SPIDERS No. 51 –A Lynx Spider Feeding - Part 1

[Walter Piorkowski]

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

Image 1- Leitz 4X Plan Fluorite, 92 images at .001" increments.
Image 2- Leitz 4X Plan Fluorite, 44 images at .002" increments.
Image 3- Leitz 4X Plan Fluorite, 47 images at .001" increments.

Both live subjects until the spider killed the fly.
Open cell.
Diffused Fiber Optic illumination
Canon 50D
Zerene PMax and Photoshop processing.

I have long been fascinated by the feeding process of the spiders. As part of this ongoing study I am providing live food to live spiders and capturing as much of the action as possible. Needless to say, “action” is the last thing you want when attempting image stacking. However perseverance has lead to some interesting images that I can share with you.

The spider actively feeding here is a young Lynx and has been imaged here within minutes of a strike upon a live male Drosophila melanogaster fly. Note how lightly the pedipalps of the Lynx are holding the hapless prey to its mouth hidden below the carapace.

Walt

[Litonotus]

absolutely brilliant!

[Baley]

Astonishing work to get stacks of live critters. I wonder how you managed to keep the spider under the objective.

[Walter Piorkowski]

Thank you gentlemen. Baley, sometimes a good meal helps.
Walt

[Charles Krebs]

Excellent Walter!

Stacks of 92, 44, and 47 images of a live subject .....
it wouldn't surprise me if there were some outbursts of colorful language during image acquisition.

[johan]

Phenomenal. Are the stacks actually single images? Just thinking out loud, taking video with a cam then breaking that down into images and stacking those shots might be an approach as well. Does video give enough resolution? Still, sorry to digress, and superbly revelatory

[rjlittlefield]

Does video give enough resolution?

The resolution is not as high and there are some video compression artifacts, but stacking from video can be useful.

See http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... hp?t=11130:

20 µm per frame at 20 fps
Total acquisition time, 45 seconds at 1920x1080.
Acquisition time used in final stack, 2.5 seconds.

The Canon 50D does not have video built in, but there's a forum post at http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/post/40530604 that says it can be added on courtesy the Magic Lantern firmware package. Interesting...

--Rik

[Walter Piorkowski]

Hello Charles, Johan, Rik. Thank you. I had been working with this subject for a while before any photography was even contemplated, trying some video. I found that the point after prey capture could be one of stillness for a few minutes, expecially if the spider had a drink of water before a fly was introduced.
After the first succeesfull image at .001 inch I didnt press my luck and shot at .002 in. In all a dozen series were done. All images are single images with my hands working the equipment as fast as possible. You are all most kind not to notice those portions of both subjects that did move during the shots. Zerene did very well and the main features remained still enough to make these 3 a success.
Rik, I will have to loook ino that possible upgrade.
Walt

[Walter Piorkowski]

An additional note as Rik is very correct about the Canon 50D. The video work I have been doing is with a Sony NEX5-N.
Walt

[oxkarthemighty]

Very impressive! Its a challenge to do this with macro lens, not even to mention a microscope!

[Walter Piorkowski]

Thank you. oxkarthemighty.
Walt