"fruit fly compound eye"
Magnification 5,518x | Stage X -13.457mm | Stage Y 13.753mm | Focus Length 26.055mm | High Tension 5000kV | Contrast 17% | Brightness 47%

• Q: 'Is the purpose of the claw to get prey?'
  A: 'Roly polies are usually scavengers and decomposers, so they don't use their claws for catching, just for walking'
• Q: 'Do you have our roly poly'
  A: 'yes, try moving left from the ant, and you should see it...'
• Q: 'a bacterium is normally 2 microns long, so if there are bacteria in here you could see them'
  A: '1 microns = 3.93700787 × 10^-5 inches'
• Q: 'How big is a micron?'
  A: 'one millionth of a meter. hair is usually on the order of 40 - 80 microns wide'
• Q: 'Are there air holes in the wing?'
  A: 'Frequently. These are not the cleanest wing scales I've seen. Sometimes you can see a fascinating pattern of ribs and small holes. The reason for them is to reduce weight while remaining structurally solid and increasing surface area'
• Q: 'We can't see the pictures in the preset area, This was below the ant mouth. I don't know what else we can view.'
  A: 'cathy, try to expand your browser to the full screen, then you should see the presets...'
• Q: 'What's the purpose of the hair on the abdomen?'
  A: 'The hairs, which are more appropriately called setae, help the ant to sense its environment. The hairs are connected to the insects nervous system, and communicate all sorts of information about the ant's surroundings.'
• Q: 'What kind of ant are we looking at?'
  A: 'Ants are difficult for me...I am not sure what kind this is.'
• Q: 'Are the antennae off to the sides of the mouth or in the middle?'
  A: 'The antennae are on the top of the head, we cannot see the bases of them right now. The antenna-like things in the middle of the ant's head are mandibular and maxillary palps...which help the ant to taste.'
• Q: 'We are wondering what Annie did to learn to be an entomologist?'
  A: 'I have an undergraduate degree in biology, then I went to graduate school and earned and masters degree in entomology and now I am working on my PhD'
• Q: 'Is the type of mouth we are looking at considered a "chomp & chew" mouth?'
  A: 'We generally call these "chewing mouthparts"---chewing mouthparts are considered the most general form of insect mouthpart'
• Q: 'We learned that roly polys eat stones and concrete as part of their diet. Is it part of an ant's diet too?'
  A: 'Often ants don't directly eat what they collect. Instead they bring the food back to their nest and store it underground in dark, moist "farms" where it grows fungi which they later harvest and eat'