Hoverfly's eye. Fluorescent coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the compound eye of a hoverfly (family: Syrphidae). The eye consists of hun

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Hoverfly's eye. Fluorescent coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the compound eye of a hoverfly (family: Syrphidae). The eye consists of hundreds of individual structures called ommatidia. Each ommatidium is capped by a cuticular biconvex lens, and it is the cumulative effect of these that produces the vision of a compound eye. The fluorescence here is an example of autofluorescence (no staining was carried out on the specimen). The image was constructed using a virtual slicing system, with 122 slices obtained to a depth of millimetres. The final image was obtained by creating a Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP). Magnification: x48 when printed at 10 centimetres across.

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Size: 3233px × 2705px
Photo credit: © Kevin Mackenzie/UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, animal, apotome, autofluorescence, axiozoom, background, biological, biology, black, body, coloured, compound, entomological, entomology, eye, false-coloured, fauna, flower, fluorescence, fluorescent, fly, hoverfly, insect, lens, lenses, microscope, mip, nature, ocular, ommatidia, ommatidium, optical, sem, sense, sensory, sight, syrphid, syrphidae, vision, visual, wildlife, zeiss, zoological, zoology