Beetle wing case at 50x

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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steveminchington
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Beetle wing case at 50x

Post by steveminchington »

This is the first test using this objective which is only temporarily set up for brightfield epi. Image is of a jewel beetle wing case where the two come together on the back. You can just see the edge at the top.
Nikon CFI Plan 20x 0.4 BD ELWD, Nikon CF PL 2.5x, ZS Dmap. The stack could have been a bit deeper, something to correct next time. Comments welcome.

Image

Edit: Add darkfield stack of the same part. The wing case appears to be covered in tiny transparent blobs like lenses which may account for it's irridescence. But after reading this highly technical paper - probably not.

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ ... 6/1565/709

Image

WalterD
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Post by WalterD »

Beautiful images Steve, especially the first one, almost psychedelic :D

steveminchington
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Post by steveminchington »

Thanks Walter

Pau
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Re: Beetle wing case at 50x

Post by Pau »

steveminchington wrote:The wing case appears to be covered in tiny transparent blobs like lenses which may account for it's irridescence. But after reading this highly technical paper - probably not.
The colors are structural colors, induced by the light difraction at much smaller scale inside the cuticule

Actually the bolbs are droplets, maybe of water or if the specimen is dry of oil. You can clean it with alcohol or with a strong detergent solution.

The droplets acting as lenses induce some stacking artifacts more visible at the central part of the BF image
Pau

steveminchington
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Post by steveminchington »

Thanks for the info Pau. I have to confess I'm a complete novice when it comes to insects. The little blobs aren't water so I will try cleaning in alcohol and see what it looks like then.

carlos.uruguay
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Post by carlos.uruguay »

Nice and interesting

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