Tag Archives: science

3rd Blogoversary, 7 New Blogs, & AIF #10

Today happens to be BitB’s 3rd blogoversary.  I won’t bore you with an attempt at witty, insightful introspection on what it means to have reached this modest milestone.  BitB is still what it started out as – tales from my life-long, entomocentric, … Continue reading

Posted in [No taxon] | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Answer to Super Crop Challenge #1

Seemingly correct answers came quickly to yesterday’s inaugural Super Crop Challenge, which featured a curious structure atop a harvestman (class Arachnida, order Opiliones) that I encountered while hiking the lower North Fork Section of the Ozark Trail in extreme southern Missouri. “Seemingly” … Continue reading

Posted in Arachnida, Opiliones | Tagged , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Super Crop Challenge #1

ID quizzes and challenges seem to have become an increasingly popular subject for natural history blogs. I’ve done a few of my own, but my straight up ID challenges are starting to seem a little unimaginative compared to the DNA … Continue reading

Posted in Arachnida, Opiliones | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Desmocerus palliatus – elderberry borer

Last June I made two trips to the Loess Hills in northwestern Missouri to survey additional sites for Cylindera celeripes (swift tiger beetle), which my colleague Chris Brown and I had discovered in some of the area’s few remaining loess … Continue reading

Posted in Cerambycidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 31 Comments

The “best” Eleodes suturalis

Testing with my new diffuser setup¹ continues. I’ve kept this “sutured” clown beetle (Eleodes suturalis) alive since last July as a terrarium-mate with my Great Plains giant tiger beetles (Amblycheila cylindriformis). The first photos I took of it in the … Continue reading

Posted in Coleoptera, Tenebrionidae | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Cicindela pulchra on white

Two more photographs taken with my new diffuser, this time the spectacular Cicindela pulchra (beautiful tiger beetle). Which one do you like better? Photo Details: Canon 50D w/ 100mm macro lens (ISO 100, 1/250 sec, f/16), Canon MT-24EX flash w/ … Continue reading

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

Amblycheila cylindriformis on white

It’s been four months now since I went to the Glass Mountains of northwestern Oklahoma on a hunch to look for Amblycheila cylindriformis (Great Plains giant tiger beetle).  The five adults that I brought back from that night are still alive in … Continue reading

Posted in Cicindelidae, Coleoptera | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 37 Comments

Forgotten Foto Friday: Centruroides vittatus

I got this idea from Doug Taron over at Gossamer Tapestry, who credits Steve Borichevsky at Shooting my Universe for an occasional feature called Forgotten Photo Friday (hopefully my use of the alternative spelling “Foto” won’t be considered too presumptuous).  Perfect timing, as I recently … Continue reading

Posted in Arachnida, Scorpiones | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments