April 1, 2006 (Vol. 26, No. 7)
URL:
http://www.insectcompany.com
Rating:
Strong Points: Image quality
Weak Points: Organization
Summary:
You’ve got to like a site with a name like this. At least I did. One puzzle though, what the heck do they do? Sell insects by the pound? Provide materials for biology laboratories? Help gardeners by supplying them with beneficial insects? Nope. The answer, it seems, is that The Insect Company specializes in cataloguing and selling images of insects, mostly the latter. Over 1600 specimen photographs can be ordered directly from the site. Looking for pix of cicadas, stick insects, or beetles? You’ll be happy. They’re here in abundance with prices of individual photographs ranging from about $2 up to around $40. Unfortunately, preview images are missing for many of the bugs, so you’ll have to order these blind. One last question/comment before putting this one to bed–exactly how big of a market is there for insect photos?
