A black-and-orange cicada resting by a rock wall Medog, 30 June. On a green leaf in front of a rough gray rock face sat a …

A stag beetle on pale ground The ground was pale and granular, like dried white clay, when something big and glossy broke up its blankness. …

A moon-marked stag beetle, up close It clambered across my hand without hurry, deep brown and glossy, with long antennae and heavy curved front legs …

A heavyweight cricket on the grey concrete It sat on the bare concrete in the late June heat of Medog, so still that I nearly …

A banded assassin on white netting Against the white mesh of a drying net, the pattern was impossible to miss: a long insect banded in …

A bright green katydid with red feet The wooden floor was wet from the morning rain, with metal strips running through it, and in the …

A black giant on rain-soaked timber The plank was dark with damp, studded with tiny water droplets, and on it sat a beetle so black …

The lobster-jawed stag beetle On a wet wooden board with green vegetation blurring behind it, the beetle looked almost cheerful: a warm orange-yellow body, a …

A dark giant of the wet forest floor The ground was wet and rough, the kind of surface that blends into the forest floor, and …