The Mikšić beetles collection is one of the most valuable collections of the Croatian Museum of Natural History and is well preserved in special conditions due to the sensitivity of the samples and as such is not available to the general public. Therefore, we wanted to make it accessible to as many observers as possible using photographs. We completed the exhibition of photographs with thirteen specimens of beetles and eight mineral samples that were captured in the photographs.

What do we DISCLOSURE?
In the world of insects and minerals, there are almost all colors and their shades, and in this exhibition we have shown only some interesting combinations. We photographed samples of minerals from mineralogical-petrographic collections and specimens of beetles from the Mikšić Beetle Collection, which correspond most closely to each other in terms of their color or color pattern. Certain types of beetles blend in color with the mineral to such an extent that it is difficult to spot them on it at first glance. Several species of beetles match the color of the same mineral in their own special way, but vice versa, when the same species of beetle matches several different minerals, which depends on the way light is refracted on the surface of the beetle or mineral. Although when choosing motifs, our main criterion was color, in some cases the similarity of beetles with minerals was achieved by the structure of their surface, the shape of a particular part of the body of the beetle itself, or a combination of all of the above. We hope you enjoy this book as much as we enjoyed creating it.

Ipressum of the exhibition:
AUTHORS OF THE EXHIBITION: Nives Borčić, Petar Crnčan, Ph.D. Iva Mihoci and Ph.D. Ivan Razum
PHOTOGRAPHER: Nives Borčić
AUTHORS OF PHOTO COMPOSITION: Nives Borčić and Petar Crnčan
SAMPLE PREPARATION: Nives Borčić, Petar Crnčan, Marin Šoufek, Višnja Lisičar, Silvana Sušić
DEPLIAN DESIGN: Nikša Martinac