When I announced the winner of BitB Challenge Session #5, I had forgotten about a comment I made in a previous challenge that I was considering awarding prizes to the session’s 2nd and 3rd place finalists as well as the winner. After thinking about it some more I have decided it would be a good idea—2nd and 3rd places in the final standings may lack the prestige of a BitB Challenge Session Championship (snort!), but they are certainly no small accomplishment. With that, I offer my congratulations to Dennis Haines and Tim Eisele, 2nd and 3rd place finalists (respectively) in BitB Challenge Session #5.
Gentlemen, contact me for your loot.
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012
This will be the last post for BitB Challenge Session #5 (for a recap of the current standings see A Living Jewel – Madecassia rothschildi). This is a straight up identification challenge, but with a twist. Can you identify the subject of this photo and its likely meal? The points will be a little different this time—only 1 pt each for order and family (because these are too easy) but 4 pts each for genus and species (because these are pretty hard). This goes for both subject and meal. Standard challenge rules apply (except as modified here), including moderated comments, tie-breaker points for first correct answers, and possible bonus pts for additional relevant information at my discretion (note: subfamilies, tribes, supergenus, hyperspecies, etc. do not constitute additional relevant information). ¡Buena suerte!
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012
It’s been almost 3 weeks since the last challenge, so how about a Super Crop Challenge? Okay, not a true super crop as this is a full-sized photo (is that a hint?), but since it’s a close-up view of a limited area of the subject I’ll call it such. What is shown in the photo below, and what is the beautiful beastie that owns it? I’ll give 2 pts each for structure name and owner order and family. Genus identification is probably a stretch (though not impossible), so I’ll give 2 pts as well for correct subfamily and/or tribe. Standard challenge rules apply, including moderated comments (although tie-breaker points will be awarded to early birders with correct answers) and bonus pts for additional relevant information at my discretion. Good luck!
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012
Who am I, and where do I live?
It’s been almost a month since the last challenge, and since Alex got back to his roots I think I’ll do likewise. This is a straight up identification—the order and family are obvious (or should be), so I’m going to limit ID points to genus and species. However, to make up for this loss of higher taxa points I’ll be awarding points for correctly guessing/deducing/intuiting where this little beastie lives or providing any unique comments on its natural history. As always, standard challenge rules apply, including moderated comments to give everyone a chance to submit their answers. Bonus points will be awarded to for answering first in the case of multiple correct answers, and discretionary bonus points are also up for grabs. Good luck!
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012
I’ll be leaving soon for another trip to Argentina. While the process of traveling to the Land of Gauchos (and back) is exhausting, I adore Argentina and look forward to my visits there with great anticipation. In celebration of my pending return, I’m starting off a new BitB Challenge Session (#5) with a traditional ID challenge—for 2 pts each can you identify the order (a gimme), family, genus, and species of the critter in the photo below? Say something about the situation for the possibility of bonus points. Standard challenge rules apply, including moderated comments during the challenge period (you don’t have to be first to score points), early-bird points to those who do arrive at the correct answer before others, etc.
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2011
Points have been tallied for ID Challenge #13 and its addendum. Congratulations to Mr. Phidippus, who’s 16 pts edged out Roy (14 pts) and Ben Coulter (13 pts) for the win in IDC13. Ben Coulter, however, stayed comfortably atop the overall standings in the final challenge of this 4th BitB Challenge Session, earning 78 pts along the way and thus reclaiming his overall championship. Congratulations to him and also to Mr. Phidippus and Roy, who finish on the 2nd and 3rd steps of the overall podium. An honorable mention goes to Tim Eisele, who was the only other participant besides our three podium finishers to score points in all six Session #4 challenges.
Complete standings are shown below, and Mr. Coulter, I owe you some loot!
| Place | Commentor | IDC#10 | SSC#8 | SSC#9 | IDC#11 | IDC#12 | IDC#13 | Total |
| 1 | Ben Coulter | 14 | 8 | 13 | 14 | 16 | 13 | 78 |
| 2 | Mr. Phidippus | 10 | 8 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 16 | 70 |
| 3 | Roy | 8 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 14 | 53 |
| 4 | Tim Eisele | 5 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 10 | 33 |
| 5 | George Sims | 2 | 12 | 7 | 21 | |||
| 6 | Tracy Morman | 3 | 15 | 18 | ||||
| Morgan Jackson | 11 | 7 | 18 | |||||
| 8 | Doug Taron | 17 | 17 | |||||
| Jon Q | 4 | 7 | 6 | 17 | ||||
| 10 | Mike Baker | 4 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 16 | ||
| 11 | HBG Dave | 9 | 2 | 4 | 15 | |||
| 12 | Dave Hubble | 12 | 2 | 14 | ||||
| 13 | Troy Bartlett | 6 | 7 | 13 | ||||
| 14 | FlaPack | 10 | 10 | |||||
| Charley Eiseman | 4 | 6 | 10 | |||||
| 16 | Matt Brust | 9 | 9 | |||||
| Bill Meyers | 9 | 9 | ||||||
| 18 | James Trager | 6 | 2 | 8 | ||||
| 19 | Crystal Ernst | 1 | 6 | 7 | ||||
| itsybitsybeetle | 7 | 7 | ||||||
| 21 | Alex Wild | 6 | 6 | |||||
| Lee Jaszlics | 6 | 6 | ||||||
| 23 | Traci | 5 | 5 | |||||
| Laurie Knight | 1 | 4 | 5 | |||||
| 25 | Adrian Thysse | 4 | 4 | |||||
| 26 | 2 | 2 | ||||||
| 27 | Johnson Sau | 1 | 1 |
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2011
I hope you’ll forgive this inordinately extended challenge—I’m taking a little bit of a breather from my normally frenetic working/writing/editing schedule to enjoy a most unexpected baseball post-season. I will be going through the comments left for ID Challenge #13 and releasing them shortly with awarded points, and without saying precisely what the scene in that challenge showed I will say that several participants correctly identified it as a sand dune habitat shaped by wind and dotted with tiger beetle burrows. Since this is the last challenge of BitB Challenge Session #4, I thought I would extend it a little further and give people one more shot at scoring points on this challenge before the Session #4 standings are finalized and the winner announced. The photo in this post shows the culprit responsible for the holes in the earlier photo—can you name it? Of course, we all know it’s a tiger beetle (don’t we?), so genus and species will be fine and are worth 4 points each (if following the most recent classification). As always, standard challenge rules apply, and I will be continuing the moderated comments during this extended challenge period. I promise not to let another week pass before posting the full story.
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2011
Beetles In The Bush 