Coenagrion pulchellum larva

[Jacek]

[pwnell]

I love the polarised shot.

[Ernst Hippe]

Jacek,
The same for me, but the other pictures are phantastic too!
Polarized Regards!
Ernst

[RogelioMoreno]

Very nice set!

My favorite is the polarized.

Rogelio

[Olympusman]

Very nice stuff, Jacek. I also like the polarized shot.
I've been chasing these nymphs and have found them in sizes from one to 10 mm depending on what molt stage they are in.
I have tried the carbonated water trick to narcotize them, which works fairly well, but when you get them to a slide to have to keep them in the CO2 water or they will rescitate themselves.
I have tried a number of chemicals to try to settle them down for focu stacking including Magnesium sulfate, Neo-Synephrine, Pennfix and Glutaraldehayde, but they all end up with a dead folded up specimen.

[Jacek]

Thank you for your comments.
I always watch the live material. Arrange on a glass slide on the sides of one or more of the coverslip / depending on the thickness of the body / and until I have laid on top coverslip. I'm trying to fix the body but that it is not crushed.
He writes the google translator, I do not know if it will be understandable.

[Olympusman]

For these larger (and thicker) specimens, I have been using well slides so the subject doesn't get crushed.
I have found that with many testate amoeba, even with Methyl Cellulose, the pressure of putting on a cover slip squeezes the amoeba out of its test. I usually survey my water drop with no cover slip to find out what I have in case I want to isolate something.
For a while I'm going to survey the slide and if I find testate amoeba, I'll put on the Methyl Cellulose, stir it with a teasing needle and transfer the slide to my phase contrast scope. When I find these testate amoeba, you can see the pseudopods, but without using phase contrast, they don't photograph very well at all.