THE PARASITIC WASP'S SECRET WEAPON In the November 1997 issue, Osti painted a stunning image of the David and Goliath of the insect world: the wasp and the caterpillar. The huge caterpillar's immune system threatens the wasp's eggs, which must mature inside a living host. But the tiny wasp prevails using a deadly weapon: a virus. Roborto Osti
DENIZENS OF THE OPEN OCEAN Osti's largest work appeared in a special edition of Scientific American entitled "The Oceans." This three-page gatefold illustrated the oceanic biodiversity of marine organisms at various depths in the ocean, from the surface zone down to the ocean floor. Roborto Osti
EVOLUTION: A LIZARD'S TALE The March 2001 issue displayed Osti's work in an article on the surprising twists in lizard evolution. Here he depicts four different anole lizards of the Caribbean islands. Roborto Osti
GLOBAL WARMING'S HIDDEN HEALTH RISK The cover of the August 2000 issue was graced with Osti's painting of a gorging mosquito. The article explored a computer model indicating that many diseases will surge as Earth's atmosphere heats up. Roborto Osti
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CICHLIDS OF THE RIFT LAKES Osti's beautiful illustration of a sampling of the hundreds of species of cichlids in Lake Tanganyika appeared in the February 1999 issue. Roborto Osti
RING BUBBLES OF DOLPHINS This illustration, which was published in the August 1996 issue, shows bottlenose dolphins creating, merging and playing with ring bubbles. Roborto Osti
EXOSKELETAL SENSORS FOR WALKING This illustration of the tropical wandering spider Cupiennius salei was done for an article on how organisms with exoskeletons rely on organs that act as strain gauges. It appeared in the July 1996 issue. Roborto Osti
FROG COMMUNICATION Published in August 1995, Osti's illustration shows several male coqui frogs competing for the attention of a female [left] by treating the animal to sounds as loud as an 18-wheel truck 23 feet (seven meters) away. Roborto Osti
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THE HUNTERS AND THE HUNTED Published in July 1995, this watercolor illustration depicts several deep-sea hunters and their prey, including [from left to right] dragonfish, the bioluminescent and bell-shaped Colobonema, the vertically hanging paralepidids, the tentacled Bathyphysa, and the curled-up eelpout attempting to avoid the hake. Roborto Osti
KIN RECOGNITION Osti's first major piece for Scientific American was published in a June 1995 article about how organisms can identify their relatives. Belding's ground squirrels, for instance, live in groups in which mothers, daughters and sisters cooperate extensively. By using odors, the squirrels can distinguish familiar nest mates, who are close kin, from outsiders. They can also discriminate between full sisters and half sisters. Roborto Osti
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