Hello foldscopers!!

While studying today I spotted something I’ve been looking for since a very long time – a living insect!

I have a test to write tomorrow but I just couldn’t stop thinking about how this ant would look in cross polars…I ran to grab my foldscope and caught the ant.

Since I observed the leg muscles in the pseudoscorpion I’ve been dying to image a live insect to take a look at whether muscles show change in birefringence as they contract and relax!

I haven’t really been able to capture a satisfactory video but thought I’d share it anyway since I hardly get any time to foldscope these days ( and I’m hella cruious to get your views on what that green thing is )

If you see the leg muscles..there not much of a difference there..they are birefringent but no different colours spotted there BUT if you look the head you will see a burst of colours!! Especially this bright green region at the sides of the head. I really wonder what this region is..just a muscle oriented differently? poison glands? what is it???? Need to read more about fire ants! Let’s do it together! 🙂 Any entomolgists here?

~Have fun foldscoping! 🙂

Mitali Patil

Ramnarain Ruia Autonomous College, Mumbai.