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Description
I got to illustrate a freshly published book about soil ecology and the amazing variety of creatures that live beneath our feet. The book is published by the Finnish publisher Gaudeamus and called Elämää maaperän kätköissä ("Life hidden in the soil"). It was lovely to be able to work with experts of each taxon to depict them as anatomically correct and lifelike.

These represent three of the four main clades of Myriapoda: the predatory, the herbivorous, and the tiny. Top image is a stone centipede (Lithobius curtipes) hunting a smallish earthworm. It's a nocturnal hunter with venomous jaws and an aggressive attitude. Luckily, it's fairly small compared to some centipedes in warmer climates, only a few centimeters when adult.

Middle illustration features a striped millipede (Ommatoiulus sabulosus). A peaceful herbivore, this temperate species munches on rotting plant material. It does have poison glands for protection, though. Please don't lick it.

Bottom image is a pauropod (meaning "few legs"). They are a widespread but inconspicuous group of mostly small, pale animals living in soil. They seem to be closely related to millipedes. Their peculiar characteristics include branching antennae and a habit of enthusiastically grooming their legs. Maybe they wish to take good care of the few they have.

Description
I got to illustrate a freshly published book about soil ecology and the amazing variety of creatures that live beneath our feet. The book is published by the Finnish publisher Gaudeamus and called Elämää maaperän kätköissä ("Life hidden in the soil"). It was lovely to be able to work with experts of each taxon to depict them as anatomically correct and lifelike.

These represent three of the four main clades of Myriapoda: the predatory, the herbivorous, and the tiny. Top image is a stone centipede (Lithobius curtipes) hunting a smallish earthworm. It's a nocturnal hunter with venomous jaws and an aggressive attitude. Luckily, it's fairly small compared to some centipedes in warmer climates, only a few centimeters when adult.

Middle illustration features a striped millipede (Ommatoiulus sabulosus). A peaceful herbivore, this temperate species munches on rotting plant material. It does have poison glands for protection, though. Please don't lick it.

Bottom image is a pauropod (meaning "few legs"). They are a widespread but inconspicuous group of mostly small, pale animals living in soil. They seem to be closely related to millipedes. Their peculiar characteristics include branching antennae and a habit of enthusiastically grooming their legs. Maybe they wish to take good care of the few they have.