5. Capybara poo At number 5 is capybara poo. Cabybaras are the largest rodents in the world and super cute. They are related to guinea pigs but much much larger. Capybaras are native to South America and live a semi-aquatic lifestyle. They are herbivores meaning they...
My Art Journey
I started drawing in 2019 as a mindful activity to reduce stress. I followed a Kingfisher tutorial and got completely hooked. I had no idea about all the equipment required for professional drawings, special professional grade (and expensive) pencils, the right paper,...
Old Blue|The Saviour of her Species
Old Blue was now 9 years of age, old for a species that has an average life span of 4 years. Shortly after being transferred to Managere island one of Blue and Yellows’ nests was destroyed in a storm. The robins built a replacement nest and Blue laid two more eggs....
How the Black Robin became the rarest bird in the world
Black robins are native to a group of islands off the East coast of New Zealand called the Chatham Islands. The islands were originally called Rekohu (“Misty Sun”) by the Moriori people. For thousands of years the black robins flourished on the forested Islands. There...
How to make a heated drawing board
Why use a heated drawing board? For coloured pencil artists, a heated drawing board melts the pencils making it quicker to layer on surfaces like pastelmat and makes pencils easier to blend. It works brilliantly with neopastels on drafting film for smoothing and...
Natural History Illustration 101: Drawing a hare
What is rendering? The final week of the Natural History Illustration course involved rendering an animal of our choice. Rendering is the process of adding the fine details of colour, fur, feathers and shading. For this course we were only allowed to use graphite,...
Natural History Illustration 101: Drawing Animals
I recently completed a fantastic course, Drawing Nature, Science and Culture: Natural History 101. It’s an online course run by the University of Newcastle in Australia on the edX platform and is aimed at artists who want to improve their observational skills in order...
What is a Tizzie-Whizie?
Have you heard of the Tizzie-Whizie? The tizzie-whizie is a very rare creature found only in Bowness Bay, Lake Windemere in the UK. It is described as having the body of a hedgehog, the tail of a squirrel or fox, insect-like wings and antennae. It was first discovered...

What do Antennae do?
What are Antennae?
In the world of biology, antennae are paired long thin sensory appendages, often seen on the head of arthropods like insects and crustaceans. Arthropods are invertebrates, meaning they do not have a backbone. Insect antennae are mobile and located on the forehead of insects between the eyes. They come in lots of different colours shapes and sizes but share three basic segments: the scape, the pedicel and the flagellum.
Insect Antenna Anatomy

Antenna Sensory Hairs
Each antenna is covered in tiny sensory hairs called sensilla. The purpose of these amazing hairs varies between insects and we still don’t know everything they can do. Here are just some of the senses antennae can have:Smell
Insects don’t have noses like mammals and can use their antennae to smell through specialised hairs containing smell sensors. Each smell sensor is specific to an odour molecule. The hairs are covered in tiny pores that allow the molecules of smell in the air to pass into the hair where they will bind to their sensor which will then trigger a signal to the brain.
Photo Credit: Pixabay greensiobhan
Touch and Taste
Larger sensory hairs are moved in their sockets when they touch something. This movement is detected by the antennal nerve and passed to the brain. Larger sensory hairs also have a tiny pore on their tip where moisture can enter. Chemicals in the moisture can be detected by cells which then pass signals along a sensory ‘wire’ through the antennae to the brain.
Photo Credit: Pixabay Magdebuerger
Flight Orientation
Sensory hairs are deflected by wind movements and vibrations, helping insects to navigate wind currents and helping them to control flight speed. In four winged insects, like hawk moths, can sense the deflection in the sensory hairs caused by body rotation allowing the antennae to act as spatial orientation sensors.Telling the time and Navigation
The antennae of Monarch butterflies contain light receptors that can track the position of the sun. This allows them to sense what time of day it is and to navigate using sun as a compass.
Photo Credit: Pixabay Ulrieke Leone
So now you know what insect antenna can do! Isn’t nature amazing!
My Top 5 Interesting Animal Poos
5. Capybara poo At number 5 is capybara poo. Cabybaras are the largest rodents in the world and super cute. They are related to guinea pigs but much much larger. Capybaras are native to South America and live a semi-aquatic lifestyle. They are herbivores meaning they...
My Art Journey
I started drawing in 2019 as a mindful activity to reduce stress. I followed a Kingfisher tutorial and got completely hooked. I had no idea about all the equipment required for professional drawings, special professional grade (and expensive) pencils, the right paper,...
Old Blue|The Saviour of her Species
Old Blue was now 9 years of age, old for a species that has an average life span of 4 years. Shortly after being transferred to Managere island one of Blue and Yellows’ nests was destroyed in a storm. The robins built a replacement nest and Blue laid two more eggs....
How the Black Robin became the rarest bird in the world
Black robins are native to a group of islands off the East coast of New Zealand called the Chatham Islands. The islands were originally called Rekohu (“Misty Sun”) by the Moriori people. For thousands of years the black robins flourished on the forested Islands. There...
How to make a heated drawing board
Why use a heated drawing board? For coloured pencil artists, a heated drawing board melts the pencils making it quicker to layer on surfaces like pastelmat and makes pencils easier to blend. It works brilliantly with neopastels on drafting film for smoothing and...
Natural History Illustration 101: Drawing a hare
What is rendering? The final week of the Natural History Illustration course involved rendering an animal of our choice. Rendering is the process of adding the fine details of colour, fur, feathers and shading. For this course we were only allowed to use graphite,...
Natural History Illustration 101: Drawing Animals
I recently completed a fantastic course, Drawing Nature, Science and Culture: Natural History 101. It’s an online course run by the University of Newcastle in Australia on the edX platform and is aimed at artists who want to improve their observational skills in order...
What is a Tizzie-Whizie?
Have you heard of the Tizzie-Whizie? The tizzie-whizie is a very rare creature found only in Bowness Bay, Lake Windemere in the UK. It is described as having the body of a hedgehog, the tail of a squirrel or fox, insect-like wings and antennae. It was first discovered...