Tag Archives: Great Plains

Hunting the Great Plains giant tiger beetle

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

In the early 1980s, I was a young, green entomologist, fresh out of school with a budding interest in beetle taxonomy, a zeal for collecting, and a desire to meet other like-minded individuals. Among the first collectors I had the … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments

The Power of Impulse

Posted on July 3, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

Since figuring out a couple weeks that I had the larva of North America’s largest tiger beetle (Amblycheila cylindriformis, or Great Plains giant tiger beetle) in a rearing tub in the lab, I haven’t been able to think about anything except how … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

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

Tuesday Tarantula

Posted on March 9, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

One of my destinations on my annual fall tiger beetle collecting trip last October was The Glass Mountains in northwestern Oklahoma. Rising from the red Permian beds of the central Great Plains, the Glass Mountains are a series of mesas … Continue reading →

Posted in Arachnida, Araneae | Tagged , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

Euhagena nebraskae in Kansas

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

One of my favorite destinations for insect collecting is the Gypsum Hills region in Barber County of south-central Kansas.  I first went there in May 1986 after seeing a diverse selection of more typically Texan Buprestidae that J. Richard Heitzman, an … Continue reading →

Posted in Lepidoptera, Sesiidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Alkali Tiger Beetle

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

I haven’t written much about my early October trip to Oklahoma, where I had hoped to confirm a hunch that the gorgeous Cicindela pulchra (Beautiful Tiger Beetle) would be found in the red clay/gypsum hill habitats of Woodward and Major … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Who am I?

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Ted C. MacRae

What is my name? Where do I live? Who do I hang with? Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2010 Email to a friend

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Cicadetta kansa in Oklahoma

Posted on December 1, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

Another of the insects that I saw this past June at Four Canyon Preserve in northwestern Oklahoma was this small cicada, Cicadetta kansa. Though not as small as the diminutive Beameria venosa (see North America’s smallest cicada), their barely audible … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicadidae, Hemiptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 17 Comments