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Description
An oil painting I did as an illustration for a scientific article in the journal American Naturalist. The painting represents how, for insect species that undergo metamorphosis, the relationship between metabolic rate and mass varies greatly across life stages. The insect in the painting is the Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia) on a dogwood tree. A more detailed explanation is below if you are interested, and here's a link to the paper (www.academia.edu/9613837/Ontog… ).

To interpret this painting, you can imagine an x axis along the bottom that shows mass increasing from left to right, and a y axis along the side that shows metabolic rate (essentially a measure of how much energy you are using to maintain your body, grow and reproduce) increasing from bottom to top.

During the egg phase, eggs start large and simple and as they develop they slowly loose mass while gaining complexity. As this happens, metabolic rate increases because more complex structures require more energy for maintenance (you are climbing up the egg branch from right to left).

During the immature phase, larva began to eat and grow as much as possible, and metabolic rate increases as their body size increases (you are climbing up the caterpillar branch from left to right).

During the pupal phase, insects undergo a complete reconstruction of their body. Existing structures break down and new ones (such as wings) are formed from the raw materials. The initial breakdown of structures as well as the final reforming of structures both take a lot of energy (meaning a large metabolic rate). The 'soupy' stage between, after structures have broken down but before new ones have formed, would require very little energy to maintain. Therefore, metabolic rate follows a U shaped curve though this restructuring process (you are sliding down and back up the pupa branch from right to left).

Description
An oil painting I did as an illustration for a scientific article in the journal American Naturalist. The painting represents how, for insect species that undergo metamorphosis, the relationship between metabolic rate and mass varies greatly across life stages. The insect in the painting is the Cecropia Moth (Hyalophora cecropia) on a dogwood tree. A more detailed explanation is below if you are interested, and here's a link to the paper (www.academia.edu/9613837/Ontog… ).

To interpret this painting, you can imagine an x axis along the bottom that shows mass increasing from left to right, and a y axis along the side that shows metabolic rate (essentially a measure of how much energy you are using to maintain your body, grow and reproduce) increasing from bottom to top.

During the egg phase, eggs start large and simple and as they develop they slowly loose mass while gaining complexity. As this happens, metabolic rate increases because more complex structures require more energy for maintenance (you are climbing up the egg branch from right to left).

During the immature phase, larva began to eat and grow as much as possible, and metabolic rate increases as their body size increases (you are climbing up the caterpillar branch from left to right).

During the pupal phase, insects undergo a complete reconstruction of their body. Existing structures break down and new ones (such as wings) are formed from the raw materials. The initial breakdown of structures as well as the final reforming of structures both take a lot of energy (meaning a large metabolic rate). The 'soupy' stage between, after structures have broken down but before new ones have formed, would require very little energy to maintain. Therefore, metabolic rate follows a U shaped curve though this restructuring process (you are sliding down and back up the pupa branch from right to left).