The purchase (and subsequent display) of Mr Squibbs has only whetted my desire for a taxidermy collection. I would like a little white fox, and a pony, and a pair of lions. Also a giraffe, please. All dead from natural causes, of course.

Several months ago, I came across a website with an extensive array of creepy-crawlies for sale. I'm sharing my favorites below:

BUTTERFLIES
So brilliantly blue, it belongs in a van Gogh painting:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/453.htm

Chalky white paired with deepest, darkest black:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/259.htm

There's something monstrous about this one. The fuzziness extends over the wings as though one more metamorphosis is in order -- from butterfly into bat:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/127.htm

Wriggling, cartoonish lines map a strange landscape. And typewriter keys balance on the edges:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/308v.htm

Parchment yellow with little brown headstones along the edges:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/124.htm

The glossiness of this one reminds me of blown glass:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/227.htm

Leathery blacks and browns with an unexpected flicker of indigo:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/butterflies/252.htm


INSECTS
A kelly-green shell with a chrome finish a pitted-out skull for a face wings of brittle toffee:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/insects/2403.htm

The body of this one reminds me of a calcified orange -- pock-marked and solid. And the face has a friendly look to it:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/insects/2456m.htm

Squat and solid. With the wings pinned aside, the back seems beautifully grotesque, like the internal organs are on display:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/insects/2142.htm

Prickly and whimsical, this one looks like it belongs in the ocean:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/insects/2209.htm

A little green slipper of a face and delicately fretted wings:
http://www.butterfly-designs.com/insects/2252.htm