SPIDERS No. 27 – Lynx Spider Spiderlings

[Walter Piorkowski]

Leitz Ortholux microscope
4X Leitz projection eyepiece plus 1/3x relay lens

Leitz 4 X Plan Fluorite Achromat objective - all 4 images.

Image No. 1, 43 images at .002 inch increments.

Image No. 2, 40 images at .002 inch increments.

Image No. 3, 33 images at .002 inch increments.

Image No. 4, 30 images at .002 inch increments.

Diffused Fiber Optic illumination
Canon 50D
Zerene and Photoshop processing.
Living subjects

Infant Lynx spiders just hatched after one molt in the egg sac. The sac is visible in part as the white material under the subjects in three of the images.

These images and additional future posts were made utilizing my newest advancement in spider imaging technology. The all-glass mini-terrarium. The terrariums, made of cover slip glass, have been made in various heights and widths to accommodate different size specimens. They allow for live subjects to settle down, build webs, egg sacs etc. and still be fully visible and stable enough for live stack imaging.

Walt

[Charles Krebs]

Wonderful!

I'd love to see some sort of scale reference so I can have a better idea of the size.

[Litonotus]

great. they look a bit unnatural, like a drawing.

[Simon W]

Magnificent, just beautiful, a huge effort too. Well done.

[Donw]

How did you get them to hold still long enough to complete a stack?


Are you sure these arn't stuffed?

[Walter Piorkowski]

Charles, for your reference, the horizontal field of view on all images is 3.5mm.
Litonotis. Thanks and I agree with you that they look almost unnatural. I think it is because we don't see these creatures as infants often and each hair and scale seem so pronounced.
Thank you Simon for appreciating the effort involved.
Don. I think that stuffing would be a taxidermists' nightmare! But on the serious side, you build an understanding of these creatures as you work with them. Like any animal they will sit still for a period of time if not threatened. Spiderlings will all move on mass if connected to the same nursery web structure. So you try to separate them from the others if possible. Having said this I only get on average, one good stack out of every three I start.
Walt

[Simon W]

My feeble explorations in this hobby show a small snippet of the huge preparatory work some of you guys must do.

That last boy, he has a Justin Bieber haircut, no?!

[lauriek]

Wow! Wonderful work again with these spiders Walt!

[Mitch640]

Amazing Walter. Great images with a little touch up by Norman Rockwell.

[rjlittlefield]

Astonishing stuff -- wonderful to see!

(Check your PM's, please. I've been trying to reach you about a different issue.)

--Rik

[Walter Piorkowski]

Laurie and Rik, thanks. Spiderlings are fun to work with under controlled conditions. Mitch, my wife agrees with you about the Norman comment.
Walt

[imarsman]

I could be wrong, but the eyes and overall morphology and colouring do not look like a lynx spider to me. It looks more like one of my favourite spiders, Platycryptus undatus. See

http://kozmicdreams.com/spidersplatybabies.htm

and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/imarsman/13891345/

Congratulations on getting your amazing shot published in the Guardian and elsewhere!

[Mitch640]

Beautiful image Walter, as always, but you forgot to mention, that the first image above won second place in the 2012 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Competition. Congratulations.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/49463365/di ... ginSlide=1

[Walter Piorkowski]

Wow, I was surprised to see these older images pop up on the present day forum. Mitch, thanks for your recognition. I couldn't stand up when I opened the Small World web site and saw my image at the 2nd place location. Had to sit down in total disbelief. A incredible honor.
Hi imarsman. These little guys are not your spider Platycrytus as they are not jumpers. It would be impossible to tell what they were at the stage in the winning photo but I was still working with their mother at the same time who appears on my last post Spiders No. 46. She is a Lynx. Thanks too for your recognition.
Walt