watercolour

Wood ants guide cover image Cairngorms national park and Southern red wood ants Formica fusca practising trophallaxis

Colour roughs for: Southern red wood ant Formica rufa, Hairy wood ant Formica lugubris, Scottish wood ant Formica aquilonia, and Slender ant Leptothorax acervorum.  Used to check colours before proceeding to final illustrations.

Ant species colour guide rough for: Southern red wood ant Formica rufa, Hairy wood ant Formica lugubris, Scottish wood ant Formica aquilonia, Slender ant Leptothorax acervorum, Slave-making Blood red ant Formica sanguinea, Shining guest ant Formicoxenus nitidulus, and Narrow headed ant Formica exsecta.  These sketches were used to check the colouration before moving onto the […]

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.

Detail of the thorax of the Scottish wood ant Formica aquilonia.  The illustration shows distribution of hairs up to the eyes.  This species is often confused with the Hairy wood ant which has longer hairs.

Variegated geranium leaf, Geranium Mrs Pollock, showing Zonal colouration and pigment variegation, including area of red anthocyanin.

Lungwort Pulmonaria officianalis showing distinctive spotted leaves

Plum Prunus domestica sketchbook page with detail of fruit and a leaf

Oak sudden death Phytophthora ramorum fungi and algae pest on Oak tree Quercus

Oak spangle galls from wasp Tilia platyphyllos and Silk button galls from wasp Neuroterus numismalis on Oak leaf Quercus robu

Oak Quercus robur sketchbook page including flowers and young leaves

Magnolia sprig Magnolia grandiflora in flower with leaves not yet out

Elder Sambuccus nigra sketchbook page with detailed berries in full colour

Magnolia tree Magnolia grandiflora tree pen and ink with colour wash.  Illustration shows the tree in flower, before the leaves appear.

Peach tree Prunus persica tree in fruit showing tree form and peaches on branches and on ground.

Peach tree Prunus persica tree in fruit showing tree form and peaches on branches and on ground.

Lilac Syringa vulgaris flowering spike with leaves

Witch hazel Hamamelis virginiana sprig and individual flower

Chequered skipper Carterocephalus palaemon butterfly illustration. Illustration ties in with the Rockingham forest “Back from the Brink” conservation project, led by Butterfly Conservation. It is also the subject of an online illustration workshop.