Just want to say big thanks to Udo Schmidt for making my son happy =)

Just want to say  big thanks to Udo Schmidt for making my son happy =)

Who is Udo Schmidt?
Udo Schmidt is fascinated by beetles. Now 70-years-old, the retired German researcher has been collecting them since his late 20s. The drawers housing Udo’s awesome collection contain 30,000 specimens representing over 6,000 species.

“Since more than 350,000 species of beetles have been classified, and I have published photos of just 1,600 of them, there is absolutely no danger that I will run out of work,” Schmidt told Wired.

Schmidt’s hobby has taken him to 22 countries around the world. “I prefer to collect in Africa, in the dung of mammals,” he said.

He is inspired by the “overwhelming variety of shapes and colors, beauty and elegance,” of beetles — the largest group of insects in the world. Evolutionary biologists struggle to explain this seemingly excessive diversity.

Thankfully Udo is also a skilled photographer, so this is how me and Matt got the chance to look at his stunning insect archive.

More of his work:
http://www.kaefer-der-welt.de/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coleoptera-us/
Source via Wired