Sometimes you never know what you’ll learn when visiting the unseen world within your microscope. The closer you look, the more interesting our natural world becomes, as George Sabo, one of our customers, recently discovered with his Omano OM3344 stereo microscope. While out and about on his property in Arizona, he came across a colorful little beetle which led to this amazing story, relayed by email…
Arizona Blister Beetle - Photo Credit George Sabo
“When I ran down a hill and captured this beetle, he sprayed orange juice on my fingers – luckily I had bottled water along and washed it right off – otherwise I would have had a problem.”
As George almost discovered first-hand, these beetles are also known as blister beetles, for the blisters their secretions can raise on living tissue.
Blisters can be painful, but that’s not all our colorful little friend can produce. According to Margarethe Brummermann, an Arizona biologist, blister beetles are poisonous. Some species such as the Striped Blister Beetle can cause health problems in livestock. They’ve been known to cause digestive damage, internal bleeding and, in rare cases, even death to grazing animals like horses who feed on hay containing the beetles.”
Striped Bristle Beetle - Credit Charles S. Lewallen
Besides the colorful and potent beetles, George goes on to describe a common theme among budding microscopists, the enchantment of learning something new…”I found a fascinating book on the diversity of life on our earth, and it made me look at things in a new way, and this led me to buy the Omano stereo zoom microscope from you people which has literally opened up a new world to me.”
“The clear, three dimensional images this instrument can produce are truly amazing! I am just getting started collecting specimens from both the desert environment where we winter and our summer home area in Northwest Washington, and I know it will be a real adventure seeing these with my outstanding new microscope!”
George, we couldn’t have said it better ourselves. Thanks for sharing and showcasing yet another window into the wonders of nature hiding before our eyes.
