…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
All text and photos appearing on this website are © Ted C. MacRae, all rights reserved. See TERMS OF USE for details regarding conditions for allowed use.
Commentaria Novae
Ted C. MacRae on Beetle Collecting 101: Dress f… Chase G. Mayers on Beetle Collecting 101: Dress f… Nemognatha lutea… on Pedantic Sunday: Blister beetl… Nadezhda on Brazil Bugs #15 – Formig… Jim Barkley on Spider, insect or something… 8 Things That Are Th… on Myths about why Lake Tahoe doe… Arctosa littoralis… on Ghosts in the night Anonymous on Predator or Prey? S. Ivic on Friday Flower – Paw… Samson Ivic on Friday Flower – Paw… -
Scripturae Novae
- Phocus on Phyllobrotica
- ‘Beetles in the Bush’ has it’s own domain!
- 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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- Don't Forget the Roundabouts by Simon Leathers
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- flyobsession …for those who live and breathe Dipterology
- Gil WIZEN Entomologist and Photographer
- Life Unseen …the art in nature
- Myrmecos Alex Wild on insects, science, and photography
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Tag Archives: Great Basin
Big, black (and red), and beautiful!
While I may have already declared Plinthocoelium suaveolens (bumelia borer) as North America’s most beautiful longhorned beetle, any short list of top candidates for this title must also include the species Crossidius coralinus. Like most other members of this strictly North American genus, these gorgeous beetles … Continue reading
Black is beautiful!
Most species in the genus Crossidius exhibit varying amounts of yellow/red/orange coloration on the body. However, one species—Crossidius ater—dispenses with such adornments and remains all-black throughout its expansive range across the Great Basin and surrounding areas. Despite this, they are … Continue reading
A Crossidius hirtipes subspecies blend zone…
…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
Crossidius hirtipes rhodopus in Adobe Valley, California
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
The sublimely beautiful Crossidius coralinus caeruleipennis
Before driving up into the White Mountains to look for Crossidius hirtipes nubilus and see the grotesquely beautiful trees at Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, we made a short two-mile drive north of our hotel in Bishop, California to try our hand … Continue reading
Clouded beetles amidst spectacular scenery
“Westerly from Westgard Pass is a view equaled in few parts of America. In the middle distance, a dozen miles away and nearly a mile below, lies the fertile Owens Valley, extending at right angles north and south over a … Continue reading
The wondrously and eerily beautiful Mono Lake
During my recent Great Basin collecting trip, we stopped briefly at one of my favorite places in the world—Mono Lake in eastern California. My last visit was almost 20 years ago, so it was a thrill for me to see … Continue reading
Pedantic Sunday: Blister beetles don’t suck
The beetle featured in today’s photo is the blister beetle (family Meloidae), Nemognatha cribraria cribraria. The genus Nemognatha and its relatives in the subfamily Nemognathinae are distinctive due to the greatly elongated adult mouthparts that are modified for feeding on flowers. Specifically, parts … Continue reading