The following links are to pages that contain images that you can use to help design your armory -- this set of images are for insects as they are used in heraldry. Note that very few insects appear in heraldry ...

Instructions (please read):

• If you want to use this for your heraldic submission, or print it for any reason, click on the 'PDF File' link -- a new browser window will open, and you can print from there.
  • If you want to use the image for your own armory submission, these should be sized to be close to the submission forms, and you can trace over them. For straight lines you might want to use a ruler to help.

Note: These are not done yet -- the links are here to make it easier for Golem, rather than having to keep adding them ... this is a work in progress.

The descriptions of the beasts and monsters below are all taken from The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry ...¹, and rather than having a 'footnote' for each, we have one. Note that not all of the detail in the Pictorial Dictionary has been included in the text given ...

The term insect, as used here, refers to any "bug" type creature: true insects, arachnids, and other arthropods. Examples found in Society heraldry include the ant, also called an emmet for canting purposes; the bee, dating from c.1586; the beetle, found in the arms of Teufel c.1600; the butterfly, also called a papillon, c.1586; the dragonfly; the fly, sometimes specified as a gad-fly, house-fly or horse-fly; the moth; the praying mantis, the scarab, usually stylized as in Egyptian art; the scorpion, c.1586; and the spider. Smaller insects, such as fleas, have been deemed unsuitable for Society heraldry.
     All winged insects are volant en arriére by default; this posture may also be blazoned simply volant. Unwinged insects are in general tergiant by default, with heads to chief; the exception is the praying mantis, which must be explicitly blazoned.

Ant
						PDF File
Bee
						PDF File
Beetle (Scarab, Coackroach)
						PDF File
Dragonfly
						PDF File
Mantis
						PDF File
Moth (Butterfly)
						PDF File
Scorpion
						PDF File
Snail
						PDF File
Spider
						PDF File

Footnotes:
¹ The Pictorial Dictionary of Heraldry as Used in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., 2nd Edition, Bruce Draconarius of Mistholme and Akagawa Yoshio, 1992, self-published.

Disclaimer: All of these drawings are intended for use in the Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc., specifically for heraldic purposes. However, these pages do not delineate SCA College of Arms or West Kingdom College of Heralds policy. All attempts are made when describing or portraying the elements of armory used in these pages to be as accurate to both medieval and SCA usage as possible, but if you are not sure, you should check with the College of Arms or the College of Heralds. You may use these drawings "as is" for the purpose of designing heraldry for use within the SCA with this understanding. All decisions by the West Kingdom College of Heraldry and/or the SCA's College of Arms regarding the depictions used on your submission forms supercedes anything found here.

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