Dragonfly larvae hatching from eggs

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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svalley
Posts: 343
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:07 pm
Location: Albany, Oregon

Dragonfly larvae hatching from eggs

Post by svalley »

Anax junius nymph or larvae just hatched. The eye-spot and some internal structure is visible on the un-hatched egg.

Image

Nymphs 1 day old.

Image

Nymph 1 week old. The main trunks of the trachea are visible, leading from the internal gills to the head.

Image

Shot with a B&L compound scope at 50x, Nikon F3, Kodachrome 64. I do not have a darkfield condenser, so I used a front surface mirror, off axis, and an electronic flash. Primitive, but it worked. I used photoshop to clean up the background.
"You can't build a time machine without weird optics"
Steve Valley - Albany, Oregon

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Primitive, but it worked.
I'd say it worked quite well. These are very interesting pictures. I've seen a lot of insects hatching, but never a dragonfly. That's a great side view of the mask in the freshly hatched nymph.

--Rik

svalley
Posts: 343
Joined: Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:07 pm
Location: Albany, Oregon

Post by svalley »

Thanks Rik, I would really love to have a top of the line microscope with all the wonderful optic and lighting options, like some of the people posting here have. All I have to do is win the lottery, LOL. Equipment may not make the photographer, but it define the limits.
"You can't build a time machine without weird optics"
Steve Valley - Albany, Oregon

Ken Ramos
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Joined: Thu Jul 27, 2006 2:12 pm
Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841

Post by Ken Ramos »

If I were a trout I would say it's dinner time. Never seen this before, quite an intesting group of shots. :D

beetleman
Posts: 3578
Joined: Fri Aug 04, 2006 4:19 am
Location: Southern New Hampshire USA

Post by beetleman »

I have never seen dragonfly eggs for that matter :shock: Great captures Steve
Take Nothing but Pictures--Leave Nothing but Footprints.
Doug Breda

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