Insects are very common visitors to the garden, but not many of us consider them to be wildlife - though if we look at the true definition of that word it means an animal in its natural environment, untamed. And very few people have managed to train insects, only fleas.
The truth is that over half of all non-human life on the earth are insects, with over a million different species, which makes them the most diverse classification too. The largest insect is the Goliath beetle, in its larval stage, which can reach just over four ounces in weight and is four and a half inches long - whilst some of their prehistoric insect ancestors had a wingspan of twenty-eight inches.
Many of them are also very helpful in the garden, ladybirds and lacewings gobbling up aphids, and many species pollinating your flowers and fruit.
This is a really beautiful set, which proves that insects can be attractive too. Each card shows a lady, dressed to resemble an insect, whilst somewhere on the image is a blue poster showing the actual creature, and giving its name.
The cards use either armour, or the reverse of the coats or dresses to portray the insect, though I have discovered that perhaps the name ascribed to this series is wrong, for the "insects" are not the mixture you suspect, they are all beetles. However the French for "beetles" is coleopteres, rather a mouthful. The problem is that as the cards are not titled with a series name it varies - and I have seen a couple of sellers on eBay who do call the set "women beetles".
I have to say that the names are not at all easy to read but with perseverance, and much assistance from https://bugguide.net/ - for which many thanks - they are all now identified, as :
- Casside - Tortoise Beetle
- Chrysochroa Ocellata - a Jewel Beetle or Metallic Wood-boring Beetle
- Circulio - a Nut Weevil or Acorn Weevil
- Hoplia - Scarab Beetle
- Lamprosoma [our card - Leaf Beetle]
- Psalidognathus Friendii - Longhorn Beetle