More Invertebrate Prints

 

Motyxia sequoia, linocut, 8" x 8" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

Motyxia are blind, bioluminescent, cyanide-producing millipedes known as Sierra luminous millipedes  from the southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, and Santa Monica mountain ranges of California. I made this print for #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt "eyeless." My hand-printed linocut is printed in both regular and glow-in-the-dark ink so like Motyxia sequoia itself, the prints glow-in-the dark! Each print is on 8" x 8" cream coloured Japanese washi paper with bark inclusions.

Motyxia sequoia, glowing in the dark, linocut 8" x 8" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

These millipedes grow to 3 to 4 cm in length, 4.5 to 8 mm wide, with 20 body segments, excluding the head. Like other polydesmidans ("flat-backed" millipedes) they lack eyes and have prominent paranota (lateral keels). They are typically tan to orange-pink in colour with a dark mid-dorsal line;  they are fluorescent under black light and bioluminescent.

Diving Beetle Paroster pallescens, linocut, 8" x 8" by Ele Willoughby, 2024

This is a hand-printed of the Paroster pallescens beetle, surface diving water beetle from Australia. It is printed on 8" x 8" Japanese paper. I made this print for the #InsertAnInvert2024 prompt diver.

I decided I should finally make an actual edition of my fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.

Drosophila melanogaster, 9" x 12" linocut by Ele Willoughby, 2024

This linocut print highlights the model organism Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly or vinegar fly. A hind-printed ring with 5 of the different eye colour genetic mutations appear on lovely handmade Japanese washi paper with flecks of bark inclusions. Each print is 9" by 12" (22.9 cm by 30.4 cm).

A species of fly (the taxonomic order Diptera) in the family Drosophilidae, D. melanogaster is used as a model organism for biological research in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and life history evolution.  It breads quickly, has only four pairs of chromosomes, and is easy to raise in the lab anywhere in the world. It's also a well-known pest in kitchens worldwide!