famous “Beetle Wing Dress” worn by Victorian

actress Ellen Terry in her portrayal of Lady

Macbeth (1888–89), now preserved at her home

at Smallhythe Place, in Kent, UK. The same jewel

beetles Sternocera aequisignata (Buprestidae) were

used in large installations by Belgian artist Jan

Fabre (born 1958), including “Heaven of

Delight,” where a whole room of a Brussels

Palace, including the chandeliers, is encrusted

with thousands of elytra. Another metallic green

beetle often used in jewelry is the tortoise beetle

Polychalca punctatissima (Chrysomelidae) from

Brazil. These were popular in the 1920s and

were often sold, in the spirit of the times but quite

wrongly, as “scarabs.” Sadly, they seem much rarer

now. Many of the Atlantic coastal forests where

they used to live have been destroyed.

left | A realistic bronze

sculpture of dung beetles

with a dung ball by Wendy

Taylor delights children

and entomologists at

London Zoo.

below | Albrecht Dürer’s

famous stag beetle, one of

the earliest Renaissance

works to choose a beetle,

without allegory or

symbolism, for a subject.