Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Cheese Mites

The book I'm working on has some amazing and famous engraved plates.  Robert Hooke published Micrographia in London in 1665, describing and illustrating his observations made through a microscope. 
Here is his illustration for "cheese mites":
 

Here is a current picture:
 not bad, huh?  I had assumed that the critters in the engraving were an out of date name and that modern science had come up with more accurate details, but no cheese mites are for real.  

Cheers!


 




2 comments:

drastician said...

mmm... competition for Casu marzu?

atthebench said...

I love this bit from your link "When disturbed, the larvae can launch themselves for distances up to 15 centimetres (6 in)" leapin' larvae!!