And the results are in…

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

I recently entered my first photo contest, a local competition sponsored by the Webster Groves Nature Study Society (of which I have been a member for ~30 years), and although the competition was limited to its few hundred members there were some serious … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae, Cicindelidae, Coleoptera, Hamamelidaceae, Plantae | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 30 Comments

Ceti Eel offspring?

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

If this creature was a tad bit slimier, you might think it had just been plucked from underneath the armor of an adult Ceti Eel and was looking to slip inside the ear of Chekov or some other human to wrap … Continue reading →

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

Bollworms rising!

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

One of the most pernicious pests that U.S. farmers have battled is the larval stage of Helicoverpa zea (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). This insect is destructive enough to have earned not just one official common name, but four (corn earworm, cotton bollworm, soybean podworm, … Continue reading →

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

These bugs rock!

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

These stones were given to me recently by a local insect enthusiast who is an admitted collector of all things natural history. According to him, the stones were among numerous items that he was allowed to “salvage” many decades earlier from … Continue reading →

Posted in [No taxon] | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments

The “little soybean weevil”

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Ted C. MacRae

Lepidopteran caterpillars are without question the most important pests affecting soybean in South America, while stink bugs run a close second in terms of economic impact and as the targets of insecticide applications. There are, however, a number of weevil … Continue reading →

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