Beetles and Bees

I had collected three Darkling Beetles with the intention to mount them in a cute frame I scored at a thrift store. Well, NOT gonna happen. Unfortunately two of the three beetles hatched maggots and had to be discarded like bats out of hell. (See my previous post for the full story.) It was a learning experience.

So I was left with one Darkling Beetle. I decided to use two Honey Bees (Apis millifera) I’d found dead locally to mount in the frame along with the beetle instead. If you’d like to know how to mount your own insects check out my previous post here.

I had fun making a shadowbox for this project since the frame was too shallow for the beetle body. Ha, try saying “beetle body” ten times fast! I did have one hiccup when I was mounting the Honey Bee on the right. While handling it I broke its thorax  and hind leg off and had to glue them back on.