membracid:

A great interview with Thomas Shahan, one of the best macro photogs out there!

I would LOVE to be able to do these kinds of pictures for a lot of the insects that I find!

My Collection Story #17

Mallophora fautrix, the only species of Bee Killer Robber Fly in California

I found this great bee mimic robber fly posed on a reed in a fake creek near my bank one overcast and cool morning. It was cool enough that it barely moved when I placed it in my jar. 

buggirl:

How excited are you, Los Angeles???

I REALLY need to try and go this year even if it is just for like an hour or so. Every year for the past 5 years I ALWAYS had something else I HAD to do. This year unfortunately is no different, but my thing doesn’t start until 1. So maybe I can make it…

My Collection Story #16

Rosalia funebris, the Banded Alder Borer

My mother found this beetle for me at her place of employ: a hospital. It was walking along in one of the hallways like it owned the place. She got a cup and corralled it inside. Later she sent me a horrible-resolution photoSMS asking what it was and if I wanted it. Luckily it was an easy thing to ID!

I later found out that the hospital had a few alder trees they were cutting down, as well as they were painting some of the hallways in the hospital, which are two things that Banded Alder Borers are really attracted to.

The Western Tiger beetle,Cicindela oregona, at the Santa Ana River this last weekend. I got a new camera, a DSLR, and was itching to try it out!

My Collection Story #15

This is a 2-for-1: The Beetle is probably a species of Stategus, the Ox Beetle (but hard to say which species), and the ant forever attached to its leg is most likely Camponotus vicinus, a Carpenter ant species.

Another beetle from Madera Canyon, AZ. These girls would fly to our black light along with the Chrysina beetles. They always landed with a rather loud thud. I liked sitting around poking at them, because they pushed back and were very strong and I am easily amused. Those ants would be at our black light spot the next morning cleaning up the dead moths usually. I just love this specimen because the ant died in the kill jar clamping tight to the beetles moving leg. She could have let go but she just held on, and now she is stuck on there for good!

My Collection Story #14

Cysteodemus armatus, Inflated Beetle

A couple years ago I went on a camping trip with the entomology undergrad club to Painted Canyon (which is out near Palm Springs, CA) over a weekend during Spring Break. This is one of the most abundant beetles one can expect to find in the springtime out in the Southern California Deserts. They are usually just hustling along the sand making their way to another plant to eat, or on a plant either eating of mating. They are usually seen covered in either yellow or white pollen (depending on which plant they have been on). I found a bunch of these guys that time and about 10 more the next year when I returned with my class.

So I just got a job working at Northwest Mosquito and Vector Control District in Corona, CA. This means I’ve had VERY little time during the week, nowhere near as much time as I used to have. This means I will be on Tumblr mostly on the weekends. On the plus side, I am the only Entomologist in a lab that works on IDing Mosquitoes and testing them for viruses. I may, in the future do some species spotlights for mosquitoes as I learn more.

In relation to my last collection story:

The Genus Meloe are known to be parasites of bees. This video from the wonderful series “Life in the Undergrowth”, show the beetle larvae hitching a ride from their birth burrow to the burrow of a bee where they will develop. One of the professors at UCR worked with a professor from another school to determine the organic molecules used by the larvae to attract the bees.