Tag Archives: prairies

Ospriocerus abdominalis

Posted on August 18, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

My dipteran digression continues with this photograph of the robber fly, Ospriocerus abdominalis (Diptera: Asilidae).  More than just a pretty picture, this represents yet another apparently new state record that I and my colleague Chris Brown discovered a few weeks … Continue reading →

Posted in Asilidae, Diptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 18 Comments

Friday flower – Krameria lanceolata

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

I encountered few insects this past June on the dry slopes of sand shinnery oak shrubland that just makes it into the northwestern corner of Oklahoma’s Four Canyon Preserve – insect population levels were still depressed from the wildfire that swept … Continue reading →

Posted in Krameriaceae | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

North America’s smallest cicada

Posted on August 4, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

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

Dromochorus pruinina in Oklahoma

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

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

North America’s most bizarre lizard

Posted on July 14, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

Hmm, something funny going on here.  This is a bug blog – specifically a beetle blog, yet it’s a post about a lizard that generates a flurry of comments.  I don’t know if lightning will strike twice so quickly, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Reptilia | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 32 Comments

North America’s most beautiful lizard

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

Whew! My fingers and keyboard are still smoking after that long series on Cylindera celeripes (parts 1, 2, and 3). Exciting as my celeripes finds were, there were other “tiger beetle moments” from the Oklahoma trip as well that I … Continue reading →

Posted in Reptilia | Tagged , , , , , , , | 43 Comments

Revisiting the Swift Tiger Beetle – Part 3

Posted on July 7, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

…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

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Ted C. MacRae

…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