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Submitted: September 13, 2009
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Orange-Lipped Iris-Beetleby *Mr--Jack

Digital Art / Drawings & Paintings / Fantasy

"Iris-beetles are a highly varied genera despite their isolated range, being only found in a small area in the Brazilian Amazon. Not true beetles, these arthropods have large, segmented bodies and three sets of wings, the 3rd of which is solely used in their feeding—the beetles hang upside down, spreading their wings and opening their startlingly-coloured mouths and displaying a two sets of specially developed forelimbs to mimic a flower in bloom.
There are a number of species, each having evolved to mimic a different species of flower.
The Orange-Lipped Iris-beetle is the most common species to be found near human habitation, but by no means the most spectacular, and scientists believe that a large number of undescribed species still remain to be discovered."

This week's CoW at conceptart, 'hangs upside down', quite inspired by Bobby Chiu's fantastic Bushbabies