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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Beetles (Coleoptera) » Ground and Water Beetles (Adephaga) » Ground Beetles (Carabidae) » Tiger Beetles (Cicindelinae) » Flashy Tiger Beetles (Cicindelini) » Common Tiger Beetles (Cicindela) » Big Sand Tiger Beetle (Cicindela formosa) » Cicindela formosa formosa
Photo#221491
Cicindela formosa
Copyright © 2008 Will Chatfield-Taylor

Cicindela formosa
Pratt Sandhills, Pratt County, Kansas, USA
September 1, 2008
Size: 15mm
Here's a image of C. formosa ssp formosa. I don't know why the white fades like that on Tiger Beetles, but it's annoying!
tag · login or register to post comments
Contributed by Will Chatfield-Taylor on 3 September, 2008 - 7:42pm

Fading...
...is caused by lipids in the body leaching into and staining the white maculations. It's especially a problem with specimens killed in ethyl acetate. You can eliminate this by immersing the specimens in solvent for a couple days to completely remove the lipids. I prefer ethyl acetate because it keeps the specimens relaxed, but others use acetone - if you use the latter you'll need to follow that with another immersion in Barbers fluid to relax the specimens. It's easiest to do all this before pinning (note - acetone will dissolve some pin heads).
… Ted C. MacRae, 10 October, 2008 - 4:00pm login or register to post comments

 
Thanks Ted! I'll try that wit
Thanks Ted! I'll try that with my specimens!
… Will Chatfield-Taylor, 10 October, 2008 - 5:12pm login or register to post comments

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