Megatibicen grossa, Neotibicen lyricen, and Neotibicen davisi on my hand
Megatibicen grossa, Neotibicen lyricen, and Neotibicen davisi on my hand
Small, medium, and large! #Neotibicen #Megatibicen #Cicadas #InverteFest2024 #Inverts #Insects #Hemiptera #Cute #Mississippi #USfauna #MSfauna
Adorable little Neotibicen davisi cicada on my thumb
Cicadas are the cutest freaking animals in the world and this photo is proof. #Neotibien #NeotibicenDavisi #Cicadas #Hemiptera #InverteFest2024 #Insects #Inverts #Cute #Mississippi #USfauna #MSfauna
Multiple Megatibicen grossa cicadas on my hand
Multiple Megatibicen grossa cicadas on my hand
Multiple Megatibicen grossa cicadas on my hand
Multiple Megatibicen grossa cicadas on my hand
Never forget when I had five EL FATTO FARTO (Megatibicen grossa) on my hand last year. So many giant cute idiots. #Inverts #ElFattoFarto #Cicadas #InverteFest2024 #Megatibicen #MegatibicenGrossa #Cute #Insects #Hemiptera #USfauna #MSfauna #Mississippi
Megatibicen grossa hugging a Neotibicen tibicen in my hand
From June 2024: Forcing two cicadas to get all snuggly together :3 #Megatibicen #Neotibicen #MegatibicenGrossa #NeotibicenTibicen #Cicadas #InverteFest2024 #Insects #Cute #ElFattoFarto #Hugs #USfauna #MSfauna
Photo of a robber fly taking off from my outstretched finger
Photo of a yellow crab spider on a daisy, waiting as a fly cautiously approaches
Photo of a dragonfly sitting on a clothesline, while an ant approaches from the other direction
Photo of a brown praying mantis sitting on my outstretched fingers
Here are some of my favorite insect encounters from the past year. 🐜 #invertefest #invertefest2024
A watercolour and ink painting of a rove beetle (a long, thin, black beetle with shortened, brown wing cases) doing a downward dog yoga pose on a blue yoga mat. The beetle’s abdomen is curved upwards, as this is a typical pose for some rove beetles. White pen marks indicate that the surface of the beetle is smooth and shiny. Next to the yoga mat is a green folded towel and a black water bottle. The background is brown, suggesting a wooden floor.
Rove beetle yoga for the last day of #Invertefest2024
#Invertefest #Staphylinidae
A bug that looks like it’s been spotted climbing a blade of grass waves. Text says “oh, hi.” The bug has an orange head and abdomen, and black chest, wings, legs, eyes, arms and antennae. It also looks like it has lips
This is the image that inspired me to write The Raindrop Ramblers (a kids book based in the insect world).
It’s a species of leaf/ pumpkin beetle, and it decimates crops. But he looks so friendly!
(Not sure who og photographer is - it was a meme that went wide)
#Invertefest #InverteFest2024
Preying Mantis
#nature #wildlife #wildlifephotography #naturephotography
#macrophotography #bugsky #insect #bug #preyingmantis #mantis #invertefest #invertefest2024 #macro
A watercolour sketch of a brown weevil with a long, curved rostrum and elbowed antennae holding up a knife and fork. In front of the weevil is a turquoise bowl containing several green leaves with lobed edges and a single acorn. The background is white and the bowl is set on a pinkish table.
An acorn weevil getting ready to tuck into an oak salad
#Invertefest #Invertefest2024
An ink and watercolour painting of a brown woodlouse, positioned facing the viewer at a slight angle. The woodlouse is brown with bright yellow squiggly markings on each segment. The segments are bordered with reddish bands. Around the woodlouse are the words ‘Armadillidium pulchellum’ forming an arch shape. The words are outlined in black ink and painted orange to match the colour scheme of the woodlouse.
Last year I really wanted to find the boldly patterned woodlouse, Armadillidium pulchellum (or its bigger relative Armadillidium pictum). I painted this and had it printed on a top for luck. Unfortunately still haven’t seen it. Maybe 2025?
#Invertefest #Invertefest2024 #Isopod
Earlier this year I shot a yet to be identified Pheidole ant in a heated enclosure (well, two; one minor and one major). Together with our foremost expert (Peter Boer) we got down to *possibly* Pheidole dentigula, but it's hard to confirm on photos alone.
#Invertefest #Invertefest2024
Cartoon ink drawing of two pill bugs, one rolled into a ball. The other one says, "I only said hello..."
Here's a cartoon I made about pill bugs, who sometimes roll into a ball when frightened. #Invertefest #Invertefest2024
I try to shoot on black, grey, and white. Normally I prefer black, but grey is nice too. One downside for grey and white is that I often have too much light going *through* objects, especially the legs - that's a problem here too. I'm experimenting with underexposing.
#Invertefest #Invertefest2024
Many specimens had problems with matted hairs (perhaps too much ethyl acetate in the air?), but this one is mostly normal.
#Invertefest #Invertefest2024
Back in October I needed better reference images for Lasius niger, one of the most common ants in the Netherlands; this is one of the nicer results from that stacking sessions.
#Invertefest #Invertefest2024
though generally attached to rock, seagrasses & kelp, it can detach its pedestal disk & creep along the seabed, climb sea grasses or algae to find better places to hunt prey!
#linocut #printmaking #InverteFest2024
Two linocut blue mussels in blue and black, hand printed on 8” x 8” Japanese paper.
A random smattering of a large number of my linocut of two blue mussels in blue and black ink. The square image can be tessellated to make a repeat pattern.
More new 2024 work in advance of #ArtAdventCalendar2024, my blue mussel print for #InverteFest2024 & the repeat pattern I made with it. 🧪🐡 This year I made several patterns with using my natural history prints.
The blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), or common mussel,
#linocut #printmaking
Photo of a grasshopper, possibly valley grasshopper Oedaleonotus enigna or devastating grasshopper Melanoplus devastator, clinging vertically to a red-brown wall.
Seen in the Central Valley of California yesterday. #InverteFest #InverteFest2024
A child crouches on a driveway holding a piece of light green chalk over his art of two squids. In the left of the image, a small squid with large fins, a slightly stunned, wide-eyed expression and a graduation cap. On the right; a much larger squid wearing a many-sleeved robe and a gentle smile hands the other a rolled diploma.
7 is making some #InvertArt today - he tells me that the small squid is graduating college and the big one, his teacher (Squidfessor if you will), is handing him his diploma
#InverteFest #InverteFest2024 #SquidArt
#Invertefest2024
These two small baby snails. They seem very playful and smart. It's like they are observing you. They come out at night in the garden when birds are sleeping.
New (to me!!) find for #Invertefest
Baltic Isopod (Isopoda balthica)
#Invertefest2024
www.inaturalist.org/observations...
My illustration of the Mermaid of the Magdalenes is a blue and black linocut print on 11” x 14” paper embellished with gouache. The upper left corner shows the red cliffs, beach, shipwreck and crate and tins on the shore. The upper right shows the meeting of all the fishes with many different species including the black lobster, merman, sardine, clam, starfish and more. In the centre are waves, clouds as ocean transitions to sky and a large tin of sardines. Across the bottom is the mermaid combing her hair looking longingly at the shore.
A Canadian folktale associated with May Day is the Mermaid of the Magdalenes. I liked the idea that this fairytale is about something as prosaic as finding tinned sardines - and is also about ecology & stars a black lobster as we finish #InverteFest2024.
The rugged east coast Magdalene Islands 🧵1/n
As described this is a square image of a repeat pattern of my linocuts of three Cambrian invertebrates, each printed with each section on a different patterned and coloured Japanese washi paper. The background is sand coloured with brown speckles. The animals are in multiple colours. The animals are spiky ovoid Wiwaxia, Opabinia (somewhat like a shrimp with 5 eyes on stalks and a trunk like tubular proboscis with grasping claws) and the trilobite Cheirurus ingricus.
Another pattern of invertebrates for #InverteFest2024 but this time from the Cambrian Period (from 538.8 - 485.4 million years ago). This pattern is made from my linocut animal prints with collaged washi papers. The spiky handprinted Wiwaxia, a soft-bodied 5cm animal covered in scales & spines 🧵1/
I'm in the middle of unpacking from my move but here's what I've unearthed so far #invertefest2024
A random smattering of a large number of my linocut of two blue mussels in blue and black ink. The square image can be tessellated to make a repeat pattern.
I’ve been playing with using some natural history prints to make repeat patterns. For #InverteFest2024 I thought I would share some #invertebrate patterns like this one #linocut. 🐡🧪
The blue or common mussel (Mytilus edulis) is a medium-sized edible marine bivalve mollusc in the family Mytilidae.
