We are living in a huge ecosystem, where different organisms—plants, animals, and humans—interact with one another. One of these organisms are the insects. Thus, it is but natural that science decided to dedicate one field of it to them: entomology.

Insects are little organisms that we often take for granted. What we may not know is that they do play an integral role in our lives. In fact, they are very fundamental in forensic investigations.

Forensic Entomology

When a crime scene is created, it’s not only a decomposing body that’s present. There are also other types of organisms, such as insects. Forensic entomology focuses on the participation of insects as well as other arthropods that tend to live in decomposing bodies during the crime. Hence, insects are very useful for criminal investigations. There are different areas that make up forensic entomology.

There are times when a forensic entomologist may have to present themselves as witnesses in civil cases that demand monetary damages. This is because they deal well with urban pests, which have significant impact in the economy. This only means that the insects can have profound effect not only on the environment they thrive but also on men themselves. Urban pest forensic entomology has two components, namely, criminal and civil, as urban pests can live in both the dead and the living. The way they suck or feed on bodies may create wounds or punctures on the skin which may mislead someone into believing that the dead underwent abuse before death.

The medicolegal section, meanwhile, only deals with the criminal aspect of the law and concentrates on insects that feed and infest remains of humans. Insects that thrive in stored products are excellent materials to study when it comes to food contamination. The forensic entomologist, the expert witness, may have to present himself to court during civil or criminal proceedings.

Biological Microscopes and Their Role in Entomology

Biological microscopes are capable of studying very intently the insects that have been gathered from a decomposing body. For one, forensic entomologists can study their growth and development, which can be illustrated by the presence of body parts that are determinant of their age.

New breeds of biological microscopes are equipped with achromatic objectives that can be mounted on multiple reversed nosepiece. This is to create high-contrast, bright specimen images. They also contain focus knobs, Abbe condenser, and a mechanical stage. The digital biological microscope, meanwhile, makes use of a USB camera that can be attached through its photography port that is built in.

Digital biological microscopes are excellent if you want to achieve greater viewing or magnification of specimens that are mounted on the slides. They may also include the entire microscopy system which can be utilized to capture digital video in real time. Because it can also connect to a camera, you can take high-quality still pictures, in various sizes.

X-ray Biological Microscope in Entomology

Through the modification of the electron microscope, the projection X-ray biological microscope was born. They can produce vivid and high-quality micrographs, which only mean they are indeed useful not only in the field of histology but in entomology as well.

3D Viewing of Insects

It is practically very important for an entomologist to view insects in 3D. This is because the color, shape, and size that are all reflected by the 3D microscope can indicate what type of specimen is being monitored. 3D microscopes are known to be highly flexible that they can perform simple tasks such as observation to more advanced ones, including thorough analysis of the specimen. This will also provide you a capability to assess, record, and share the information you have garnered as quickly and as effective as possible.

The most efficient 3D microscope is one that is equipped with a well-designed rotating manipulator that can present specimens in complete 3D format. You can automatically convert a sample into a 3D image in even as short as below 30 seconds, without any form of interaction from users. They may also have specialty lenses that will allow you to increase the size of the original specimen to as high as 7000x. The images can then be stored in your computers in two common formats: AVI as well as raw.

This new method of viewing a specimen gives any entomologist the capability to concentrate on the process of analysis itself and the gathering of important data rather than be tied to the traditional processes of documentation and imaging.

This is only the beginning for entomology. It will become a more useful scientific field as scientists will discover more ways on how insects can help improve science. Digitalbiologicalmicroscopes.com will give you more ideas on entomology.