Spotted! A lanternfly!
Nov 10, 2021 • 6:54 PM UTC
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lslomka
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I conducted this project as part of Professor Pringle’s EEB321 class at Princeton University.
I was extremely excited to get to fold and use my own Foldscope, and I immediately knew that out of all the things I could pick up to examine on campus, I would want to look at a spotted lanternfly wing. I have been fascinated with the invasive spotted lanternflies since we learned about them a few weeks ago in lab, and I’ve enjoyed whacking them with a flyswatter all around campus for the past month or so. For ecological purposes, of course.
So I went straight to a tree, that I knew had a steady supply of flies.
I was extremely excited to get to fold and use my own Foldscope, and I immediately knew that out of all the things I could pick up to examine on campus, I would want to look at a spotted lanternfly wing. I have been fascinated with the invasive spotted lanternflies since we learned about them a few weeks ago in lab, and I’ve enjoyed whacking them with a flyswatter all around campus for the past month or so. For ecological purposes, of course.
So I went straight to a tree, that I knew had a steady supply of flies.
I smushed a few live ones, for ecological purposes, of course. And then I found an already dead (non-smushed one) and took part of its wing for my slide sample.
When I looked through my Foldscope, I was excited to see that… the wing of a spotted lanternfly does indeed have spots!
When I looked through my Foldscope, I was excited to see that… the wing of a spotted lanternfly does indeed have spots!
But the bottom of the wing has another pattern I had never noticed, which looks like bricks, and is much smaller and subtler than the spots which stand out clearly.
I also looked at a very pretty red leaf! This picture is blurry, but the color is magnificent!
I was very happy to get to see a spotted lanternfly wing up close, and I’m excited to see what other fun patterns I can find on campus!
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