Simply by sending in periodic records of organisms from a single locality can help increase knowledge of under-recorded groups. It is a fact that amateur experts can make valuable contributions to scientific knowledge (and many examples can be found in the pages of the Quekett Journal of Microscopy). However, you may find that you are attracted to a particular group, or groups, of organism and wish to study them in some depth. It is no sin to be a dabbler and take a general interest in microscopic life delighting in finds that come your way – either from field collecting or through purchasing prepared slides.

Some will need to be preserved and mounted as slide preparations in order to fully discern their structure but some will not preserve at all well (e.g. Very active ones may need to be held in a compressorium or live box, or anaesthetised in some way. Don’t forget that microscopic life can be found on or even inside other creatures and plants.Īll of the organisms can be studied alive. But this extends to include temporary puddles and damp moss, lichen or soil. Many microscopic organisms have an aquatic habit, either freshwater or marine. In other cases a trawl with a plankton net may yield up a teaming mass of crustacean larvae or rotifers.

Microscopic life, that is single and multi-celled organisms under about 2 mm in size, is naturally not always easy to spot – it may be a tiny hint of movement in a clump of moss that reveals the presence of a nematode or water bear. There really is no shortage of subjects: life is all around us – we just have to look for it. Then, of course, some macroscopic organisms have microscopic parts or life stages – think of seeds, spores, eggs and larvae. The surface of a leaf, the head of a wasp, scales on a butterfly wing, are just as amazing today as when they were marvelled at by the first users of microscopes in the sixteenth century. There is certainly much to discover and to delight in through investigating any organism, of whatever size, under a microscope, or even a magnifying glass.

Home | Starting with microscopes | Microscopic life Microscopic life Bulletin of the Quekett Microscopical Club.

Plant spore microscope pond water