World’s first documented cave beetle larger than life

Leptodirus hochenwartii, the world's first ever documented cave beetle, whose discovery in Postojna Cave in 1831 would pave the way for a new field of biology, has obtained a special place at the Slovenian Museum of Natural History in the form of a giant scale model.

The two-metre model is based on 3D images of a real beetle, which was only 13 millimetres long from the tip of its antennae to its hind legs.

Based on a digitalised 3D model made by the National Building and Civil Engineering Institute, Matic Kajzar from the company MA-3D Design has printed out the giant...