My fascination with tiger beetles really took off in 2008 when I was fortunate enough to land a part-time job surveying for state-listed species in Minnesota. Among the species I was tasked with chasing that summer were two tiger beetles, the Northern Barrens Tiger Beetle (Cicindela patruela) and the Ghost Tiger Beetle (Ellipsoptera lepida). Both species were known from Minnesota's Anoka Sandplain subsection, but many occurrence records were > 50 years old and lacked location specificity. During those surveys, colleagues and I found that C. patruela were present at many of the historic locations in the survey area, and even found previously unknown populations. The ghost - E. lepida - were unfortunately nowhere to be found...

Now hopefully most of you reading this are familiar with the term 'life list' - if not, checkout the very entertaining movie, "The Big Year" staring Jack Black, Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and many others... Just like the birding community, many tiger beetle enthusiasts life list their finds, sometimes traveling great distances for a chance to observe and photograph an elusive species of these apex micro-predators - and I am no exception.

Chasing a ghost...

In early July 2015, I caught wind of a recently discovered population of Ghosts in Portage County, Wisconsin where dozens of individuals were observed. After more than seven years of looking for this species in Minnesota, I was more than willing to drive the roughly four hours to the site to be able to photograph and therefore life list this species once and for all. However, I was unable to get to the site for a couple weeks, and it was very possible that the species would already be gone for the season (some adult tiger beetles seem to have very short flight periods, lasting only two to three weeks).

Waiting.

Finally the day arrived - July 24, 2015 - and I set out in hopes of finding a Ghost. The goal was to find a big wind-blown pile of sand created by a cranberry farmer (thank you to the farmer that allowed me access). I had hoped to arrive early, around 8 am, but due to delays that morning I didn't arrive until closer to 11:30 am. Once finally at the spot, I took a few habitat photos before starting my search...

Habitat