Two crows flew over my yard, one aggressively chasing the other; contact was made and 2 feathers floated down. This chewing louse was on one of the feathers.
It's in the Family: Philopteridae (Mallophaga:Ambycera). Length: 1.50 mm.
I thought I liked the effect on polarization with some arthropods but with this louse regular brightfield gives a more pleasing image.
Both with 4x Nikon objective on an Olympus BHS with 1.25x intermediate lens and a 2.5x NFK relay lens. Without and with polarizers engaged.
The row of dots right center edge is a feather 'filament' it appeared o be feeding on.
NU12054
I've greatly enjoyed imaging some old Victorian slides of chewing lice, they retained amazing muscle detail and looked well with polarisation and DIC as well as brightfield.