The walk to the mailbox
The mailbox is about a quarter mile from the house. Always an enjoyable walk for me. And so I had just finished reading this article, A Mystery Solved: Why Does Coral Glow?. Why and what glows under a UV light often crosses my mind. Hence, the UV question was fresh on my mind today as I walked down the driveway.
So why do the above things glow? The flowers’ UV help guide the pollinators. Other insects might use it to attract a mate. Or they might glow to be a warning. I do not know on the warning, just speculating on that 🙂 One study found that scorpions used their whole bodies as light-detection devices! Scientists have not yet determined why lichens do. So there are a lot of mysteries to be questioned on the walk to the mailbox.
Keep looking!
The more you know, the more you see and the more you see, the more you know.
Those tiny fossils are really cool. To bad they arent larger. The uv is so cool. Some things that glow kinda surprise me. But your reasons make sense.
Wow, the fossils in your gravel are amazing! And the life we normally can’t see without help, like the UV visible flower parts, are stunning.
What a clever study design for the corals! Good job to those researchers! Thanks for sharing your local glows.
I was wishing I had a dissecting microscope today. What is the power magnification compared to a regular standard microscope?
I have some weevil larva in my sweet potatoes. The sweet potato weevil. I used my biggest magnification loupe and it was amazing what I saw. A black eye, legs developing and a long abdomen. But best part was a proboscis, I think. Hard to hold a hand held magnifier and take pictures. I”ll send you my best shot Mary.
When the microscope has two eyepieces it is call a dissecting or a stereo microscope. My dissecting microscope is 10x and 30x. I got your photo! Very nice!