498

Wasp honeycomb under the macroscop


Wasp honeycomb under the macroscop

Nature photography with the LM macroscope: Wasp's nest

Wasp nests are fascinating structures. We took a closer look at such a structure. Wasp nests have a honeycomb structure inside, but are made of a completely different material than honeycombs. The building material for wasp nests is exclusively wood! Wood fragments are finely chewed by the wasps, salivated and transported to the construction site. The wasp nest consists of a paper-like mass. The hexagonal honeycombs give the nest enormous stability. They serve as a storage location for the eggs. A wasp colony can contain up to 4000 animals in summer. The more animals a colony contains, the bigger the nest becomes.

This photo shows part of a wasp nest. The honeycomb structure can be seen very well. The photo was taken with our LM macroscope in combination with the two-part Plan Lens 5x and a Canon EOS 90D DSLR. This camera with APS-C sensor and 32 megapixels is ideal for microscopy and macroscopy and can be conveniently controlled from a PC / Mac with the Canon EOS utility software.

LM macroscope with plan lens 5x, Canon camera with APS-C sensor, 3 LED-spots