insects and beetles

For Christmas I was given a box of feathers, leaves, a nest, seed pods and a few beetles. In the last few days I have finally put aside time to draw some of them (in watercolour pencil in my Moleskine watercolour sketchbook) .

Unfortunately I am unable to provide very much technical information about them.I can tell you they were collected in Toowoomba, Queensland,Australia, probably along suburban footpaths, waterbird habitat or my mothers backyard !

This top page is what I always called a Stag Beetle. I have found out they are part of Rhinocerous Beetle family which covers many similar looking beetles with varying degrees of spiky and spiny features.




This second page has a few mysterious small black and brown insects. I know the highly un-technical name of the "click beetle" (middle left) which (when we were children) we used to put our finger on their back they would click and jump . The green cicada is also a familiar insect . Maybe the one above it is a Christmas beetle ???

I really enjoyed drawing ( or is it painting?) these. I also wanted to write all over it with notes. I have kept most of the beetles and bugs to draw again another day....