Micro Monsters: scanning electron microscope images of insects, spiders and creepy crawlies


They may look like monsters from a horror film, but these tiny creatures inhabit our homes, clothes and even our bodies. A new book, 'Micro Monsters', showcases some of the planet's most horrible insects and microscopic beasts. British author and trained zoologist, Tom Jackson, spent three months compiling the images in the book. Scientists coated the tiny creatures in gold, froze them in liquid nitrogen and fired a beam of electrons at the subjects from a scanning electron microscope to reveal the incredible detail
Coloured scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of a single dust mite among skin scales in housedust
"I wanted to get together all the most gruesome and beastly pictures I could," said 38 year-old Tom from Bristol. "This book shows children everything that's around them at home, the garden and the playground."
A human head louse with an egg
"The pictures I'm most pleased with are the close-up portraits of insects that show the intricate details of their eyes, mandibles and even the hairs on their heads," said Tom
A brown ant biting a blade of grass
"I've tested the book out on my son Ned and it hasn't given him any bad dreams, in fact he loves it. In particular Ned likes like the nasty worms."
A maggot head
In scanning electron microscopy, a beam of electrons is fired at the subjects. Electrons have shorter wavelengths than lights waves so smaller objects can be captured.
An earwig on a leaf
Micro Monsters is shortly to be launched in the UK by Amber Books
A European hornet
A daddy long legs
Two water bears (or tardigrades, microscopic, water-dwelling creatures
A pill woodlouse
A grain weevil
A stable fly
A fruit fly
A female Lucilia blowfly laying her eggs
A female yellow fever mosquito
A tsetse fly
An aphid (Greenfly) feeding on a leaf
A bluebottle fly
A yellow dung fly
A long-horned beetle
A hover fly