Aphid Identification

Images made through a microscope. All subject types.

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glmory
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:45 pm

Aphid Identification

Post by glmory »

I have been working quite a bit of macro and micro photography into my iNaturalist observations this past year.

When I started photographing aphids, the experts I talked to didn't think more obscure species could be identified from photos. As I learned more, I saw their point. However if you work through a key, photographing every feature in the key it is usually possible to do. You just need photos of the right features with the right measurements.

Here is an aphid I have yet to get to species conclusively(https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10072629). It is either Chaitophorus utahensis or a similar but undescribed species in that genus.

I start with macro photos of the aphids:

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Then I slide mount them and take an overall photo using an Amscope 4x objective. On that I take a bunch of measurements which I know are commonly required to work through keys:

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Then I go through a key taking photos of other characteristics which are needed to make it to an identification. When I need good quality I use a Nikon E Plan PH3 40x objective

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It is on a Labophot microscope with brightfield dark field and phase contrast. I was too cheap for a trinocular head so I just put a dovetail adapter and a bunch of extension tubes on it.

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All the photos are taken with an a6300 camera. I put it in silent shutter mode on the camera app, then have continuously take photos while I move the focus.

I stack in Zerene Stacker then add scale bars and clean up the background in Photoshop.

clengman
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Feb 10, 2018 10:39 pm

Post by clengman »

Very nice! What method do you use for preparing your aphids for TL? Are you making permanent mounts?

glmory
Posts: 25
Joined: Fri Dec 30, 2016 12:45 pm

Canada balsam

Post by glmory »

Yeah, they are permanently mounted. I learned to make mounts in Canada Balsam by watching some online videos.

Here is a description of the procedure:
https://www.inaturalist.org/journal/glm ... ication-ii

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