The B.U.G. studio is situated in one room of a San Francisco 3 bedroom flat. Our apartment was built one year after the 1906 earthquake, so it has lots of old charm.


Finished insects are stored in the back against the wall. Mr. T (upper right) watches over me.


In the center of the picture, in the terrarium, are my Madagascan Hissing Cockroach family (8 members). They like to come with me when I do insect presentations at local schools.


Once insects are dried and spread, I store them in the same drawers museums use. These drawers were acquired from the California Academy of Sciences and Berkeley entomology collections.


Pinned beetles drying. The pins are used to make the beetles perfectly symmetrical.


My shipping station which is an old IKEA bar stand.


(In the upper left) My mausoleum for "Debbie" the South African Darkling beetle, who lived with me in Cape Town until a parasite crawled out of her and killed her. Also displayed are my Green Business certificate and Blue Ribbon award from the 2008 Maker Faire, the largest DIY festival in the world.


This is where I pin & spread my specimens and also make my butterfly wing jewelry. My world is full of little drawers.


One of the best things about working from home is I get to hang out with my son all day. He loves to watch me spread butterflies and often gives some good advice, although I don't understand it.


Bathroom break for a Rhino Beetle.


Butterfly Wing Jewelry waiting to be finished.


A rough gang of tricycle weevils that sometimes cause trouble in my studio.


I only use perfect specimens in my insect displays. The ones that are not up to my standards go into the "Bone Yard" where I can harvest parts if I need to repair a specimen. Maybe I should send these to Fear Factor?


Ten of the most enjoyable days of my science career were at the Ant Course, a unique workshop sponsored by Harvard University and the California Academy of Sciences that brings together some of the best ant scientists in the world together. One of the greatest living scientists, E.O. Wilson, signs every certificate.

Tags: work studio, work space

New Insect Diorama (9x9 inches) - Weevil Riding a Camel


Available here: ETSY

Tags: beetle, diorama, miniture

A palace in Belgium puts a new spin on the term “Green Building Material” with the use of 1.4 million green jewel beetle wings to adorn a ceiling. The Hall of Mirrors (2002) is an instillation by artist Jan Fabre in the Royal Palace of Brussels that took over 3 months to make and 30 assistants to assemble.


Image Credit: Angelos.be


People unfamiliar with insect exoskeleton may believe a material like this won’t last, but in an interview with Sculpture Magazine, Jan explains:

I use strong materials, which happen to have a fragile appearance. The color of those beetle shells will never fade, for the outer integument contains chitin, one of the strongest and lightest materials on earth, which was used for objects destined for the Mir space station.

Image Credit: Scultpture.org (close up of beetles)


The next question one may ask - Where does someone get 1.4 million beetle wings? I discovered this on a recent trip to Thailand and found that this beetle is very abundant and prepared as a food! Anyone visiting Bangkok will see many of the fried insect dishes and this beetle is eaten by the ton. The colorful wings are discarded before this unique protein dish is prepared. What a great use for an animal by product!

You can see more of this artist’s work at: The website of Jan Fabre.

Tags: jewel beetles, architecture

A local scientist has been stopping by the Bug Studio to pick up various insects to photograph with a Nikon camera that includes a auto-montage microscope set-up. The results have been amazing and I want to share some of the photographs. One can really see the amazing architecture and color of these ancient creatures.

The weevil family is one of my favorites because of this group's characteristic long neck, which helps me humanize these insects in my miniature insect dioramas. Under a microscope, a whole new world is revealed.

Pictured below is a beetle from the Eupholus genus.



Below is a photograph of this beetle above photographed with auto-montage.




The Leopard Lacewing, Cethosia biblis, is a ornate butterfly that has a range from India to Asia, and has been used in my collaboration with the Poetry Store (picture below).




This same butterfly below with Auto-Montage.

Tags: microscope, photography, beetle

Opening this Friday at Secession Art Gallery is a collaboration between Bug Under Glass and the Poetry Store. This show highlights some of Silvi's amazing poetry work highlighted with some of my butterflies.

Stay tuned for some of our pieces which will be up on ETSY soon.

Friday, February 11, 6:30-9:30pm

Besides exhibiting amazing colors, unique patterns and behaviors, insects are also pretty amazing artists. Many have already witnessed the beauty of a spider web or the geometry of a honeybee honeycomb, but nature still offers many hidden crafts waiting to be discovered. Fellow ant reseracher Walter Tschinkel figured out a way to expose the amazing artistic skills of the ant. On a personal note, I was very fortunate to have hung out with Walter on a 10-day ant class in Arizona and he is an incredible and very funny person. One of these ant nests is on display at the California Academy of Sciences.

Here is a video from CBS news on Dr. Tschinkel and his process.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

Tags: ants

Jennifer Angus, an artist from Madison, WI, has created some insect art that may give some people nightmares. But, if you are an entomologist, it may give you another type of dream. This is not your typical wallpaper you can get at Home Depot, but wallpaper embellished with REAL insects, 1,000’s of them. I think it is absolutely beautiful and if my wife would let me, I would plaster the whole house with it. Jennifer’s works have been featured at many major museums and to learn more and see her work visit her website at http://www.jenniferangus.com/home.htm

Tags: wallpaper, design