First, there was the cake made to look like an astonishingly realistic raw turkey. Now food artist, Sarah Hardy, has turned her attention to creating sweet treats that look like scarily lifelike bugs.

The sweets, which were inspired by Hardy’s passion for natural history, includes a leech, a garden snail, a warty toad, a newt, fossils and an endangered beetle – all of which are made from chocolate.

The bizarre sweets, which will go on sale at Selfridges from September, will appeal to children with a penchant for creepie crawlies as well as natural history lovers, say Hardy and her business partner, Chris Verraes.