Tag Archives: insects

North America’s smallest cicada

While searching the hilltop prairies for Cylindera celeripes (swift tiger beetle) at McCormack Loess Mounds Natural Area in northwestern Missouri, I ran across a species of cicada that I’d not yet encountered in the state – Beameria venosa.  Cicadas as a … Continue reading

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

Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge

I’ve written quite a few posts about my June trip to northwestern Oklahoma. Four days at the ruggedly scenic Four Canyon Preserve and nearby Packsaddle Wildlife Management Area yielded a few interesting jewel beetles (though not many tiger beetles), but … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Oklahoma is for lovers

A few rather risqué photos from my June trip to northwestern Oklahoma. Photo details: Eleodes suturalis: Canon 100mm macro lens on Canon EOS 50D, ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/13, MT-24EX flash 1/4 power through diffuser caps. Chrysobothris ignicollis: Canon 65mm … Continue reading

Posted in Buprestidae, Cicindelidae, Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 24 Comments

Dromochorus pruinina in Oklahoma

As my colleague Chris Brown and I continue to study the tiger beetle fauna of Missouri, one of the species we have become very interested in is Dromochorus pruinina (frosted dromo tiger beetle).  This is another of North America’s more … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Typocerus deceptus in Missouri

It has been fifteen years now since I published an annotated checklist of the longhorned beetles (families Cerambycidae and Disteniidae) of Missouri (MacRae 1994).  That publication (and a similar one on Buprestidae) was the product of eight years of collecting … Continue reading

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

Revisiting the Swift Tiger Beetle – Part 3

…continued from Revisiting the Swift Tiger Beetle – Part 2. The Oklahoma trip had been an unqualified success. Not only had I managed to find the rare Cylindera celeripes (swift tiger beetle) at Alabaster Caverns, I had also determined the … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Revisiting the Swift Tiger Beetle – Part 2

…continued from Revisiting the Swift Tiger Beetle – Part 1. The rain that cut short my visit to Alabaster Caverns in northwestern Oklahoma followed me as I drove east towards Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in northeastern Oklahoma. I had called Mike … Continue reading

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

Revisiting the Swift Tiger Beetle – Part 1

When my hymenopterist friend, Mike Arduser, came back from his first trip to Oklahoma’s Four Canyon Preserve last September, my first thought upon seeing his photos of the area was, “Ooh, that looks like a good place for tiger beetles!” … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera, Dryinidae, Hymenoptera, Mammalia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments