Tag Archives: insects

Digging tiger beetles

Posted on September 20, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

After driving almost 600 miles on Friday, I was ready for some tiger beetle action. A quick 2-hour drive this morning got me to the first set of localities in extreme southwestern Nebraska and just across the border into Colorado … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

A hunting we will go!

Posted on September 18, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

Maps have been prepared. Relevant emails from my esteemed colleagues to the northwest have been read and re-read. Summary sheets on the distribution, biology, and biogeography of the many different species I hope to encounter are in hand. Google Earth … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

“All the better to see you with, my dear!”

Posted on September 12, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

Click me! Cicindela formosa (the big sand tiger beetle) is a not uncommon species that occurs across much of North America east of the Rocky Mountains in deep, dry, open sand habitats. It is absent in Appalachia and much of … Continue reading →

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

The Loess Hills in Missouri

Posted on September 5, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

The term Mountains in Miniature is the most expressive one to describe these bluffs. They have all the irregularity in shape, and in valleys that mountains have, they have no rocks and rarely timber. – Thaddeus Culbertson, missionary, 1852 One … Continue reading →

Posted in Acrididae, Agavaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Asteraceae, Cerambycidae, Coleoptera, Fabaceae, Orthoptera, Poaceae, Scarabaeidae, Scrophulariaceae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Trichinorhipis knulli

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

Just a little diddy on one of the more interesting species I’ve encountered over the years while I finish up a longer piece on the Loess Hills of Missouri. The specimen shown here is a male Trichinorhipis knulli. This quirky … Continue reading →

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

The hunt for Cicindela celeripes

Posted on August 9, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

One of the more enigmatic tiger beetle species in North America is Cicindela celeripes LeConte (swift tiger beetle). This small (6-8 mm), flightless species has been recorded from a restricted area of the eastern and southern Great Plains – from … Continue reading →

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

Sand Prairie Conservation Area

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

I have a love-hate affair with Missouri’s Southeast Lowlands (formally known as the Mississippi River Alluvial Basin, but simply called the “bootheel” by most folk in reference to the shape of its boundaries). Of the four main physiogeographic regions in … Continue reading →

Posted in Asclepiadaceae, Asteraceae, Boraginaceae, Cactaceae, Cerambycidae, Cicindelidae, Coleoptera, Fabaceae, Lamiaceae | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Dicerca pugionata

Posted on July 25, 2008 by Ted C. MacRae

In my recent post, Glades of Jefferson County, I discussed the occurrence on these glades of the strikingly beautiful Dicerca pugionata, a jewel beetle that breeds in the scraggly ninebark plants growing along the glades’ moist toeslopes. Adults of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments