Saturday 2 October 2010

Bark Beetle Gallery in graphite

This week's Illustration Friday prompt is beneath. Sometimes there are interesting things lurking beneath tree bark that you don't get a chance to see until the tree is dead.

Bark beetle larvae make these galleries directly under the bark as they feed on the inner bark. The main line that follows the grain is the chamber that eggs are laid in, and the radiating lines are larval feeding tunnels.

The galleries look like fine carving and can be very intricate and attractive, but they're not always a good thing. Generally, bark beetles are important for forest renewal as they attack dead or dying trees, but some are disease vectors and spread things like Dutch Elm Disease.

The galleries are still cool, though.

6 comments:

dosankodebbie said...

This was visually awesome and intellectually stimulating. Thanks!

barbara said...

A beautiful picture and an interesting piece of information!

Linda Hensley said...

Nice take on the word for the week. I like seeing the picture and reading the information.

Juan Carlos Partidas said...

Hi Deeol.
Thanks for your comments in my blog. You have very interesting illustrations. For sure, your artistic skills are very useful for your professional activities.
The great naturalists in history were also great illustrators in the pre-photo times. :)

Marie Campbell said...

I regularly visit Shrubbery from IF and always love your posts and your artwork. Lovely work x

Digital Scott's Illustrationblog said...

Cool! I've seen that before and didn't know what caused it.

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