Hornet's foot

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Tue Oct 12, 2010 3:05 pm

Here is an image of a hornet's foot. This was taken as part of my (very slow) photographing of images for my slide index. (Box 1, Slide 7). See http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key= ... utput=html

Or the link from my microscope pages at http://www.gpmatthews.nildram.co.uk/index_micro.html
(bottom of LH panel).

Microscope: Zeiss Standard
Ocular: Zeiss KPL-W 10/18
Objective: Leitz EF 4/0.12
Polarised light (partially crossed polars)
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Flash: Vivitar 283
Stack of 6 images/Zerene Stacker 1.02

arturoag75 · Post by **arturoag75** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:16 am

Hi,
i'm not very familiar whit insects but i like a lot the color of this pic!
arturo

sonyalpha · Post by **sonyalpha** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 1:19 am

An amazing study revealing the incredible combination of those soft-hairy pads that act almost as suckers?....plus.....a pair of efficient pincer-like claws for gripping ......and......what look like long bristles for judging final distance and landing conditions?

Perhaps NASA should look at this clever combination for spacesuits?

Shots like this intrigue me as a layperson:

sonyalpha

Mitch640 · Post by **Mitch640** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 4:05 am

With billions of years of trial and error, Mother Nature must have tried every combination to fill every ecological niche there is, but I know she isn't done yet. What's truely amazing is the quality of your hundred year old slides. I actually think of these a lot since I read your original thread on them.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 7:32 am

Excellent image, Graham. (As usual!)

Am I correct in thinking that this is a "squash mount"? You mentioned a stack of only 6 images, so I'm thinking this must be pretty thin.

sonyalpha wrote:....plus.....a pair of efficient pincer-like claws for gripping ......and......what look like long bristles for judging final distance and landing conditions?

To the best of my knowledge, these claws cannot close to act as pincers. They are more like fixed hooks. I agree about the long bristles. Those seem to be a common mechanism. There is a similar bristle next to each abdominal proleg of some (all?) caterpillars. See for example the rather well-worn specimen HERE.

--Rik

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:18 am

Thanks to all for comments.

Rik, if you follow the link I gave to my slide index, you can see an image of the whole slide (Slide 7, Box 1). It is an old permanent mount and I guess it was prepared in the normal way for insect parts by clearing, dehydration etc. and was effectively flattened for mounting.

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Wed Oct 13, 2010 8:35 am

Thanks, Graham. I had to ask about the thickness because the image of the slide is top-down and provides no information about thickness. It could also be a ringed thick mount, though I think that would be rare. I used the term "squash mount" only to mean highly flattened compared to the original bug. If it has a precise meaning in some circles, that wasn't the one I meant.

--Rik

gpmatthews · Post by **gpmatthews** » Sat Oct 16, 2010 8:42 am

Another shot, this time using Variable Oblique Illumination (not stacked):

Microscope: Zeiss Standard
Ocular: Zeiss KPL-W 10/18
Objective: Zeiss 1.6/0.03 - 5/0.1
Illumination: VOILA
Camera: Canon EOS 500D
Flash: Vivitar 283