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SEM image of the week: Careful with that axe, Eugene, Part 1

Posted on Monday, November 28, 2011 by for SEM.

When you live and work at Midwood Science, the world of the tiny is very important. Unfortunately, the world of the tiny is very easily broken. Please look at the following images of a fruit fly with this caveat in mind. Please be kind to your subjects. Remember, you are much bigger that they are. Be careful when mounting them onto the imaging platform.

This is a fruit fly. You can still see her wings (on the right), her eyes (look left), and her mouth (up and to the left). A close up of the head area. Unfortunately, her “skull” was split and her limbs were severed.
Look closely at her wing. What purpose do you suppose those barbs serve? Check out the compound eye. One lens for each receptor. A different way of seeing. Not the way we vertebrates we do it.

Image credit: Prianka Zaman and Janae Headly