[Use of a new process of metallic shadowing by cathodic vaporization for scanning electron microscopy of tegumental products of insects].

Abstract

In scanning electron microscopy, the recent process, not yet much used, of coating subjects with gold by cathodic sputtering, allows one in biology and especially in entomology, to visualize microreliefs, habitually masked, when the old technique called evaporating technique, was used. This process effectively allows one to deposit a very much thinner layer of metal and, because it is performed at room temperature, prevents artifacts caused by the high temperature necessitated by the other technique, whose previous results nevertheless remain generally correct.