Gardens, bugs and science

I’m not an expert in mosquitoes (just delicious to them, apparently; thanks skin chemistry), but when it comes to insects that folks are familiar with, I can’t just have the nice ones out. Given that the egg / larval stages of mosquitoes are very small, and mostly transparent, I mostly just wanted to a) make this one look fancier, b) repaint the larvae because I didn’t like the colours.

Decided to base it on Culiex pippiens, the common house mosquito. Possibly C. pipiens. f.molestus (yes, this is its name), the ‘London Underground’ mosquito, which is much more bitey than normal C. pipiens.

Mostly just a prime and repaint – although I wanted to see if I could make the eggs more clearly a floating egg ‘raft’. Also I absolutely did not get the wing venation correct; please do not come for me, Dipertists.

Traced and cut out the egg raft shape on some clear plastic, wedged the eggs in there, and used some UV-setting resin to seal everything up.

Happy with it!