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.

The Western Horse Nettle (Solanum dimidiatum) has a glow!

Under the dissecting microscope!

Snow-on-the-prairie (Euphorbia bicolor)!

Under the dissecting microscope!

A piece of limestone gravel from the driveway. No glowing.

The fossils were only a few millimeters.

A close up under the dissecting scope, as was the above photo. This is at 30X.

The Spreading Sida (Sida abutifolia) was blooming nicely in the driveway. However, I did not bring a flower back to check for UV.

I wonder if the female Eastern Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa virginica) fuzz glows?

Or perhaps the male Eastern Carpenter Bee’s face does?

The Palafoxia (Palafoxia callosa) was negative for UV. Photo taken under the dissecting scope.

Final UV, is this Golden-eye Lichen (Teloschistes exilis)! This was not on the way to the mailbox. Instead I leave this specimen in my “dark room” to test my UV light.

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.

5 Comments

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

    1. 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!

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