Butterfly tongue in extreme close-up

Image by Kata Kenesei and Barbara Orsolits of the Institute of Experimental Medicine - Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

While watching for Monarch butterflies to fly through, consider the insect's tongue.

Generally called the proboscis, the tubelike tongue uncoils for feeding. You can see a butterfly sipping with its proboscis if you are very still and lucky.

Or if you are an imaginative researcher, you can capture a butterfly, get out your microscope and take a photo.

Above is an image of a coiled butterfly tongue seen at 60 times magnification. The photo was taken for Nikon's Small World competition that honors images of objects too small for the unaided eye to see.

See more images here.