Water flea

microthings · Post by **microthings** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 10:51 pm

Nice water flea! I like the angle of the flea in this photograph.
I've observed some water fleas myself, and i could only find them in sideview on my slides. Maybe bad luck, i don't know.
Will post some photo's soon.

RogelioMoreno · Post by **RogelioMoreno** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 4:43 am

Nice ventral view of this water flea.

Rogelio

_Michal_ · Post by **_Michal_** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 9:12 am

Nice shot.

Olympusman · Post by **Olympusman** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 10:01 am

Thanks, Most of the time the water fleas are too large to be upright so we get side views. I might put one drop of pondwater on a slide with one or two drops of Cupric acetate or Glutaraldehyde, so the thickness of the fluid is greater. I use 25x40mm cover slips.

microthings · Post by **microthings** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 11:06 am

Very interesting Olympusman! I'll takes some notes, great to learn some new things.

Olympusman · Post by **Olympusman** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:33 pm

Microthings,
You might want to get a box of well slides on ebay. They come in boxes of ten or twelve and are handy to have around. They have a concave depression in the center to give larger specimens more "headroom" when a cover slip is applied.

Clado · Post by **Clado** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 2:55 pm

Nice picture.
This water flea looks like Scapholeberis. I do not know the species.

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Wed Jul 23, 2014 11:50 pm

Nice picture

Charles Krebs · Post by **Charles Krebs** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:32 pm

Always an interesting "angle" with this subject. Nicely done.

merrimoles · Post by **merrimoles** » Sun Jul 27, 2014 4:20 pm

Nice - good ventral shots can be tough to get. I agree with Clado that this is Scapholeberis. It lacks the usual head spine and the long mucrones of S. mucronata. The rostrum is definitely not S rammneri, so that only leaves S. armata. The rostrum, short mucrones, (assumed) eastern US location are all consistent with this species.

Clado · Post by **Clado** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 2:52 am

Hello Olympusman,

I cannot find much information on Internet about S. armata. Would it be possible for you to make some images in sideview? I am curious about the posterior rim and surface of the carapace.

Thank you in advance and best regards.

Olympusman · Post by **Olympusman** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 8:00 am

Clado,
I could only find a side view if I get lucky and wouldn't know the species from this ventral view. I'm trying to find a better resource for IDing water fleas, since Fresh Water Biology (Ward & Whipple 1918) is not that exhaustive in detail.

Clado · Post by **Clado** » Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:38 pm

I understand and I hope that moment of luck wil come any time.

Water flea

Water flea

Water flea

Slides

Water flea