Hairy Mussel

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A broken hairy mussel shell and a different type of mussel shell


The’ hairy mussel’ as its name suggests is a mussel, which is a bivalve mollusc that you find at the beach or growing on rocks. The meat is harvested and eaten in restaurants. It is covered in what looks like hairs but when we look at it under the microscope, they don’t look like hairs at all. What we are wondering is:

Are the ‘hairs’ produced by the mussel or is it something else growing on the shell? If it is something else growing on the shell, why doesn’t that plant or animal grow on the shells of other molluscs?

What are the white things that appear to be growing on the ‘hairs’ of the mollusc?







Cicada eyes

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Do cicadas have compound eyes like flies?



Bush Cicada

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Sydney summers are known for the deafening sounds of cicadas. We have many bush cicadas around us and we found a dead one on the window sill. We thought it would be interesting to look at with the MiScope. They have clear wings that look like they are made of plastic.



Strange Flowers

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In most parts of Australia, it is very dry, so our plants are different to plants in other parts of the world. The leaves are usually spiky and small and the flowers have very small petals and look hairy.

This is what a bottlebrush flower looks like. It is approximately 10cm long.

With both of these flowers, it looks like they have no petals or if they do they are funny looking. But when you look under the microscope. You get a different picture.