Entomologist Elizabeth A. Betty McMahan, best known for her study of assassin bugs, was born in Pino, North Carolina . Intending to become a high school science teacher, McMahan attended Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., after leaving Pino. While at Appalachian State, a faculty advisor introduced McMahan to parapsychology, and she transferred to Duke University in order to work with J. B. Rhine . From 1943 to 1954, McMahan completed her B.A. and M.A. in psychology and published nine papers.

In 1954, McMahan decided to pursue a degree in entomology . She studied termites at the University of Hawaii, receiving her Ph.D. in 1960. She completed post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago and then took a teaching job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she taught for 26 years.

McMahan's research took her all over the world, including Australia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Panama, and Ecuador . While in Costa Rica in 1980, McMahan discovered that assassin bugs ( Salyavata variegata ) used tools in order to catch food. She published articles about the insects in several scientific journals and videotaped the food-catching process for the BBC documentary Alien Empire.

After retiring, McMahan became a professor emerita at UNC. She taught in Jamaica as a Peace Corps volunteer and also became a children's book author. A collection of her books is located at the North Carolina Collection at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

In 2003, Dutch taxonomist Pieter van Doesburg named a newly classified species of the assassin bug after McMahan, Salyavata MacMahanae . In 2004, McMahan's friend and colleague Christine Nalepa established the Elizabeth A. McMahan Endowment at North Carolina State University . This endowment enhances the libraries' entomological collections.