…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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- 2019 WGNSS Nature Photo Contest
- T.G.I.Flyday—Black horse fly (Tabanus atratus)
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Tag Archives: entomology
Pollen Bath
One of the smallest insects I saw during my latest visit to La Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur (Buenos Aires, Argentina) was this tiny leaf beetle (family Chrysomelidae) feeding in the flower of a malvaceous plant that I take to be Abutilon pauciflorum. At only ~4 mm in … Continue reading
Posted in Chrysomelidae, Coleoptera
Tagged Argentina, beetles, entomology, insects, leaf beetles, science
23 Comments
A Living Jewel – Madecassia rothschildi
In North America, beetles in the family Buprestidae are commonly referred to as “metallic woodboring beetles.” This may be a perfectly adequate name—accurate and descriptive, but it’s also a bit dry and not terribly imaginative. Personally, I much prefer the moniker given to these beetles by … Continue reading
Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera
Tagged beetles, entomology, insects, jewel beetles, Madagascar, nature, science, taxonomy
12 Comments
Another cover photo
Issue 43(4) of Cicindela (A quarterly journal devoted to Cicindelidae) is now hitting mailboxes (my copy arrived earlier this week), and for the second issue in a row the cover features one of my tiger beetle photos. Gracing the cover this time is … Continue reading
Posted in Coleoptera
Tagged beetles, entomology, Florida, insects, literature, nature, photography, science, tiger beetles
4 Comments
“My peripatetic quest for North America’s rarest tiger beetles”
This week I gave a presentation on my latest Annual Fall Tiger Beetle Trip to the Entomology Group of the Webster Groves Nature Study Society. With the exception of a brief 5 year period in the early 1990s while I lived in … Continue reading
Posted in [No taxon]
Tagged beetles, entomology, insects, photography, presentations, science, taxonomy, tiger beetles
7 Comments
Return to Calico Rock
Although western sand dune endemics were the top goals on my cicindelophilic wish list during last fall’s Annual Tiger Beetle Trip, I started the trip by leaving St. Louis in the most unlikeliest of directions—south! No, I wasn’t trying to get to Denver … Continue reading
Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera
Tagged Arkansas, beetles, collecting trip, entomology, glades, insects, landscapes, nature, science, tiger beetles
17 Comments
A Modest Model for Mimicry
Spring is still a long way off but it’s times like these that I draw on past experiences so I can continue to be thrilled by insect natural history even during the coldest of months. In this case I am thinking … Continue reading
Posted in Chrysomelidae, Coleoptera
Tagged beetles, entomology, insects, mimicry, Missouri, nature, predator avoidance, warty leaf beetle
19 Comments
BitB’s Newest Contributor – Chris Brown
To regular readers of this blog, the name Chris Brown should be familiar. As a frequent companion on many of my field trips over the past decade, I’ve had numerous opportunities to mention his name in the posts that I’ve written about those … Continue reading
Posted in [No taxon]
Tagged entomologists, entomology, guest blogger, insects, nature, science, tiger beetles
12 Comments
Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle
Last year’s Annual Fall Tiger Beetle Trip entered its last day as an unqualified success. Travel partner Jeff Huether and I were doing the “Great Western Sand Dune Tour” on a quest to find and photograph some of North America’s most geographically … Continue reading
Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera
Tagged beetles, Colorado, conservation, endemic species, entomology, insects, nature, science, The Nature Conservancy, thermoregulation, tiger beetles
19 Comments
