The painting depicts a small black water beetle that moves in zigzag manner across the surface of forest pools. The insect is shown twice: once in the upper and the lower parts of the painting. The pairs of roundels represent the eyes, the black half-roundels outlined in concentric red, yellow and white semicircles that enclose each eye depict the insect’s wings. The black roundel outlined in white and yellow in the centre of the bark represent the insect’s prominent ‘anal orifice’