The kids found this monarch on the cement path in front of our home this morning. They don't typically land on the ground so they went to look at it wondering if it was a newly emerged butterfly still learning to fly. It turned out to be injured under its wing. They thought maybe a bird tried to eat it and asked me "Do you like birds or butterflies better? Because birds eat butterflies." As if they were traitorous for doing so.
Unfortunately, it ended up dying, but it was the perfect specimen to look at under the microscope. As much as the Monarch is known and talked about, there is nothing like the wonder of seeing this creature with your very own eyes.
Here is the wing detail. You can see through the two-pronged scales to see the full form of the shorter in-between scales.
Here is a close up of the black and white on the thorax.
The best shot of the eye I could get. I may go back and take more pictures with an external light tomorrow.
The foremost area of the feathery head.
Here is another post with some more microscopic images and video of the Monarch: http://thechangingyearoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/newborn-monarch-under-microscope.html
These photos are amazing! Absolutely gorgeous. Do you mind sharing what kind of microscope setup you have? I am clueless about that sort of thing, but my kids are getting old enough at this point that I would really like to introduce a closer look at our nature finds to them.
ReplyDeleteHere's the microscope we have:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A15CTRQ/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00A15CTRQ&linkCode=as2&tag=livingch0b-20&linkId=SRA5CYMG7GTK7RJJ