Mosquito eye

[AndrewC]

Probably a female Culiseta annulata

First outing for my new M-Plan 20x, 250 slices at 3um steps

The thing is, have I done something horrible to it's head or should it look like this ? The subject was scooped off the ceiling and killed with ethyl acetate.

I'll collect another one tonight if they are around and stack that for comparison.





Edit: hmmm, I think this is a "mossie meets pillow and loses" picture - I'm just stacking the other side side of the head and you can see the damage there, I think its whole lower face has been collapsed in and backwards. When I collected it ,I smacked it off the ceiling with a pillow to kill it, it seemed relatively undamaged at the time, just stunned, so it got collected. Next time I'll be more careful ...

[Planapo]

I smacked it off the ceiling with a pillow to kill it

No wonder that this "mossie" looks like having had an accident. That's no state-of-the-art way for specimen collection, is it?

Your newest acquisition seems to work flawlessly, though.

--Betty

[Harold Gough]

I smacked it off the ceiling with a pillow

You could refine your collecting equipment by using a duck-down pillow!

Harold