One weird cop in the dark - NEW POST-PROCESSING

[Planapo]

'Cops' that´s what the Copepoda are sometimes informally called over here.

The micro guys might now recognize some of the over all body shape from those copepods they are familiar with from their fresh water pond samples. And I first thought about cheating and posting this one without the scale bar over in the micro section.

This one here is a female, easily recognizable from the 'egg sacks' which are here more of a tubular form. It´s a marine caligid copepod, a parasite that lives on fishes. Though they have that whitish orange-brown colour when alive, this one was dead when I found it, probably for some time already and some decay and the fixation of the preservative have left their traces, e. g. the tissue has shrunk a bit within the exoskeleton.
The dark ground is original and not generated digitally. I have just wiped out a few dust fibres that were lighting up distractingly. Not stacked yet, just to play with lighting, lens stopped down to f11 and thus not at max. resolution, but hey, I´m already quite pleased with the outcome.

Hope you enjoy!
--Betty

"Pictures in the dark I see ..."

[rjlittlefield]

Good grief, this thing is huge!

At first I thought I was in the micro gallery. I was staring at that scale bar trying to wrap the numbers part of my mind around it, when finally the verbal part read your words, giggled, and poked the numbers part in its ribs, so to speak.

I haven't read anything about these beasts. Is this a typical size?

--Rik

[Ken Ramos]

Wow that is pretty neat there Betty. Funny you should post this, because I just finished a little light reading on copepods, both marine and freshwater. I learned just enough about them to know exactly nothing about what I am talking about or somthing like that.

[Mike B in OKlahoma]

Strange-looking beast, much smaller than what I'm used to photographing, even if it is huge for you microscope folks! Nicely-presented with the dark background.
_________________
Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome

"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin

[Planapo]

Thanks for your interest and comments, boys!

Yes Rik, for females of these it´s quite a typical size.

But even huger weird parasitic cops have evolved. The females of the record holder in length can grow over 300 mm long. They dig into the blubber of the genital region of baleen whales
Well, the common conception of cops as the tiny fresh water "hoppers" really doesn´t tell the whole story, does it?!

--Betty

[lauriek]

"can grow over 300 mm long. They dig into the blubber of the genital region"

I wish you hadn't told us that!!

Great picture of an extremely weird beast!!

[Planapo]

Thanks, Laurie!

I thought that this photo needed some "jazzing up". I now find that amongst others the darkfield illumination shows up much better than in my first attempt.

I post it for a comparison for what a difference post-processing can make, which might be interesiting for those of you who are, like me, not that experienced in the "digital darkroom".

Funny thing is, I was quite happy with the earlier version back then when I managed to take a picture of such a beastie for the first time but looking at it now I find it rather dull... one gets spoilt so easily...

--Betty

[rjlittlefield]