Ed Ricketts

i have no idea if these cicadas are alive or dead or shelled, but it doesn’t matter, because they’re all equally chill and will sit on you if you don’t eat them

they come out once every seventeen years to swarm, buzz, mate, and die. while they’re doing that you can coat yourself in chill cicadas and be the cicada king. they don’t bite or crawl. just chill.

They also scream

Insect eggs: extraordinary examples of organic architecture

The eggs of different insects vary greatly in size, shape, and color. Engineered for survival, insect eggs show stunning surface structures. Insects produce a lot of eggs, each of them surrounded by a shell (the chorion) which can be ornately sculptured with ridges or spines. Some insect eggs are covered by additional protective cases, sacs, or foams.

I’ll be posting some amazing examples of insect eggs. This first photo shows an egg of the Adonis Blue, an European butterfly of the species Polyommatus bellargus [Syn. Lysandra bellargus], in which it can be seen the so called aeropyle system of the egg following a mathematical rule called the Fibonacci Series.

The aeropyle system is the heavily ornamented networks of interconnected pores of the shell (chorion), developed to guarantee sufficient oxygen diffusion during the development of the embryo caterpillar.

The Adonis blue butterfly is rare because it’s choosy. It lays its eggs (like the one above) only on horseshoe vetch, a European perennial. What’s more, it looks for patches cropped by rabbits that allow easy landing.

References: [1] - [2]

Technique: Colored Scanning Electron Microscope image.

We in the photo archives really love these drawings based off of our collections done by Art Institute students in 1920′s and 30′s.

© The Field Museum, GN90798d_RDN134.

Black and white geometric design of exotic beetles from South America drawn with the use of a mirror. Research Design in Nature plate.

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