Agra sp. (Carabidae), Ecuador

It’s Friday, I have new photos, so let’s resurrect the Friday Beetle!

Agra is a tree-dwelling predator found from Texas south to Argentina. It belongs to the family Carabidae, the ground beetles, which is unfortunate as most Agra are canopy species found nowhere near the ground.

Agra is one of those sprawling hyper-diverse tropical genera that readily yields new taxonomic discoveries. See, for instance, these examples by Agra expert Terry Erwin. With so many novel species, Erwin has become rather playful with his nomenclature.  Agra vation Erwin 1983 remains one of my favorite names.

I photographed this handsome specimen at the Maquipucuna cloud forest reserve on Ecuador’s western Andean slopes.

photo details:
Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM macro lens
Canon EOS 7D camera
Indirect strobe in a white box
(top photo) ISO 250, 1/160 sec, f/16
(bottom photo) ISO 400, 1/125 sec, f/14