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....

A Merry White Christmas to everyone! - Maree

"Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days;
that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth;
that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away,
back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!"
- Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers, 1836



One of my rare sketches of snow - I have to find pics of snow scenes to sketch, or use my imagination - what a wonder to be able to walk in this scene and a White Christmas here in South Africa would be wonderful!

A Merry White Christmas to all my overseas friends and I wish you lots of JOY and INSPIRATION in the years to come!

Christmas beetles - Alissa Duke

It is Christmas time and one of the things I associate with this time of the year is Christmas beetles (Anoplognathus) . I have just discovered that they are Australian. I had wondered what people in other countries would have called them, as they are a summer beetle, and therefore wouldn't be around at Christmas. Now I know.






They used to fly in the house if you left the windows open on a hot summer night. I haven't seen any around in years, but that may be because I live in a different part of the country now. I drew these at the Australian Museum.