Biological Application of video microscope With this video microscope you can do an numerous quantity of observations. In fact, this type of instrument is particularly suited for the investigation of the natural world. In the article on the other application of microscope we have already supplied some suggestions of possible observations which are suitable also for this model. So, we border ourselves to add a number of other suggestions.

The observation of an anthill is surely fascinating. You will see many ants come out of the tunnels bringing a sand small piece in their mouth. Ninety percent of the time, they lay it in a too far above the ground place, so the grain will roll again into the tunnel. Other ants carry a grain at the highest place possible, like the top of grass blades, and they let it fall… again into the nest. This will not prevent the ants from carrying the ground out of their nest, creating what is a mountain for them. A similar thing is the carrying of food in the nest. Time and again many ants are engaged in the transport of the same object. Each of them pulls to its side. The object moves by chance. No one knows how, but in the end they succeed in reaching the entrance of a gallery and disappearing inside it. Raising a stone, often you will discover the nursery of the anthill. Be fast to place the video microscope because in a short time the ants will remove the larvae into the shelter of their nest. What about the war among ants? This event is not preceded by war declarations, so it is not easy to observe. At any rate, if it happens that you notice an unusual dark discolor in your garden, approach it: it is possible that it is a battle between opposed ant armies. Watching this fight with the video microscope is an impressive thing: soldier ants equipped with powerful jaws pierce through the belly, the thorax or the head of each other. After a while, the struggle ends. Worker ants will arrive to withdraw from the dead bodies which are carried in a special dumping-cemetery and the mysterious stain will disappear in silence, as it appeared. To contentedly observe an ant hill, you may obtain a steel tube with the same diameter of the column of the video microscope and mount the instrument on it. At this point, you can drive the tube into the ground near the ant hill. To avoid taking the microscope off its column, you can prepare a fitting which allows you to connect the column to the tube to be driven into the ground.

The dytiscus is an aquatic coleopter large as a phalanx of a finger. Also its lava lives in water. It is a violent predator. It has massive sharp jaws, like sickles. With them, it injects into the victim a proteolytic fluid, then it sucks its substances. At the end, what remains of the victim is the external skin only. Observing the larva of a dytiscus when it captures a boatfly, kills it and devours it is an impressive sight. Also the larvae of dragonfly can offer a comparable bloody spectacle, anyway, when they are young, they limit themselves to capturing water fleas. To do this, they evert a pair of jaws “mounted” on an articulated arm placed under their throat. This movement is so quick that the human eye is not able to follow it, but you can see the animal while it is chewing the unhappy shellfish. for the most part elegant are the larvae of damselflies. Butterflies are very beautiful, and observing them through the video microscope is surely spectacular. Their coiled proboscis, the instrument with which they suck the nectar of the flowers, is indeed interesting. Also their compound eyes are fine to see, but the colored scales which cover the wings and the body of these insects is what is most captivating about them. These scales have a different color and shape according the position on the wing and on the body. To observe a butterfly, you can place the video microscope in the garden or in a field, close to flowers which are visited by these insects. To this end, you can use the same technique we have recommended to observe the ant hill. You can also capture a butterfly and place it in a transparent box. To keep it motionless, put forward it some drops of honey assorted with water.