Phantom midge larvae

CEN · Post by **CEN** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:30 am

Good afternoon,

here I present a set of pictures of Chaoboridae larvae. The larvae were pretty big thus I was not able to make an "overview-shot". I used polarized light with retarders on an Olympus BHT stand and the pictures were stacked with Helicon focus.

Lateral view, SPlan Apo 4

Lateral view, SPlan Apo 4

Dorsal view, SPlan Apo 4

Air-sacs, SPlan Apo 4

Pigment cells on air-sac, SPlan 40

Abdomen, SPlan Apo 4

and closer, SPlan 10

Regards

Christian

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 7:06 am

Beautiful images.
Where are his air sacs? Are they for buoyancy or respiration?

CEN · Post by **CEN** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 8:39 am

Thanks Chris,

there are two pair of air bags (or sacs). One pair is located in the thorax and the second in the 6., 7. or 8. (?) segment of the larva (my picture shows the second pair).
These sacs are for buoyancy.
A couple of years ago Charles Krebs already presented a serie of images of a Chaoborus larva. Charles explained here very good the function of the sacs.

Regards

Christian

carlos.uruguay · Post by **carlos.uruguay** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 9:00 am

Wonderful

Jacek · Post by **Jacek** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 3:21 pm

Super !

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Wed Dec 28, 2016 4:32 pm

Thanks Christian. Now I remember this image as well... http://photomacrography.net/forum/viewt ... 587#152587

JH · Post by JH » Wed Dec 28, 2016 6:03 pm

Nice
Regards Jörgen

hkv · Post by **hkv** » Thu Dec 29, 2016 3:18 am

Very good!

fpelectronica · Post by **fpelectronica** » Thu Dec 29, 2016 12:00 pm

Very nice

Sumguy01 · Post by **Sumguy01** » Fri Dec 30, 2016 4:21 am

Very nice set.
Thanks for sharing

CEN · Post by **CEN** » Fri Dec 30, 2016 7:02 am

Many thanks for your comments!!

Christian