One morning, I noticed a group of what looked like tiny dots on the side of my house. Because insects tend to congregate there when the porch light gets turned on at night, I thought maybe they were insect eggs of some sort. Well, you know me, I just had to take a closer look at them under my Foldscope 2.0! Read on to find out what I saw!
Initial Thought
My first thought was that they were moth eggs. I had seen a moth resting near that spot during the past couple of days and I wish I had taken a picture of it! Next time I will be better prepared! I decided to go ahead and scrape the eggs off of the wall and put them on a slide in the hopes that any images I captured would help me identify what they were.
Color
I started my microscopic investigation with the 50X lens. The bright green color of the eggs blew me away! This was really unexpected considering how they looked on the house and the slide. While admiring their brilliant color, I experimented with the lighting by sliding the LED light module from side to side (which alternated the light from brightfield to dark field). The reflective light setting on the 2.0 LED light module revealed even more iridescence and variety of green color in the eggs.
Insect Egg Structures
I read that insect eggs have a protective coating, or shell, made of chorion. The chorion is composed of several layers with one being a thick waxy layer that prevents water loss. Insect egg shells are usually textured with ribs and pits, but I was not able to see any of that. The 140X lens did show the chorion as a dark outline around the eggs.
Inside of an insect egg there is a yolk that serves as a nutrition source for the larva. In addition to the yolk, the eggs contain cytoplasm and a nucleus. Inside the nucleus are the chromatin which make the chromosomes. I could not clearly identify any of these structures, but at 140X magnification plus 5X zoom on my phone, I was able to see what looked like tiny spheres inside of the eggs. Maybe a fellow Foldscoper could tell me what those are? If you can, I thank you in advance for your help!
Happily, this unexpected exploration of insect eggs led to some strikingly beautiful images. They gave me an opportunity to participate in a moment of awe and wonder with the natural world. And even though I am not sure what kind of eggs these are, I am hopeful that a Foldscope Explores… blog reader (maybe you?) will be able to help me solve this mystery!
Have you looked at insect eggs under a Foldscope 2.0? Use your Foldscope to dive into the microscopic world and find the beauty that is there waiting for you. Share your microscopic images and thoughts on the Microcosmos. Be sure to tag us on social media when you post the results of your explorations, creations, and discoveries! We love to see how Foldscopers around the world are using their Foldscopes in new and innovative ways!
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Sources:
https://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/butterfly/anatomy/Egg.shtml
