"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead."
― Louisa May Alcott
"We know that this interest in tiger beetles is not mystical, but if you talk to tiger beetle aficionados about their hobby, most of them will not be able to explain the source of what the uninitiated may see as a mania."
― Pearson, Knisley, and Kazilek
You'll recall my first attempt to find Boreal Long-lipped Tiger Beetles in northern Wisconsin resulted in a dip ― my insecting posse searched and searched, but we struck out. To be fair, we acted on intel that was at least two years old and it was also a little late in the season. We did find several tiger beetle species, including Twelve-spotted. The trip was still a lot of fun in an extremely beautiful part of Wisconsin early in the fall season. This time, however, success stemmed from a lucky call made on warbler intel.
Here's how it went down ...
After spring bird migration, Mark and Dottie Johnson go on an annual northern Wisconsin fishing trip the last week of May. The past several years I've been providing them with the intel on the best places up north to look for Connecticut Warblers near the resort where they stay. On Wednesday, as they checked one of the locations, Mark spotted the last remaining tiger beetle, Boreal Long-lipped that he, me, Lester Doyle and John Dixon needed to complete our Wisconsin life lists. The warbler was there, too!
I declared a tiger beetle emergency and left at 3:00AM for Mott's Ravine State Natural Area near the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, a 5-hour drive from Middleton. Lori Widmann of Stratford met us there. We bagged the beetles big time. This completes my life's mission to find and photograph all 16 Wisconsin Tiger Beetle Species, after which I promised to write a book about all the adventures to get them over the course of the past decade-plus. For Lori, it was her 13th. She still needs Hairy-necked, Virginia Metallic, and Splendid Tiger Beetles. The weather was perfect and the beetles were awesome. Beer has been poured and drunk for a mission accomplished!
Upon arrival, the temperature was still only in the 50s, so we figured it would take a while for tiger beetles to begin to emerge. Over the course of an hour they did so. First came Six-spotted, then Festive, and eventually a few Big Sand. Knowing that Mark had our quarry the previous day, I was hopeful but also beginning to get paranoid over a second dip. We decided to split up. About a half mile away from the others, I flushed a slow-flying tiger beetle along the sandy road. When it landed, I got my binoculars on it and made the positive identification. I attempted a few approaches, but it made a couple more escape flights. Finally, I got close enough for a documentation photograph ― BINGO! Absolutely certain of the species, I signaled the others to head my way.
And then I went for better photographs ...
This species is named for its rather long labrum, which is apparently unique among Long-lipped Tiger Beetles ― it's longer than it is wide:
The boreal forest in Wisconsin is transitional between the mixed deciduous-conifer forests to the south and the spruce-fir dominated forests of Canada. In the second edition of Field Guide to the Tiger Beetles of the US and Canada, "boreal" is left off the beetle's common name, but I still prefer the long form given its habitat preference of boreal pine barrens.
Here are some habitat shots along our search area ...
Naturally, none of us are one-trick ponies and as cool as tiger beetles are, there were plenty of other fascinating nature-y things that captured our attention.
My, those are rather large canid tracks!
Cool Carabus beetles ...
And a Eufidonia Powder Moth ...
A Sleepy Duskywing, I think. They're extremely similar in appearance to Dreamy Duskywing.
There were many Eastern Pine and Hoary Elfin Butterflies ...
An interesting Tachinid Fly Melanophrys insolita ...
A cool Bee Fly Bombylius pygmaeus ...
And me! I, too, am a subject ...
Lori can't help photographing the tiger beetle photographer. Actually, I'm glad she got some of these shots for documenting #16. If you look closely, you can see a Long-lipped in the first two images. I wish I had gotten a photograph of Lori when she first saw the beetle ― I thought she was going to spazz-out from undiluted joy. We were all super thrilled, to say the least.
So, now what? Well, it's taken a long time to complete this mission and I'll will begin writing a book about chasing Wisconsin's tiger beetles ― there are some interesting stories to tell, like the time I found myself surrounded by Timber Rattlesnakes in pursuit of Splendids. I plan to cover a variety of subjects from ecology, behavior, and habitat preferences, to gear, field craft and photography techniques, as well as how I got interested in them in the first place. I'm not sure how interesting it will be to non-tiger beetlers, so I'm not really concerned if it actually gets published. If not, I'll publish it here in a .PDF file or something.
Most images © 2022 Mike McDowell