Ground Beetle from the Amazon!

While enjoying a little luxury at the end of our program at Ceiba Tops Lodge, one of the teachers participating in the Amazon Workshops Educator Academy brought us this spectacular blue beetle. In all honesty, it looked like a regular black ground beetle and we almost didn't take the time to put it under the scope. At the last minute we did and BOY were we surprised! Under the light, the dark navy blue is metallic and you can just see the little puncture-like marks on the vertex (top of the head) and pronoun (the shield that covers the membrane of the "neck"). The beetle was so scramble-y that we had to film it and then take a screenshot from the video. I think we got footage of it biting one of us. Don't worry, you'll see it soon.

**We went to the Peruvian Amazon in July to train teachers with the Amazon Workshops Educator Academy in July. Celestron sponsored part of our trip and we brought digital microscopes down to capture the amazing diversity of the rainforest. We will be highlighting images and videos from our trip over the next few months.**