Microscopic freshwater shrimp leg

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:15 pm

I got a little weary of chasing around those real tiny critters, so I decided to go after something I could actually see! The last sample I took from my favorite pond had quite a few small (about 1 to 3mm long) shrimp in it. They do not move around much during the day, but when I would enter the room at night and turn on a light I could see them scurrying for cover. The structures in the legs were particularly interesting to me. The joints, muscles, and even the circulating haemolymph (like blood) were all very clearly observed.

I took some darkfield shots (top image) but thought that this was one of the few times where the colorful rendition possible with DIC (second two shots) actually was not just "eye-candy" but showed useful differentiations between the structures.
... I'll put away my crayons now...

Olympus 10X, 1.67X NFK photo-eyepiece, Canon 350D, electronic flash

Olympus 20X, 1.67X NFK photo-eyepiece, Canon 350D, electronic flash

Ken Ramos · Post by **Ken Ramos** » Sun Dec 31, 2006 7:52 pm

Beautiful as usual Charlie, I always enjoy looking at a few good leg shots, they need a shave though.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 12:01 am

Ken Ramos wrote:Beautiful as usual Charlie

Indeed. And informative. And inspiring. As usual...

Makes me think I gotta get me one o' them fancy scopes, not that it would make the same pictures for me!

But I'm having trouble tracking down this word "haemolymphs" to describe circulating particles. Everything I find seems to use "haemolymph" to describe only the fluid, with "haemolymphs" (plural) describing multiple fluids.

There are, however, lots of references to "haemolymph cells" (and even more "hemolymph cells", alternate spelling), that seem to match what you've imaged.

Have I missed some terminology?

--Rik

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:07 am

Wonderful colors and I agree with the details. The third one is fantastic.

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 9:01 am

Rik... don't think you missed anything, but I did, so I removed the erroneous reference in the post. The circulatory system of these creatures is interesting, and I made a cursory effort to learn something about the cells that are seen in the picture but haven't located good info yet. Unlike vertebrates, the oxygen distribution is one function of the fluid, not specialized cells within the fluid.

svalley · Post by **svalley** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 5:19 pm

Very nice shots Charles. Amazing internal detail. I like th2 colored ones best.