Prestomal Teeth revisited (now 4 + 1 images)

[NikonUser]

Dave showed a microscope-shot of a Blow-Fly (Family: Calliphoridae) labella (tongue) with prestomal teeth at the base of the pseudotracheae. These teeth although sharply pointed appear weakly sclerotized.
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16225&sid=4e98af067023e87f7f802f80cbeced6d

Rik, of course, started the whole discussion about prestomal teeth with his Blow-Fly shots
http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16216

I was photographing the head of a "House-Fly" (Muscina levida) (Family: Muscidae) when I noticed some formidable prestomal teeth.
Top: ventral view of the labella
Bottom: area in yellow circle flattened and rotated to better fit on screen; 10x SPlan Apo + 2.5x relay lens, 16 frames @ 4µ; ZS PMax.
note the heavily sclerotized teeth attached to an equally heavily sclerotized frame that is essentially a jaw.


NU12028 NU12029
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NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

[NikonUser]

I took a look at one of those large central teeth; 20x SPlan Apo + 2.5x relay lens, 17 frames @ 1µ. ZS PMax.

They are dagger-like with smooth edges; function unknown.

NU12030
_________________
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

[lauriek]

Whoa! So house flies can bite?!?! (Sorry for being slightly facetious but at that magnification those teeth look fierce!)

This whole discussion is a bit above my head but I appreciate the photography it's bringing about!
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Flickr | www.laurieknight.net

[discomorphella]

Yeah, I didn't imagine that houseflies had such impressive dentition. The micrographs are so detailed they make the housefly out to be a bigger threat than it is, or rather, I hope the micrographs do that; the alternative is somewhat disconcerting...Great shots.

David

[curt0909]

Impressive photos and technique. How do you go about sectioning and mounting something like this?

[rjlittlefield]

Excellent images! Now that I understand better how these things fit together, I really appreciate the view that your fluid-inflation technique gives us.

--Rik

[RogelioMoreno]

Very nice images! Your mounting technique is amazing.

Rogelio

[Cactusdave]

Very nice pictures. Some of this looks very familiar, but I've not seen that interesting central 'fang' in the old mounted preparations I have of Calliphora blowflies.
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Leitz Ortholux 1, Zeiss standard, Nikon Diaphot inverted, Canon photographic gear

[NikonUser]

Thanks everyone for the feedback, much appreciated.
Actually this is not THE House Fly (Musca domestica) but a member of the house fly family Muscidae.



I called it a "House Fly" to emphasize that it belongs to a different family than those flies used by Rik and Dave those being Blow Flies in the family Calliphoridae.

Oldroyd in his book "The Natural History of Flies" comments that muscid flies mop up blood that is flowing from wounds and some help the blood to flow by scratching at the skin with prestomal teeth developed from the ring of pseudotrachea. The species illustrated here has the tools, those 2 fangs, for such a job.

Mounting was simply done by flattening the labella (tip of the proboscis) under a coverslip; after softening the fly head in 5% KOH, washing in water and inflating the proboscis wiith absolute alcohol
_________________
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

[Mitch640]

Your images are always excellent, but it's not the pretty pictures that amazes me. It's what you can do with a dead fly, or any other bug, to get to the subject of the images that is simply astounding to me.

[NikonUser]

Thanks Mitch.

The Golden Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria) is a popular subject here on PMG.net. These flies are predators and capture other flies as large as themselves in their legs.

According to Oldroyd (The Natural History of Flies) they use their prestomal teeth (2 sets of 6 in this fly) "to cut a hole in the membrane of the neck, severing the nerve cord, and crippling the victim" - I guess it would.

These teeth are sharp-pointed and the larger teeth are heavily sclerotized.

Image below is one set of teeth; 40x SPlan Apo + 2.5x relay lens; 12 frames @ 1µ; ZSPMax.

NU12037
_________________
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.

Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives

[Planapo]

Wow, somehow I had missed these before. Great, and likewise the info.

It here really looks like the prestomal teeth could have well evolved from the bifurcated 'spokes/brackets'. Would be the often entcountered conservative way of evolving a 'new' (i. e. one with different function) structure by gradually altering an already existing one.

--Betty
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Atticus Finch: "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view
- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
Lee, N. H. 1960. To Kill a Mockingbird. J. B. Lippincott, New York.

[Mitch640]

Hollywood wants a cast of those for the next monster movie.

[lauriek]

And Dung flies look so sweet!
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[NikonUser]