Project in progress (part 3)

Lesson learned, don't flap around when fragile butterfly wing bits are on the microscope slide as they have a tendency to catch the breeze and float into oblivion.

This was taken from the upper surface of the butterfly wing, the blue colour isn't obvious as the light is shining through from underneath. What I found interesting were the little scale structures. Are these going to grow into larger scales, or are they subsidiary?  Interspersed among the scales are hair like structures (are they hairs or modified scales?) (Addendum: I've just found out that scales are modified hairs).

I took some pictures at higher magnification, but will need to do some serious Googling to see if I can find anything about the details of types and forms of wing scales. Initial forays into the ether have not been very successful.

Scales were removed using the sellotape method and I then looked at the wing. It would seem that the scales are laid down on a membrane.

The following two images show the same section of wing taken with top lighting (top image) and transmitted light (bottom image).

It is clear  that the scales on the upper surface of the wing are quite different is shape to those on the under surface.

Top lighting (top image) shows the blue colour of the upper wing surface. The transmitted light (lower bottom image) seems to show more detail of the scales.

Project in progress (part 2)

It was possible to look at the butterfly under the stereoscopic microscope without having to take it to pieces. However, in order to get a closer look, I needed to get out the compound microscope which unfortunately meant that this pretty little creature had to be dismantled.

Part of the wing was removed and viewed with top lighting. The scales overlap, like slates on a roof. Long hairs are present in some areas of the wing.

The wings were fringed with longer multi-toothed scales.

I removed some of the scales using sellotape in order that I could view them using the transmitted light shining through from underneath.

The next set of pictures is of strewn scales from the wings.

Part three of the project is to look at scales from the upper and lower surfaces of the wing in more detail.  From initial viewings, it looks as if the lower surface of the wings have longer scales than the upper surfaces. it will be interesting too to see if there is any difference between the pairs of wings.

Project in progress

The wonders of the internet bring you into contact with so many interesting people. Through one such encounter  I became the recipient of  lovely little butterfly, a Common blue (Polyommatus icarus). I have a number of unrealised projects, and one of them is to look the scales on the wings of butterflies and moths. So when the butterfly arrived, I made a start.

 I set up the stereo microscope for those first views, and took pictures with a Dinoscope lens that replaces one of the eyepieces and is directly connected to the computer. Other pictures were taken with the set up as shown below.

The following pictures show the start of the project. Lighting is always a problem, getting sufficient light with no shadows. Then there is the problem of depth of field.

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) -eye

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) eye

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) wing

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) wing showing scales

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) wing scales

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) wing scales

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) edge of wing

Common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) edge of wing

 A start has been made, I now want to improve the clarity of the images so will use the compound microscope.