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NU11122
Blow Fly spiracle (anterior) + hind spiracle
Moderators: rjlittlefield, ChrisR, Chris S., Pau
Blow Fly spiracle (anterior) + hind spiracle
Last edited by NikonUser on Tue Oct 11, 2011 8:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
-
rjlittlefield
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Thanks guys.
Mitch - what can I say, I'm likely the only person in the universe that can do such work. In actual fact it's one of the easiest preps to make. Simply soak an insect overnight in 5% KOH, isolate a piece of cuticle that has a spiracle, wash in water, mount in glycerine. Q.E.D.
Most insects have 2 spiracles on each segment.
Mitch - what can I say, I'm likely the only person in the universe that can do such work. In actual fact it's one of the easiest preps to make. Simply soak an insect overnight in 5% KOH, isolate a piece of cuticle that has a spiracle, wash in water, mount in glycerine. Q.E.D.
Most insects have 2 spiracles on each segment.
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
-
ChrisRaper
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- Location: Reading, UK
- Contact:
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Harold Gough
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Thanks Harold & Chris.
Chris: I don't have any prepared slides for tachinids (have some for calliphorids) but it would be a simple process to make some. However, I guess for ID purposes most collectors would not want to sacrifice a specimen for KOH-digestion. They need to see the spiracle in a pinned specimen. That's a real challenge; you know where they hide that hind thoracic spiracle.
I had a try with an Archytas sp. (largish species); really needed a 20x objective on bellows but the working distance and shallow depth of field were too fiddly. Ended up using a 4x objective on long bellows extension.
Not sure that it would be possible to get a decent similar shot with smaller tachinids; but using KOH-digested material would be easy.
For the non-dipterists: the blow fly spiracle is of the anterior thoracic spiracle and always seems to be slit-like in flies. The hind spiracle is at the back of the thorax and is partially hidden by the abdomen, and bits and pieces on the thorax.
It is somewhat rounded and has a flap or valve. The yellow and white dots in the image are pollen grains.
NU11124
Chris: I don't have any prepared slides for tachinids (have some for calliphorids) but it would be a simple process to make some. However, I guess for ID purposes most collectors would not want to sacrifice a specimen for KOH-digestion. They need to see the spiracle in a pinned specimen. That's a real challenge; you know where they hide that hind thoracic spiracle.
I had a try with an Archytas sp. (largish species); really needed a 20x objective on bellows but the working distance and shallow depth of field were too fiddly. Ended up using a 4x objective on long bellows extension.
Not sure that it would be possible to get a decent similar shot with smaller tachinids; but using KOH-digested material would be easy.
For the non-dipterists: the blow fly spiracle is of the anterior thoracic spiracle and always seems to be slit-like in flies. The hind spiracle is at the back of the thorax and is partially hidden by the abdomen, and bits and pieces on the thorax.
It is somewhat rounded and has a flap or valve. The yellow and white dots in the image are pollen grains.
NU11124
NU.
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
student of entomology
Quote – Holmes on ‘Entomology’
” I suppose you are an entomologist ? “
” Not quite so ambitious as that, sir. I should like to put my eyes on the individual entitled to that name.
No man can be truly called an entomologist,
sir; the subject is too vast for any single human intelligence to grasp.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr
The Poet at the Breakfast Table.
Nikon camera, lenses and objectives
Olympus microscope and objectives
-
ChrisRaper
- Posts: 291
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2011 1:40 am
- Location: Reading, UK
- Contact:
Nice shot ... I think you're right in that the photo would have to be of the spiracle in-situ, on the fly, otherwise the three-dimensional effect of the flaps would be lost. Most of the tachinids have the spiracle shape on your photo (with a single flap) but others have paired flaps and others can have a fringe with a hole at the top ... all fascinating and overlooked in some keys. 