Living Jewels presents stunning close- up studio photographs of one of the most varied and beautiful species on the planet - the beetle. Page after page of glorious color illustrations show how beetles have evolved a range of astonishing shapes and colors, scarcely to be matched by any other living creature. The vivid patterns seen in Living Jewels will be a constant source of inspiration to professional designers and of visual wonder to the general reader. As the authors explain in their introduction, beetles were deified in Ancient Egypt, used for necklaces and brooches by the Amazonian Indians of Peru, and worn live, tethered to gold chains, by fashionable ladies in Victorian times. Today beautiful beetles are so much in demand by international collectors that the governments of Malaysia, Indonesia, and New Guinea have begun major insect breeding programs to supply the growing market.