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Dr. Mathew Brust is an associate professor of biology at Chadron State College in western Nebraska. He began collecting butterflies at a very young age and began collecting tiger beetles at the farm across the street from his house in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, by the age of 15. His earliest experiences were with Cicindela duodecimguttata, Cicindela repanda, Cicindela sexguttata, and Cicindelidia punctulata by age 16. During his twenties he spent some time in the machining industry but still kept studying and collecting tiger beetles. During his college years at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, he worked as an assistant field biologist for the Bureau of Endangered Resources at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, with his primary specialty being locating previously undiscovered populations of rare insect species, especially of butterflies and tiger beetles. In 2003 he published the first comprehensive paper on the distribution of Wisconsin tiger beetles. After already finishing a completed template for a book on the tiger beetles of Wisconsin, he moved to Nebraska for graduate school. During his years as a graduate student in Nebraska, he continued to study and publish papers on tiger beetles. As a biology professor he studies butterflies and moths, grasshoppers, and cicadas, and is the primary regional grasshopper identifier for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the central Great Plains. He has published over 20 scientific papers on tiger beetles, covering topics such as distribution, taxonomy, physiology, morphology, behavior, reproduction, development, and ecology. He continues research on tiger beetles and grasshoppers, continues collection and documentation of previously undiscovered butterfly and moth species in Nebraska, and is currently resuming some previous work on cicadas of Nebraska. He has also published a book on the tiger beetles of Nebraska and South Dakota, as well as a book on the grasshoppers of Nebraska.
Mike Reese was an educator in Wautoma, Wisconsin, for 29 years and has been interested in tiger beetles for many years. He runs a website on Wisconsin's butterflies, tiger beetles, and robber flies. Mike has contributed his photos of insects to over a dozen field guides, including as the main photographer for Damselflies of Minnesota, Wisconsin & Michigan (2019). He is also very involved with the North American Butterfly Association. Mike has downsized in his retirement, moved to Two Rivers, Wisconsin, and has branched out from insects to become the Director of Volunteers for the second Wisconsin Breeding Bird Atlas project. |
