YETI !!!

[Ken Ramos]

Collembola @ 25X
Sony DSC P200 @ 7mgp (STD) Manual Exposure, focus @ infinity
1/25 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100
Zeiss Axiostar Plus, 2.5X Zeiss A-Plan objective
Duel Pipe Fiber Optic cold halogen illumination


Collembola, head @ 100X
Sony DSC P200 @ 7mgp (STD) Manual Exposure, focus @ infinity
1/25 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100
Zeiss Axiostar Plus, 10X Zeiss A-Plan objective
Duel Pipe Fiber Optic cold halogen illumination

Note that the eyes or the area around the eyes, is rectangular. Possibly a photosensitive area of sorts. Note also that there appears what could be compound eyes. These may also be ocelli, which is what I would lean towards them being. However this photograph unfortunately does not show them as distinct as what they were through the microscope. I know, I know, some good stacking software would greatly help in these images. However, selective focus is all I can hope for at present.


Collembola, showing furcula
Sony DSC P200 @ 7mgp (STD) Manual Exposure, focus @ infinity
1/30 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100
Zeiss Axiostar Plus, 10X Zeiss A-Plan objective
Duel Pipe Fiber Optic cold halogen illumination

[rjlittlefield]

Note that the eyes or the area around the eyes, is rectangular. Possibly a photosensitive area of sorts. Note also that there appears what could be compound eyes. These may also be ocelli, which is what I would lean towards them being.

Ken,

You're not the only person to waffle about how to describe those eyes. At http://delta-intkey.com/britin/ord/www/collembo.htm, Watson and Dallwitz describe the Collembola as: "Compound eyes present and well developed (but composed of eight or fewer omitidia), or vestigial or absent. Ocelli 0–16 (the distinction between compound eyes and ocelli here being indistinct)."

http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/ ... ollem.html provides a similar description.

Other authors say that the collembola do not have compound eyes at all, e.g. http://entomology.unl.edu/lgh/insectid/ ... rygota.htm and http://www.cals.ncsu.edu/course/ent425/ ... photo.html. (The latter makes the additional refinement of calling the units "lateral ocelli = stemmata", and amusingly enough is inconsistent with the description at the closely related site linked in the previous paragraph.)

Obviously the beasts have what they have, and I doubt that the various authorities would disagree about the beasts themselves.

But in these on-the-edge cases, considerable confusion can arise in the descriptions, when one author for example decides to call the structure a collection of ocelli, and somebody else looking at the beast or a picture of one says "nope, can't be that -- this here is clearly a compound eye".

Presence of the furcula does seem to be unambiguous, however.

--Rik

[rjlittlefield]

Ken,

By the way, is "YETI" an acronym for something, or do you refer to the Himalayan version of my old friend Bigfoot, treasured symbol of the Pacific NorthWest wilderness?

--Rik

[Ken Ramos]

Oh man, you mean I messed up and ID again?! Yes Rik I am refering to "Bigfoot." I have a reputation to keep up you know.

You wouldn't by chance have any images of him would you?

I am not quite finished with these little bugs though. I still want to see if I can capture one of the larger specimens that I found earlier. Just guessing, off hand, I would estimate those to be about 2 maybe 3 mm in length and they appear somewhat black. My images show them much lighter and that maybe due to the fiber optic illumination and the light being reflected, refracted or both, as it bounces of the butterfly like scales that cover its body. Maybe an adjustment of the white balance would remedy that. I will have to wait and see.

[rjlittlefield]

You wouldn't by chance have any images of him would you?

I do Well, sort of...

I think I have an old slide of a Bigfoot carving done by one of the coast Indian tribes and left around to guard camping spaces near the beach

Actually it stirs my soul to think that Bigfoot may be real, but I confess it's hard to keep the morale up when the hair samples keep turning out to be bison or some such. Oh well

--Rik

[Ken Ramos]

I know this is off topic but that image of Bigfoot, something looks really out of place there. As a matter of fact a few things seem out of place. Not to go into great detail about them all but just to mention one, Bigfoot himself looks really out of place in that image. Almost like he is super imposed on to the scenery behind him. However I hope Bigfoot is alive and well and that what ever it really is will never be found out.

We have a phenomonon here known as the "Brown Mountain Lights." To this very day no one knows what they are or what causes them. Some of them have the ability to move around a central, much larger light. Many a creepy yarn has been spun around the campfire about these mysterious lights. A group of scientists from the University of North Carolina are set to investigate them and to solve the mystery of them. Those lights have been there ever since I was a small boy and long before that. I have been privilaged to view them many times and each time I do it sends chills down ones spine. I sincerly hope that they like Bigfoot will remain... a most treasured mystery.

[wtrfall]

Hey ken
what a great collembolla pic!

It looks like a bunny if you turn it sideways.
Linn

PS: did any one ever here the bigfoot 911 tape?

[Ken Ramos]

Hi Lynne

Yes I noticed that myself, it does look like a bunny No I do not think I have ever seen or heard the 911 bigfoot tape Thanks Lynne!