Polyphemus pediculus - alien in space suit

Starshade · Post by **Starshade** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 6:03 am

I think that's one of the most spectacular water fleas, I also love their eyes:

All pictures are stacks, made with Zeiss Axioscope A1, 20x, Sony NEX-5, darkfield

lauriek · Post by **lauriek** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 6:14 am

Spectacular!

Litonotus · Post by **Litonotus** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:10 am

great!

Planapo · Post by **Planapo** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 8:16 am

Brilliant!

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 9:49 am

Amazing!

Rogelio

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 10:34 am

What a magnificent and bizarre creature! Very nicely photographed! The eye detail is particularly intriguing.

Simon W · Post by **Simon W** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:47 pm

Brilliant! Darkfield? About as alien as you can get.

Wim van Egmond · Post by **Wim van Egmond** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 12:41 am

Polyphemus, the predatory water flea. Nice to see it in the forum. Very nice darkfield. Polyphemus was the cyclope in the Oddysee. But I guess that is old info.

Wim

Starshade · Post by **Starshade** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 5:07 am

Thank you guys,

And Wim, it's really nice when someone knows how those latin names originate. Sometimes I look up for translations in dictionaries...

The thing I'm very curious about is the shape of the eyes, same species and such a diversity, the eye of the first flea doesn't even resemble the last pic