Bugs coming to your mailbox

Former Grafton resident Sue Lindsay has had a number of images she took during her work at the Australia Museum featured on new postage stamps.

Daily Examiner

EVER looked deep and longingly into the multiple eyes of a fly?

What about the proboscis (stinger) of a mosquito?

Former Grafton resident Sue Lindsay has and some of the photos she has taken while peering into what most of us have never seen are now on show for all to see.

Australia Post is today releasing a postage stamp series featuring photos Sue took of a weevil, a praying mantis, a ground beetle, a jumping spider, a hatchet wasp and an ant as part of her work as the Australian Museum's electron microscope manager.

Sue, who did her schooling at Grafton infants, primary and secondary schools, said her work was fascinating.

“The smaller the specimens the better,” she said.

“The ornamentation on things the size of a pinhead, like leaf litter mites, is incredible.”

She said the hairs on their heads fan out like spikes.

“A wolf spider's fangs are like a hypodermic needle and the scent glands from stink bugs look just like valleys, troughs and hills. It is crazy.”

Sue said growing up in Grafton had helped cultivate an interest in taxonomy and entomology.

Some of the stamps in the series.

The Clarence Valley, because of its temperate climate, mountains and beaches, had great diversity.

Sue studied taxonomy at the University of New England and became a volunteer at the Australia Museum while working part-time at a pharmacy (her parents were part-owners of Harper and Lindsay Chemists in the Grafton Mall).

She started getting casual work at the museum in 1991 and in 1996 was appointed electron microscope manager. She was pleased her images were getting widespread recognition and hoped it would encourage more young people into the field.

A spokesperson for Australia Post said the images were only ever presented as black-and-white, but those used had been colourised to emphasise special features and add a sense of fun.

“In an Australian first, the mini-sheet stamps incorporate thermoprinting technology. Simply apply friction (eg. rub quickly with your thumb) to a special area on each stamp on the mini-sheet to reveal information on the degree of magnification of each small creature.”