Insects are a popular subject for paper folders.  They range from simple models, such as the traditional locust, or cicada, to the elaborately realistic insects being designed by today's most advanced folders.

The picture doesn't quite do it justice, but this Gold Bug is folded from metallic gold paper.  It is based on a design by Tom May, who has diagrams online, at http://home.comcast.net/~mayward1/goldbugtxt.htm  If you'd like to read Edgar Allan Poe's story, The Gold Bug, which was written in 1843, it is online, at this site: http://www.eserver.org/books/poe/

The first of these beetles I tried folding, I used black paper, for fear of wasting a sheet of the gold.  This was the result.

Made by interweaving twelve waterbomb bases, this modular cuboctahedron sounds like there are butterflies fluttering inside, when shaken. When thrown into the air and smacked, the butterflies flutter to the earth.

Three origami butterflies and a flower basket.