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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
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Beetles (Coleoptera)
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Ground and Water Beetles (Adephaga)
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Ground Beetles (Carabidae)
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Tiger Beetles (Cicindelinae)
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Flashy Tiger Beetles (Cicindelini)
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Common Tiger Beetles (Cicindela)
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Big Sand Tiger Beetle (Cicindela formosa)
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Cicindela formosa formosa
Photo#221491
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!
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
Thanks Ted! I'll try that wit
Thanks Ted! I'll try that with my specimens!
…
Will Chatfield-Taylor
, 10 October, 2008 - 5:12pm