SPIDERS No. 28 – The Spider Egg

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Walter Piorkowski
Posts: 710
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:42 pm
Location: South Beloit, Ill

SPIDERS No. 28 – The Spider Egg

Post by Walter Piorkowski »

Image

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

206 images at 2.5 micron increments
Olympus 10x S Plan Achromat objective.
Darkfield illumination
Leitz dry darkfield condenser D 0.80

Canon 50D
Zerene and Photoshop processing.
Live subject.

Still weeks away from hatching, an egg sac was opened to provide a clearer shot of its contents. No internal features were visible. It was learned however that this disturbance changed the environmental conditions enough to create distortion in the egg shapes in later days. A successful hatching did however take place as future post will show.

Walt

Mitch640
Posts: 2137
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 1:43 pm

Post by Mitch640 »

Your spider photography techniques are great, but I'd love to know how you drilled that hole in the egg sac. :)

Walter Piorkowski
Posts: 710
Joined: Mon Aug 14, 2006 6:42 pm
Location: South Beloit, Ill

Post by Walter Piorkowski »

Hi Mitch. It was not an easy task working with the sticky silk. However I would pull on both ends of the silk ball to deform it into a double ended cornucopia and then carefully, with small scissors cut as close to the ball as possible. This was a clear silk sack for the most part and I was able to avoid spilling any eggs.
Hope this helps.
Walt

Mitch640
Posts: 2137
Joined: Sun Aug 15, 2010 1:43 pm

Post by Mitch640 »

Wow, I can't imagine doing that. I guess you would have to use a dissecting scope?

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