Micro-Insects

Post your images made through a compound microscope or made with a stereo/dissecting microscope in this gallery. Images may be of any subject natural or unnatural, living or non-living.

Moderators: MacroMike, nzmacro, Ken Ramos, twebster, S. Alden

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Ken Ramos
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Micro-Insects

Post by Ken Ramos »

I am afraid to call them anything else! :lol: Here a while back I posted similar photographs of these critters on another website and almost faced a Grand Jury for my lack of taxonomical expertise, which spilled over into our Micro Forum, one of them with what appeared to be a coating of fungal hyphae and another without. I had identified them as being Collembola but was sternly told that they were Wooly Aphids. At present I am inclined to believe they are neither. Both of the following images show these insects with out the fungal hyphae and from what I can tell they feed on fungi and the globular algae that grows on the damp and decaying wood, on which they were found once more. :)

Image

Fig. 1: Somewhat over exposed, what appears to be a furcula, the white hot appendage at the posterior, may not be just that. I observed this little guy using the appendage to grasp with more than to jump. The body is almost like that of Collembola and so are the antenna. There also appears to be anywhere from seven to eight segments or what appears to be segments, along the abdomen.

Sony DSC P200 @ 7mgp (STD) focus @ infinity
Program mode
1/6 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100
Zeiss Axiostar Plus, 5X A-Plan (50X)
Duel Piper Fiber Optic halogen illumination

Image

Fig. 2: Here the segmentation of the abdomen is not as clearly seen but one of the two eyes, more than likely ocelli, can be seen. This insect is not the same one as in the first image but of another found close by.

Sony DSC P200 @ 7mgp (STD) focus @ infinity
Program mode
1/40 sec. @ f/2.8 ISO 100
Zeiss Axiostar Plus, 5X A-Plan (50X)
Duel Pipe Fiber Optic halogen illumination
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Kenneth Ramos
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Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.

wtrfall
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Post by wtrfall »

Yes I think you are right not an
aphid or collembolla. We will have to
id these buggers :lol:
I would live to find a real good entomology
encyclopedia full of pictures and
descriptions as I hate researching on-line.
I will google a few things and see what I can find. :)

wtrfall
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Post by wtrfall »

well found so far a good website:

http://ei.cornell.edu/teacher/pdf/D&R/D ... ert_ID.pdf

Collembolla (springtails) DO eat fungi
and when you said rotting wood I thought right
away of sow bugs although it doesnt look
like the kinds I have seen I think it may be in that genus :)

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Interestng link Lynne. :D Though I do not think they are related to sow bugs, I am inclined to think that they may be related to Collembola or could quite possibly be a species not cataloged. Although the one in the image with what appears to be a furcula, did not jump when prodded with a small needle, does not necessarily mean that it is not Collembola or a species there of. I have searched websites and books on insects and invertebrates but none reference the denizens of moss plants and most books, even university level publications on Entomology, do not address these tiny insects that are found among moss plants. :(
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Kenneth Ramos
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Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.

wtrfall
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Location: Massachusetts,USA

Post by wtrfall »

Yes :x
I have run up against many a wall trying
to Id insects. In entomology the Proff.
would just give us
a picture.
make us search for the genus
and species
of an insect. It was sometimes difficult.
Someone really needs to write
a good descriptive field guide with
ID of the uncommon ones. :)

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Ken,

Any chance you could dispatch one or two of these critters and get us a few higher magnification pictures?

Using some suitable multi-purpose liquid might ease the discomfort for everyone involved. (Stolichnaya comes to mind :D)

One good side shot ought to nail down the Collembola question pretty solid.

You could even use this as an excuse to try out that hot new Helicon Focus demo you've been slavering over! :wink:

--Rik

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Post by rjlittlefield »

By the way, did you know about this site: http://www.collembola.org/ ?

Probably more info than you ever wanted to know! (Including some nice pictures. Also including, in the Expertise section, some fellow with the USDA in North Carolina.)

--Rik

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Post by Ken Ramos »

Hi Rik! :D

I have been to the site that you posted the link to, a couple of times. There are some images there that are pretty close but no cigar. The weather has been sort of dry around here for the past few days with very low humidity, around 40+/-5%. This seems to be having an effect on how many of these little guys I happen to run across. When I do find some more of them I will try to isolate one or two and see if I can get some suitable images of them. Before I became interested in what they actually are, I used to run across them all the time while exploring samples of mosses. :D
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Charles Krebs
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Post by Charles Krebs »

C'mon Ken... don't you know a dragonfly when you see one?!? :wink: :wink: :wink:

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Ken Ramos
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Post by Ken Ramos »

Dragonflies Charlie :!: :?:
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Kens Microscopy
Reposts of my images within the galleries are welcome, as are constructive critical critiques.

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