Tag Archives: science

“My peripatetic quest for North America’s rarest tiger beetles”

This week I gave a presentation on my latest Annual Fall Tiger Beetle Trip to the Entomology Group of the Webster Groves Nature Study Society. With the exception of a brief 5 year period in the early 1990s while I lived in … Continue reading

Posted in [No taxon] | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Return to Calico Rock

Although western sand dune endemics were the top goals on my cicindelophilic wish list during last fall’s Annual Tiger Beetle Trip, I started the trip by leaving St. Louis in the most unlikeliest of directions—south! No, I wasn’t trying to get to Denver … Continue reading

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

BitB’s Newest Contributor – Chris Brown

To regular readers of this blog, the name Chris Brown should be familiar. As a frequent companion on many of my field trips over the past decade, I’ve had numerous opportunities to mention his name in the posts that I’ve written about those … Continue reading

Posted in [No taxon] | Tagged , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Colorado’s Great Sand Dunes Tiger Beetle

Last year’s Annual Fall Tiger Beetle Trip entered its last day as an unqualified success. Travel partner Jeff Huether and I were doing the “Great Western Sand Dune Tour” on a quest to find and photograph some of North America’s most geographically … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Memories of summer – Neoclytus scutellaris

During the short, cold days of winter it’s nice to take a break from the curatorial activities that dominate the season and look back on some of the insects seen during the previous summer. This is Neoclytus scutellaris, a longhorned … Continue reading

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

Something for Adrian

In a comment on my Buprestidae exchange post, Adrian Thysse asked to see hi-res images of specimen drawers from my own collection. Like any good North American entomologist, Adrian was a little bothered by the card-mounting technique used by the sender of the specimen … Continue reading

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

ID Challenge #15

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 … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 27 Comments

Buprestidae exchange

With my queue of specimen identifications now clear, I can turn my attention to another major backlog that I haven’t been able to give proper attention recently—exchanges. For those of you not into insect collecting, exchanging is something that most … Continue reading

Posted in Buprestidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments