Series 7 · The Insect Collection

Seven of the world’s most extraordinary small creatures — the strongest beetle alive, a master-of-disguise grasshopper, a patient mantis and more — each hand-painted in lifelike detail, then reimagined plump, round and full of cheer. The tiny giants of the undergrowth, blown up into pure charm and shrunk to the palm of your hand.

Hercules Beetle (Yellow)

The Hercules Beetle — the longest beetle in the world and, pound for pound, one of the strongest animals on Earth. This is its dry-weather golden form.

Hercules Beetle (Black)

The Hercules Beetle in its humid-weather black form — the same record-breaking giant, wearing the darker coat that damp rainforest air brings out.

Chinese Grasshopper

The Chinese Grasshopper — a long, slant-faced grasshopper so perfectly shaped like a blade of grass that it all but vanishes in a meadow.

Swift Woodlouse

The Swift Woodlouse — a familiar garden ‘bug’ that is secretly not an insect but a crustacean, a cousin of crabs and shrimp that left the sea.

Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle

The Japanese Rhinoceros Beetle, or ‘kabutomushi’ — the horned samurai of the Japanese summer and its most beloved insect.

Chinese Mantis

The Chinese Mantis — the largest mantis across much of its range, a patient ambush hunter with a swiveling head and spring-loaded arms.

Asian Giant Hornet

The hidden treasure of Series 7 — the Asian Giant Hornet, the largest hornet on Earth and the insect the headlines nicknamed the ‘murder hornet.’