Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Illustrations

 

Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Illustrations

 

In a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University in Philadelphia and the Stroud Water Research Facility, the Clemson University Arthropod Collection provided specimens to be photographed and illustrated to create a learning resource for macroinvertebrate identification. The online project, called Learning to See, Seeing to Learn, helps non-professionals identify aquatic organisms to evaluate the health of creeks and streams, and the project can be found at macroinvertebrates.org.

Funding for the creation of my illustrations was provided as a Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

 

The arthropod specimens are photographed with highly magnified camera systems, and I am creating habitus illustrations of organisms that represent their corresponding orders.  These drawings include the whole insect and illustrate the peculiar characteristics of that species that make it unique to a certain taxonomic rank, like the one seen below. In addition, I am creating supplementary illustrations to depict key diagnostic features of a particular rank, such as the 9th segment gill or the shape of the mandibles. These drawings are of features that cannot be easily photographed--which is where drawing from the specimen has an advantage over a picture.

Order Lepidoptera habitus illustration of the moth larva, Parapoynx obscuralis.

To create my illustrations, I first study the organism under a microscope with a gridded eyepiece and sketch onto tracing paper laid over a grid; this preserves the scale of the drawing. Afterwards, I open this sketch into Adobe Illustrator and complete the outline and shading. The final black and white illustration is completely resizable, since Adobe Illustrator creates vector paths instead of colorizing pixels in images that become pixelated when enlarged.

Below are a few examples of completed habitus and character illustrations of assorted macroinvertebrates.

Order Megaloptera habitus illustration of the dark fishfly larva, Nigronia fasciata.
Order Amphipoda habitus illustration of the zooplankton commonly referred to as "scuds", Gammarus fasciatus.
Supplemetary insect mouthparts illustration of the stonefly, Pteronarcys sp.
Order Coleoptera habitus illustration of the aquatic beetle, Optioservus ovalis.
Order Veneroida habitus illustration of the freshwater bivalve mollusk, Corbicula fluminea.