At its origins, insect jewellery quite literally crawled all over the wearer. Many ancient civilisations wore live insects as fashion accessories. Soldiers in Ancient Egypt utilised scarab beetles as a form of mythic protection, as the beetles were believed to possess supernatural properties that would protect the wearer from harm.

Anceint Maya culture made use of the Mexican subspecies of the zopherus beetle. These large, docile beetles have been made into living brooches called ma’kechs at various points in time.

The beetle is attached to a decorative chain, which acts as a lead to ensure that the insect doesn’t wander too far afield when being worn. Additionally, it is ornamented with gold and semi-precious gemstones.

The ethical debate around live brooches is ongoing; some believe that the beetles involved become victims of human vanity, while others cite the cultural history and significance of beetle brooches to be validation for their existence.

The Maya folklore surrounding the wearing of beetles is a bittersweet tale of a princess in love with a member of a rival clan. Rather than go on existing, she stops eating and drinking.

A sympathetic healer of some kind witnesses the princess’ devotion and transforms her into an insect that can then be worn by the one she loves, keeping the lovers close. Whether or not there is any semblance of truth to the tale, or if its sole purpose is to convince tourists to invest in jewellery is unclear.

During the Victorian era, a romantic fascination with nature resulted in swarms of insect-adorned jewellery. Like many, the Victorians were inspired by older cultural traditions; it wouldn’t have been a shock, for example, to see respectable Victorian socialites wearing live beetle brooches.

They are so populous in fact, that dragonflies can be found in varied species on every continent in the world, a rare claim in the animal kingdom. Due to their relatively large size, sturdy body, and unique wings, dragonflies lend themselves to jewellery designs quite easily. The unique structure of dragonflies, however, meant that capturing their image in the form of jewellery was a difficult task. The first pieces of jewellery featuring dragonflies that can be identified as such came out of the late Victorian and early Art Nouveau periods.