This summer chafer beetle was in my moth trap under the trays this morning. I scooped it out on my finger... Then it refused to leave! I emptied and recorded the whole moth trap with it on my hand. Had to evict it to go to work in the end! I think beetles take longer to warm up in the mornings, so maybe that was why a warm-blooded human was more appealing than a leaf just then. And to be fair I take longer than a moth to wake up too 💚🪲
Heads up - my online store will be closing for a little while from tomorrow morning (UK time.) So if there's a deck of my insect cards or a handmade paint set you've had your eye on, now would be a good time to go get it here!
Beetle galleries covered most of this slender dead tree by the road, just outside the woods. There weren't obviously dead trees in the woodland itself. I wonder if this tree out on it's own was more vulnerable in some way.
The scribbly lines are caused by wood-boring beetles & their larvae that chomp away under the bark of the tree, eating the inner bark or wood, and leaving these trails behind. Artistic little beets - the lines look beautiful - but not so good for this tree.
Such beetles are a normal part of life in the forest, and are not (usually) disastrous for a woodland as a whole, although sometimes they can damage populations of particular tree species. But when humans come along and plant acres and acres of just one type of tree?... Then one type of beetle that eats the one type of tree can cause devastation.
You can't blame the beetles - they're just going about their day, living their best lives as they've evolved to do. But it's an example of why humans fcking with complex ecosystems and turning them into a mono-culture is generally a terrible idea.
This tree trunk looks a little strange, maybe it had been grafted and the top of the tree was too tasty to beetles.
Individually drawn playing card designs that I made into a real deck - get Insecta Decks in my Etsy Store
The designs were made using colour pencils and then digitally edited - overall the deck and packaging took more than 1000 hours (which is why I don't make decks very often!) Printing was by Cartamundi, funded via Kickstarter.
Fungus weevil (Acorynus cf. punctatus) by Nantha Kumar Via Flickr: Fungus weevil (Acorynus cf. punctatus)
Parasitic flat bark beetle (Passandra heros) by Nicky Bay on Flickr
This family of bark beetles have such a cool shape, and chonky antennas! I want to draw one someday :)
Fungus weevil (Zygaenodes wollastoni) by Nicky Bay Via Flickr: View more at Anthribidae Checklist: Fungus Weevils www.nickybay.com
Bee beetle (Trichius fasciatus) drawn in polychromos pencils over botanical inks by BohemianRaspberryArt and handmade watercolours by Bristle and Brush.
I made it for my Patreon patrons 4th birthday beetle! I make a special beetle print for them every year. I don't usually share it anywhere else but this year 1) we all need some happy beetles in these times 2) I want to be able to share with the folks who made the ink and paint. So if you enjoy it, thank my patrons! 😁🐝🪲
Thanks to everyone who supports my art. You can find more at immysmith.net