Insect and Invertebrate Microscope Slides
Whole mounts and sections of insects, worms, and other invertebrate organisms.
Every slide here is a scan of a real prepared specimen, not a simulation or a drawing. Pan from the whole slide down to individual cells, always in focus, and measure structures in real micrometers. Present a slide live and every student screen follows your view and annotations. Students join with a room code on Chromebooks, iPads, or any browser, with no accounts.
31 Invertebrates slides
- Ant (Whole Mount) Formicidae: This is a whole mount of an ant (family Formicidae), left unstained so the natural amber color of its outer skeleton shows. Like all insects, it has three…
- Antenna of Butterfly (Whole Mount) Lepidoptera: This is a whole mount of a butterfly antenna (order Lepidoptera), shown unstained so the natural brown color of its hard outer covering shows. The antenna is…
- Aphid (Whole Mount) Aphis sp.: This is a whole mount of an aphid (Aphis), a small insect that feeds on plant sap. The body is soft and rounded, with a clear, amber outer covering. The dark…
- Butterfly Leg (Whole Mount) Lepidoptera: This whole mount shows a butterfly leg (order Lepidoptera) in its natural color. The leg is made of long, jointed segments covered by a hard, amber-colored…
- Butterfly Wing Scales (Whole Mount) Lepidoptera: This is a whole mount of a small piece of butterfly wing (order Lepidoptera), with no stain added. The wing is covered in thousands of tiny, flat scales that…
- Cockroach Mouthparts (Whole Mount) Periplaneta americana: This is a whole mount of cockroach mouthparts (Periplaneta americana). The main piece shown is a maxilla, one of a pair of mouthparts that sit behind the jaws…
- Cyclops (Whole Mount) Cyclops sp.: This whole mount shows Cyclops, a tiny freshwater crustacean called a copepod, stained red with Safranin. The front of the body is wide and rounded, then it…
- Daphnia (Whole Mount) Daphnia: This whole mount shows a Daphnia, or water flea, stained red with carmine. Daphnia is a tiny freshwater crustacean, related to crabs and shrimp. Its body sits…
- Dragonfly Leg (Whole Mount) Anisoptera: This is a whole mount of a dragonfly leg (Anisoptera). The leg is made of long, jointed segments covered by a hard, amber-colored outer skeleton, the…
- Dragonfly Wing (Whole Mount) Anisoptera: This is a whole mount of part of a dragonfly wing (suborder Anisoptera), with no stain added. The wing is a thin, clear membrane held in a frame of brown…
- Drosophila (Whole Mount) Drosophila melanogaster: This is a whole mount of an adult fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster), seen from the side. The body has three parts: the head, the thorax with the legs and…
- Earthworm (Cross Section) Lumbricus terrestris: This cross section of an earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) is stained pink with H&E. The outside is the body wall: a thin cuticle and skin, a thin ring of…
- Female Mosquito Mouthparts (Whole Mount) Culex: This whole mount shows the head and mouthparts of a female Culex mosquito. The long, curved tube is the proboscis, and its outer sheath, the labium, holds six…
- Honeybee Antenna (Whole Mount) Apis mellifera: This whole mount shows a honeybee (Apis mellifera) antenna, unstained, in its natural brown color. It has three main parts: a long scape at the base, a short…
- Honeybee Foreleg (Whole Mount) Apis mellifera: This is a whole mount of a honeybee front leg (Apis mellifera). The leg is made of segments joined end to end, covered in hairs and bristles, and it ends in a…
- Honeybee Mouthparts (Whole Mount) Apis mellifera: This is a whole mount of a honeybee head (Apis mellifera), seen from the front. Two large compound eyes, made of many tiny lenses, cover the sides of the…
- Honeybee Wing (Whole Mount) Apis mellifera: This is a whole mount of a honeybee wing (Apis mellifera), shown unstained in its natural color. The wing is a thin, clear membrane held stiff by a network of…
- House Fly Leg (Whole Mount) Musca domestica: This whole mount shows an entire house fly (Musca domestica) leg, unstained, so its natural brown color shows. The leg is built from jointed sections: a coxa…
- House Fly Wing (Whole Mount) Musca domestica: This is a whole mount of a house fly (Musca domestica) wing. The wing is a thin, clear membrane held up by a network of brown veins, which act like a frame…
- Housefly Antenna (Whole Mount) Musca domestica: This is a whole mount of a housefly antenna (Musca domestica), shown in its natural amber color. A housefly antenna is short, with one large, rounded segment…
- Housefly Mouth Parts (Whole Mount) Musca domestica: This is a whole mount of the mouthparts of a housefly (Musca domestica), left unstained. A housefly cannot bite; instead, it has a proboscis, a tube that…
- Leech (Cross Section) Hirudo medicinalis: This transverse section of the medicinal leech (Hirudo medicinalis) is stained with H&E. The body wall has a thin outer cuticle and a layer of skin cells…
- Locust Testis (Transverse Section) Locusta migratoria: This is a transverse section of a locust testis (Locusta migratoria), stained with hematoxylin. The testis is made of many long tubes called follicles, and…
- Locust Wing (Whole Mount) Locusta migratoria: This whole mount shows part of a locust wing (Locusta migratoria), with no stain added. The wing is a thin, see-through sheet called the membrane. Thick, dark…
- Male Mosquito Mouthparts (Whole Mount) Culex sp.: This is a whole mount of the head and mouthparts of a male mosquito (Culex). The dark oval at the top is the head, and coming off it are the antennae, with…
- Mosquito Larva (Whole Mount) Culex sp.: This whole mount shows the larva of a Culex mosquito, left unstained so its natural color shows. The larva has a rounded head with dark eye spots, a wide…
- Mosquito Leg (Whole Mount) Culex sp.: This whole mount shows a single leg from a Culex mosquito, left unstained so its natural brown color shows. The leg is long and thin and bends at joints…
- Mosquito Wings (Whole Mount) Culex pipiens: This whole mount shows an unstained wing from a mosquito (Culex pipiens), a small fly. The wing is a long, narrow, clear sheet held up by veins that run from…
- Oyster Gill (Cross Section) Crassostrea virginica: This is a cross section of an oyster gill (Crassostrea virginica), stained with H&E. Rows of thin gill filaments line the edges of the section like the teeth…
- Planaria (Transverse Section) Dugesia: This is a transverse section (cross section) of a planarian flatworm (Dugesia). The body is thin and flat, which lets oxygen reach every cell by diffusion…
- Pollen-Carrying Leg of Honeybee (Whole Mount) Apis mellifera: This is a whole mount of the hind leg of a worker honeybee (Apis mellifera), left unstained. The long, flat segment near the middle is the tibia. Its outer…