Front foot of a male diving beetle
The image above shows the front foot of a male diving beetle, taken using a confocal microscope. Magnification: 100x. (Click on the image to go to the source page)
The image, which won the 5th place in the 2016 Nikon Small World photomicrography competition, was later published in a book entitled Animal: Exploring the Zoological World. “The three flat discs at the top of the image are suction cups that males use to secure themselves to the female during mating, and for up to a further six hours of post-copulatory guarding," according to the book. Prior to mating, the males are thought to exhaust the females of oxygen by shaking them and keeping them underwater in order to make them more placid.
A Haiku inspired by the image
Three rings of power
immense magic underfoot
Exhale! New life