I found this guy in a jar of pond water sent to me by a friend in Tennessee. I have had him for about a week and seen him swimming around in there, but was unable to catch him with a pipette. Today, I used a white ice cube tray to pour out some of the water from the jar into about half the cube sections. I put the tray under a Nikon Stereo scope and checked, and sure enough, he was in the first section.
Being in a much smaller area made it easy to suck him into the pipette. I used a 5ml pipette with a short piece of aquarium air hose attached to the end of the tube. This was enough to get him pulled up, then I transferred him to a slide with a depression in it. Because of his size, quite large enough to see with the naked eye, there was no need to use a coverslip.
It turns out to be a Chaoborus punctipennis. A glassworm or phantom midge larvae. They are a predator of mosquito larva and the four black kidney shaped things are air sacs that he uses to control his depth in the water.
Here is the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp_LfV89qJM
1. The tail end. 2x.
2. First section forward of the tail. 4x
3. A view of the head. 4x.
4. The head and neck, showing the esophagus. 4x.
5. Two of four kidney shaped objects are air sacs he uses for depth control. 10x.
6. And the fan at the tail, larger view. 10x.
Chaoborus punctipennis - glassworm or phantom midge larvae
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
-
- Posts: 1808
- Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:56 pm
- Location: España
-
- Posts: 1808
- Joined: Fri Feb 19, 2010 3:56 pm
- Location: España