Mites

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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Olympusman
Posts: 5066
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

Mites

Post by Olympusman »

Trying to finish off my dead insects from the summer, I got out a small beetle that had been in a parts box I'd forgotten about. The beetle had been for over a year and when I surveyed it under a 4X objective I found a mite working the carcass.

Image
Here it is under the 10X.

Image

I thought I would isolate the mite by rinsing the beetle in alcohol, letting the alcohol settle down in the beaker and transfer the sediment to a slide using an eyedropper. I turned up several more of the same mite in different sizes that I had not spotted on my survey.

Image

Stack of 25 in Zerene Stacker.

But I also found this amazing mite:

Image

Stack of 97 in Zerene Stacker.

I apologize for the poor image quality. I have been toplighting insects fro about three weeks with a dual gooseneck illuminator and my transmitted light technique has gotten a bit sloppy. I shot both stacks with the condenser diaphragm WIDE OPEN!

Duh!

I'm going to try bathing more insects in alcohol, but then I'll centrifuge the alcohol to concentrate the mites.
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Interesting situation, with mites scavenging the old carcass. I'm used to seeing skin beetle larvae doing this job, but maybe I never looked closely enough to see mites too.

About that last one, are you sure that's really a mite? It looks awfully much like the last two segments of an insect tarsus, separated from the rest of the leg.

--Rik

Olympusman
Posts: 5066
Joined: Sun Jan 15, 2012 12:31 pm

Mite?

Post by Olympusman »

Rik,
Not sure what it is, but it is very small.
Michael Reese Much FRMS EMS Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

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