Green lacewing... wing, eye.

[Charles Krebs]

I put the Green lacewing specimen photographed earlier under the microscope.

The upper shot is a piece of the wing photographed at 25X on sensor.

The lower shot is very different from the type of images I normally take, but it shows something specific. The eye of the lacewing has, at regular intervals, very small hairs emerging between the facets. Here I've taken a glancing image that focuses on three of these "hairs", while everything else is grossly out of focus. This was photographed at 125X on sensor. I took some time to measure the dimensions of these hairs. They are 5.7 micron (0.00022 inch) tall, and 0.97 micron (0.000038 inch) in diameter at their base.

These hairs are not bright white, they have picked up and reflected the direct light of the vertical illuminator in a manner similar to what was observed on the ant photographed here.

[rjlittlefield]

Fascinating details!

It's a small thing, but what I like best about these images is the tiny bit of texture that's visible on the wing membrane between the veins in the first image. It's exactly the right amount to simultaneously say "there's something here" and "this is really transparent".

Those hairs on the eye are interesting also. I confess, I've never looked remotely this close at a lacewing eye.

--Rik

[Aynia]

I love the hairs on the first one. Great stuff again Charlie.