New member TCMacRae

[tcmacrae]

Hello, I hope it is okay to write in English.

I am Ted MacRae from the United States. I work as a research entomologist in the field of agricultural biotechnology, but as a serious avocation I study taxonomy and biosystematics of Coleoptera, especially Buprestidae, Cerambycidae, and Carabidae:Cicindelinae. I have been collecting beetles for ~30 years, mostly throughout North America with numerous trips to Mexico and South America and one to South Africa. I am Managing Editor of The Pan-Pacific Entomologist and maintain a blog called Beetles in the Bush.

I am interested in exchange but wish to receive Buprestidae only. You can check my holdings at my blog (families listed under Collection).

[Peter]

Hi Ted! Today I was visiting your blog and I've posted the link of your blog on our forum here to show the people here the amazing collection of information you have gathered!
Talking English is fine, however most of the information you will find here is in dutch.

I saw that you breed tiger beetles yourself, could you give us some information about your breeding methods?

There are not much Buprestidae in the Netherlands only 25 species and they are rarely seen. I've seen Anthaxia nitidula once in Luxembourg. A list of the most common species in the Netherlands can be found here: http://www.soortenbank.nl/soorten.php?s ... cten&id=74

Cicindela are more common here. They are called zandloopkevers (sandwalkbeetles) in dutch. We have 5 species in the Netherlands. Again here is a list: http://www.soortenbank.nl/zoeken.php?zoekterm=Cicindela

For me both Buprestidae and Cincindela have become very interesting when I was visiting Niger in 2010. If you are interested I can show you the beetlephotos I've shot there.

[Hansje Pansje]

Hi Ted, welcome here ! Wow i am impressed with your blog ! Beautiful pictures and a wealth of information. Are the animals in the collection found by yourself or there are some of them purchased ?

[tcmacrae]

I saw that you breed tiger beetles yourself, could you give us some information about your breeding methods?

Hi Peter - rearing tiger beetles is not an exact science, since so many species have never been reared before. I mostly use rearing for larvae that I find in the field so I can determine the species present in an area (adults are active only during a short time of season and may not be present when I am there). I use plastic boxes (15Lx10Wx15H cm) with breathable lid, filled with native soil and poke a starter hole for the larva - 5-6 max larvae per box. I keep them in a climate controlled growth chamber and feed them 1-2X weekly with small caterpillars that we rear in our labs. Watering is the tricky part, you must avoid dessication but you don't want to keep the soil too wet either. I can generally rear most 3rd instar larvae to adult, but my success with earlier instars or rearing from egg (adults will oviposit in the soil) is more variable. "Spring/fall" species are easier to rear than "summer" species, probably something to do with overwintering conditions (I put the boxes in a 10°C incubator Nov-Mar). Anyway, it's a lot of fun - especially feeding time!

[tcmacrae]

Hi Ted, welcome here ! Wow i am impressed with your blog ! Beautiful pictures and a wealth of information. Are the animals in the collection found by yourself or there are some of them purchased ?

Thank you Hansje - the vast majority of my collection I have collected personally. I have done some exchanging to increase my taxonomic representation, but I don't purchase specimens because of questionable scientific accuracy of collection data.

As for the photograph, all of them are of animals I have encountered in the field myself. On rare occasions I will cage an insect for photographs if I am unable to photograph it in the field, but for the most part I prefer to photograph with unmanipulated subjects in their native habitat.

[Peter]

Wow Ted that sounds like a real challenge! On your website I've read about some substance you use to keep the humidity optimal. You have one photo of some adults feeding(?) on it. It's hydrophilic polymer gel made of anionic polyacrylamide. I was wondering were do you get anionic polyacrylamide and how do you make hydrophilic polymer gel out of it?

[tcmacrae]

Peter - anionic polyacrylamide is sold on the market as "insect water gel", usually by reptile supply houses as a source of water for feeder crickets. Just do a search using that term and you'll find lots of companies selling it. It is very cheap and is a good solution to providing moisture to insects instead of cotton soaked with water.

[Koen]

welcome

[jeroen]

welcome Ted

[aatjebanaantje]

Welcome to the forum Ted