Levon Biss - Microsculpture : portraits of insects

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Table of Contents

Guide

microsculpture

microsculpture

portraits of insects

LEVON BISS

from the collections of the

OXFORD UNIVERSITY MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

ABRAMS, NEW YORK

Insects are a vital part of our world. Most of their activities

are obvious: Everyone is familiar with the busy hum of

bees on a warm day or the tireless foraging of ants. Often,

though, they go about their lives overlooked by us. For

example, they help to recycle nutrients and, as part of food

chains, insects provide food for many other larger animals.

Without them, many ecosystems would be unable to

function and human society would struggle to exist.

Insects exist at a perspective much smaller than our

own. Beyond the resolution of our eyesight, the complex

structure of life in this miniature world is hidden from us.

We take this knowledge for granted, but before

the development of optical lenses and microscopes,

the complexity of life at these small scales was unknown.

When popularized for the first time in Robert Hookes

1665 book,

Micrographia

, it caused a sensation. It

presented a portfolio of everyday objects drawn at high

magnification in unprecedented detail. Significantly, some

of the most striking and iconic images from the book are

of insects and their incredibly intricate anatomy.

The art of drawing has since become an essential tool

in biology for describing and recording the natural world,

and modern advances in digital imaging provide new

and exciting possibilities. In

Microsculpture

, Levon Biss

has developed his own photographic technique that

succesfully captures the structural complexity of insects

in a large format and at stunning resolution. Ultra-high

detail images of insects are nothing new of course

images produced by the scanning electron microscope

show details beyond even the most powerful optical

lensesbut for all their detail, electron microscope

images are often cold, devoid of color, and offer little in

the way of aesthetic interest.

The insects in this book have been carefully chosen

from among our collection of over five million at the

Oxford University Museum of Natural History. Collections

foreword

such as this represent a vast repository of information on

biodiversity and are ever more valuable in the context of

our rapidly changing world. Usually this collection is kept

behind closed doors, most of the specimens being too

small and fragile for public display. This book provides

the perfect opportunity to showcase a few of its many and

fascinating species.

The specimens we have chosen are from all over the

world, from a backyard garden in England to a remote

island near Antarctica. Some were collected more than

one hundred and fifty years ago, some only recently

one was even collected by Charles Darwin himself during

the voyage of the HMS

Beagle

. Together they proudly

display the great diversity of insects: their unique shapes,

dazzling colors, and all of their surface detail. To our

eyes, the surfaces of insects appear smooth, but Levons

technique, as you will see in the pages of this book,

reveals much more. At magnification, the insects surface

undergoes a transformation: Ridges, pits, and engraved

meshes suddenly come into view, often overlaid with

other minute structures such as hairs and scales.

These microstructures are thought to have many

different functions. Surface features are thought to alter

the physical properties of the insects surface, helping

to shed water, reduce friction, or reflect light. The fine

structure of hairs can be modified to carry pollen, to grip

surfaces as smooth as glass, or to detect the tiniest air

movements. Butterflies, moths, beetles, and other insects

may be covered with scales so small that they appear

as dust to the naked eye. These scales may provide

camouflage, insulation, and sometimes can reflect and

scatter light to produce some of the most intense and

vibrant colors seen in nature.

Surprisingly, in many cases the function of these tiny

structures is not fully understood. The entire surface of

most species of ground beetles found in this book are

covered with a microscopic raised mesh-like pattern of

microsculpture, giving the insects a matte or satin

appearance. In related species, this pattern seems to be

correlated with habitat; species from wet areas often

have a transverse pattern, and those from saline habitats

have a pattern of slightly raised bumps. It is believed that

the microsculpture reduces friction or prevents water

or dirt from sticking to the insects surface. Even though

we may not know all the answers, it is likely that most

of these fascinating microstructures are adaptations,

the result of the evolutionary process of natural selection.

Microsculpture

shows us that the study of these

structures is not merely academic, but can have real-

world applications in developing new and more efficient

materials inspired by nature.

Despite all these theories of anatomy and function,

this book represents much more than just a collection of

scientific photographs. Levons technique produces

photographs of stunning depth and aesthetic beauty.

His clever use of shadow creates mood and atmosphere:

backlighting is used to accentuate particular structures,

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