Leitz Ortholux microscope
4X Leitz projection eyepiece plus 1/3x relay lens
Image No.1,
46 images at .001 inch increments
Leitz UO 6.5 X Achromat ULTROPAK objective
Mixed EPI and Diffused Fiber Optic Illumination
Image No.2.
70 images at .001 inch increments
Leitz UO 6.5 X Achromat ULTROPAK objective
EPI Illumination
Canon 50D
Zerene and Photoshop processing.
Yes these are clinical, maybe even gross but hopefully educational to someone.
Every spider has lungs but things get more complicated from there on, as there are two different types of lungs, trachea and book. Depending on the type of spider, most have both and some one or the other. If it is the kind that has lung slits then there are either two or four lung slit openings.
The lung slit openings in this post are from the grass spider Agelenopsis pennsylvanica that has two. It is a good size (17 mm long) female. In the top image, what looks like some material in the slit is actually a bubble of air trapped in the preservation fluid under the slit opening. The refractive nature of the sphere is focusing up a distorted something in the interior.
The slits are located on the underside of the abdomen on each side of the epigynam.
Walt