Bugs are here to stay; we have them ready on display. We remove the backgrounds and the occasional stain, so enjoy these insect images of the public domain!

TofuJoe studio had a visitor this week. It was an unexpected visitor and it flew into the studio like a crazy angry desk stapler. There was definitely some screaming and ducking for cover. The visitor bounced all over the place for awhile, and when it left I think everyone involved was mutually relieved.

It was a LARGE grasshopper or locust.

Did you know that there is no taxonomic difference between a grasshopper or a locust? A grasshopper is designated as a locust if it swarms under certain conditions. Generally grasshoppers are solitary creatures, but their behavior completely changes when there is a drought followed by a rapid return of vegetation. Under these circumstances serotonin in the grasshopper’s brain triggers changes. “Reproduce! Reproduce! Multiply!” the serotonin yells. As a result, the grasshoppers start mating like crazy. They also become social and nomadic, creating huge traveling swarms and destroying crops for miles.

I still think they’re rather handsome looking insects though (when they’re outside).

Beetles

Recently we’ve been exploring a 19th century scientific journal that still exists today. The Journal of Zoology has some fantastic beetle illustrations in early issues, back when the journal was known as the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1833-1965).

Beetles belong to the taxonomic order Coleoptera. It’s actually the largest order of animals with 400,000 species, constituting 40% of insects and 25% of all known animal life forms. The below beetles are incredibly brilliant and varied, and yet apparently are all all plant-eaters. Depending on the species, these little herbivores might have diets that include the roots, stems, leaves, flowers or fruits of the plants. We put together these 6 images into a background-free Beetle Collection.