The following images will make your head itch. If you are wondering what they show, let me tell you I have two kids and we live in Argentina (we’re in summer now). Yes! Lice! Never before I thought a louse would be a source of gratification for me. And that’s only because of Foldscope. Have a look.

Two lice have been filmed in this video: one female adult (from 1:19 to 2:01) and one nymph (rest of the video). I used the low mag lens and an iPhone 6 to record them.

It’s absolutely amazing the details Foldscope is able to resolve. From 1:07 to 2:16, we can see the inner parts of the abdomen with its digestive tube filled with my son’s blood. From 1:28 to 2:00, the two gonopods are seen in the dark shape of a } at the end of the abdomen. Two legs terminating with a single claw and opposing “thumb” the louse uses to grasps the hair of its host are seen between 2:18 and 2:41. Just after that until 2:55 and in the featured image of this post, we can clearly see the trachea –the air-pipes used by insects for respiration. And in the last part of the video, we go back to the mesmerizing movements of the digestive system.

If you enjoyed it as much as I did, maybe you would like to watch the raw images I used to edit the video: