A Beetle and a Dragonfly

The two small insects visible on this sheet of paper and colored with red stone were not designed by Leonardo at the same time.

In fact, the drawing at the top dates back to about 1480–90.

The insect drawn at the bottom was designed between 1503 and 1505, approximately.

Only later did Leonardo cut out the two drawings and then paste them onto a new sheet of the same color.

Most critics are in agreement that the first insect is a longhorn beetle—a fairly common beetle.

Identifying the second insect has proved more difficult. According to ICRCPAL's (the Central Institute for the Restoration and Conservation of Archival and Heritage Books, based in Rome) biology laboratory, which houses an important entomological collection, the insect is a dragonfly. Others, however, believe that it is an antlion.

The two exquisite small drawings have been described by critics as wonderful.

Loeser expressed it like this: “The veins of the wings, the frame of the bodies, the anatomical fineness in the representation of the extremities […] everything is wonderfully in accordance with nature.”

While Giglioni wrote that these representations “look like taxidermic preparations to be placed in a natural history museum.”

Although the detail of the representation brings these small insects closer to the examples in which Leonardo’s drawings take on the value of scientific knowledge, they further confirm the artist-scientist's interest in all forms of flight.