Where Have All The Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches Gone?

I went to the Insectarium on Sunday.

I was appalled. They had very, very few live insects, and the ones they did -- a scorpion and a tarantula -- looked so miserable in their tiny cages, barely bigger than a shoebox -- that I truly felt sorry for them. Imagine feeling pity for a huge black scorpion, but I almost wept, I was so shocked. It performed the behaviours you used to see in big cats in the zoos, pacing endlessly back and forth, obviously mentally ill.

Yes, I do believe the scorpion was mentally ill. The tarantula was hiding under a rock and would not come out.

I decided, since I had brought all my camera equipment, to take pictures of the hundreds of dead insects -- such a terrible shame, but there they were, hundreds of dead, very beautiful moths and butterflies and other flying insects.

I ended up creating a file with only 24 insects -- most of them butterflies and moths but a couple of locusts -- that turned out to be 85 inches long at 300 d.p.i. In case you don't know what that is, it's so detailed that if the butterflies were at normal size in front of you they'd each be about a foot high and you'd be able to count the scales on their wings. Here is a much smaller version, and you can get an even bigger version here. Enjoy the bitterflies as they no longer flitter by.

Note: hold down your right-click button and open in another window to get the full size. Then imagine it 85 inches long. That is more than seven feet wide.

This is a detail of the wing of the butterfly second from the bottom left at the actual size of the original Photoshop file. If it were in front of your face it would be even bigger.

Note: Please come to my Café Press shop and buy one of these beautiful T-shirts with this image on it. Or mugs, or anything else you want. Just go to http://www.cafepress.com/taibunny and order. It's a cinch. Here's what a T-shirt looks like:

Beautiful, no?