Insect Microscopy E-Book

Andrew Chick

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Insects, and their close relatives, the arachnids, centipedes, millipedes and woodlice, make ideal material for study by the recreational microscopist. Moreover for the entomologist, the addition of the use of the microscope to their tool kit adds a whole new dimension to their study, revealing in finest detail the appearance and structure of these tiny creatures. This book reveals the basics of insect microscopy, explaining what equipment is needed and how to get the best out of it. Topics covered include insects and their relatives; trapping insects for study; dissection, slide mounting, and publishing your work. This fascinating guide to the basics of insect microscopy will make ideal material for study by the recreational microscopist and will be of great interest to science students and entomologists. Beautifully illustrated with 140 colour photographs.

Leseprobe

Insect Microscopy

ANDREW CHICK

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2016 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2016

© Andy Chick 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 202 1

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my long suffering fiancée Kim-Louise, my Mum and my Dad.

Acknowledgements

Over the years I have had the pleasure of the support of a great number of people who have encouraged me to grab every half opportunity that presents itself. First and foremost my family: my fiancée Kim-Louise, my Mum, my Dad, as well as my Gran and all of the Out-Laws that have put up with my obsession with ‘bugs’. Academically I would like to thank my PhD supervisors: Dr Chris Terrell-Nield, who fostered a lifelong love of the insects; Prof. John Cassella, who inspired my love of research; as well as the Secondary Supervisors Prof F.B. Pyatt, Dr C. Smillie and Dr R. Stubbington. I am grateful to Clare Adams and the Department of Geography at the University of Nottingham as well as Paul Brown at the British Natural History Museum for their advice regarding naphrax. I would also like to thank my colleagues at the University of Derby and the University of Lincoln for their support during the writing of this book.

CONTENTS

1     THE INSECTS AND THEIR RELATIVES

2     MICROSCOPES

3     EQUIPMENT

4     MEDIA FOR MOUNTING

5     PREPARING INSECTS

6     DISSECTION

7     COMPOUNDS, CHEMICALS AND POTIONS

8     SLIDE MOUNTING

9     PUBLISHING YOUR WORK

10   FURTHER INFORMATION

REFERENCES

APPENDIX – A SIMPLE IDENTIFICATION KEY

INDEX

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Theodore Roosevelt

CHAPTER ONE

THE INSECTS AND THEIR RELATIVES

The insects and their close relatives – the arachnids, centipedes, millipedes and woodlice – make ideal material for microscopic study by the recreational microscopist.

If you wanted to look at bacteria, for example, you need very high magnifications and top notch equipment to see them under the microscope; also to visualize a bacteria, the scientist must use a multi-stage staining process, even for temporary slides, not to mention the safety issues of culturing bacteria and the chemicals required. With the insects however, even at low magnifications using a small hand lens opens up a new world of detail when viewing even the most common of insects. If you take the time to prepare and slide mount an insect you can see the tiniest details of animals barely visible to the naked eye.

Insects are the perfect size for study, only requiring low to moderate magnifications. This size means that you can get by with only modest equipment. A stereo microscope and a simple compound microscope form a more than adequate starting point. Some might argue that all you need to start is a good ×10 hand lens, or watchmaker’s eye piece; however the aim of this book is to foster a love of microscopy, so it can be assumed that by picking up this publication the reader is moving beyond the realms of the simple lens.

Those that study insects are call entomologists, and the workhorse of entomology is at least one microscope; normally an entomologist will have at least a stereo microscope, usually with the ability to expand the range of magnification. Sometimes the stereo microscope is supplemented with a high power compound microscope (seeChapter 2).

Insects offer a number of advantages, other than size, to the recreational microscopist. You can start with either exotic ‘gift shop’ style insects normally embedded in a clear resin which are great to look at under a stereo microscope at low magnifications, or you might begin with prepared slides of insect parts available from most microscopy suppliers.