Another Lousy Portrait ---- Amblycerid Louse?
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- Cactusdave
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Another Lousy Portrait ---- Amblycerid Louse?
This image is of a louse parasite from a pheasant. The slide is labelled ' parasite of Horned Tragopan' and is by a Victorian slide mounter, C. Collins Junior who sold slides under the name 'Micro-Naturalist' in the 1880s. The horned Tragopan is a species of pheasant, Tragopan melanocephalus, native to the Himalayas, but kept in captivity for its beautiful plumage. I tried to identify the louse, but I couldn't get much further than Sub-Order Amblycera, the chewing lice, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amblycera , commonly found on birds. I won't go into their method of feeding, particularly unpleasant! For details see the Wikipedia article.
The image is a stack and stitch.
Microscope: Nikon Diaphot Objective: Nikon X10, 0.25 Plan DIC Condenser: Nikon LWD 0.55 Phase/DIC Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Number of images: 468
Number of stacks: 29
Stacked with: Helicon Focus
Stitched with: Microsoft ICE
A larger 115 Megapixel version which can be zoomed into and navigated around is here http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=7ba ... a4bb38de22
I was puzzled by the black structure on the abdomen. I thought initially it might be undigested stomach contents, but the material appears to lie outside the body of the louse, and higher magnification seems to show feather remains.
The method of preparation of the slide has preserved the structure of the muscles and these show up well under DIC because of their birefringence in polarised light.
Some of the features of the louse are shown in these crops from various parts of the larger image.
I thought these pictures might be of particular interest to Wim, who is, as we know is a lover of all things lousy. http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... +wallpaper
The image is a stack and stitch.
Microscope: Nikon Diaphot Objective: Nikon X10, 0.25 Plan DIC Condenser: Nikon LWD 0.55 Phase/DIC Camera: Canon EOS 40D
Number of images: 468
Number of stacks: 29
Stacked with: Helicon Focus
Stitched with: Microsoft ICE
A larger 115 Megapixel version which can be zoomed into and navigated around is here http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=7ba ... a4bb38de22
I was puzzled by the black structure on the abdomen. I thought initially it might be undigested stomach contents, but the material appears to lie outside the body of the louse, and higher magnification seems to show feather remains.
The method of preparation of the slide has preserved the structure of the muscles and these show up well under DIC because of their birefringence in polarised light.
Some of the features of the louse are shown in these crops from various parts of the larger image.
I thought these pictures might be of particular interest to Wim, who is, as we know is a lover of all things lousy. http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... +wallpaper
Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear
- rjlittlefield
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- Cactusdave
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Thanks Rik. That is greatly appreciated. I have one or two other old slides in which the musculature is well preserved, by this mounter and by another, L. C. Clarke who was selling slides in the 1920s. All of mine are of parasitic lice of one sort or another, though I have seen beautiful flea mounts in which the muscles are startlingly well preserved. Of course Fred Enoch's 'prepared without pressure' fluid mounts of insects showing musculature are legendary (and good ones, legendarily expensive ).
Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear
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