female

Anopheles gambiae African Malaria mosquito unfed female, posing in typical diagonal position

Larva of Anopheles gambiae Malaria mosquito showing typical position, parallel to the water surface

Pupa of Anopheles mosquito based on Anopheles gambiae at water surface

Feeding African Malaria Mosquito Anopheles gambiae showing stylets as she feeds, and swollen belly with tergites forced apart and excess liquid excreted during feeding

African Malaria Mosquito Life cycle Anopheles gambiae

Spotted hyena Crocuta crocuta with leg bone of giraffe

Wood ant nest.  This nest belongs to the Southern red wood ant, Formica rufa.  Wood ant nests do differ between species, although it can be hard to tell them apart.

Nest and budded smaller nest of wood ant.  This budding often happens with wood ant species.

Social parasitism in ants. The queen of the Slave maker ant, Formica sanguinea, being tended to by workers of Dusky ant Formica fusca.

Worker ant F. aquilonia Scottish wood ant, in profile.  Workers are all haplodiploid, sharing much of their genetic material with their mother, the queen. This supports their eusocial colonies.

Male wood ant F. lugubris Hairy wood ant.  These males have dark bodies and yellow legs and genitals.  Like the females, they have wings.  Unlike the females, shortly after mating during the nuptial flight, they will die.

Queen ant F. aquilonia Scottish wood ant with wings.  Newly emerged queens have wings, and following their mating and nuptial flight, they bite these off.  This enables them to burrow underground and set up a new ant nest and colony, and to begin laying eggs and raising young.

Pupae of a wood ant, both within its cocoon, and extracted.  Detail from a life cycle ant illustration by Lizzie Harper natural history and sciart illustrator

Larvae of wood ant showing their translucent bodies and segmentation.

Illustration of several eggs of a wood ant.

House sparrow Passer domesticus.  Male in profile, pen and ink with colour wash

House sparrow Passes domesticus Female pen and ink diagram with watercolour top wash

Samon Salmo salar hen, cock, parr, and smolt stages with text

Samon Salmo salar hen fish showing silvery irridescence

Stylized diagram of the duck egg showing chalaza, yolk, white, germination, membranes, and air pocket

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching Day one yolk held in place with chalaza, germinal disc where fertilized chick starts to grow

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching day eight blood vessels carry waste and oxygen, eyelids start to cover eye, beak and egg tooth more clear.

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching day five embryo separates from the yolk, blood vessel network grows and branchesm eye starts to get a colour.

Stylized diagram of the development of a duck egg from being laid until after hatching Day 27 hatchling squashed inside egg ready to hatch, air cell still shows