Green Bottle Fly 5x

[AlP]

Nuthin' fancy. Side view of Green Bottle fly head at 5x, 45 steps at 80µm. Canon 5D MK IV with Canon MPE 65mm.

In less than 10 minutes the "snoot" had noticeable shrinkage/dehydration. I put the specimen into Bio True after the shoot to see what'll happen. Image setup same as previous.

[MarkSturtevant]

Very well done! How did you get the proboscis to extend?

[AlP]

Very well done! How did you get the proboscis to extend?

Specimen was found drowned in a tray of water outside.

[Adalbert]

Very interesting, I have not seen it like this before.

[AlP]

Very interesting, I have not seen it like this before.

Me neither. I am thinking the death in water probably "relaxed" the insect?

[rjlittlefield]

I have seen this before. It is the process that produced the inflated mouthparts shown at https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... hp?t=16257 and https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... hp?t=16348 . They inflated naturally in water, then I dehydrated the specimen by swapping out the water for acetone.

I suspect the expansion is a matter of osmosis causing the body to gradually fill with fresh water. If there are no holes to let the pressure escape, the soft parts expand like a mylar balloon.

--Rik

[AlP]

I have seen this before. It is the process that produced the inflated mouthparts shown at https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... hp?t=16257 and https://www.photomacrography.net/forum/ ... hp?t=16348 . They inflated naturally in water, then I dehydrated the specimen by swapping out the water for acetone.

I suspect the expansion is a matter of osmosis causing the body to gradually fill with fresh water. If there are no holes to let the pressure escape, the soft parts expand like a mylar balloon.

--Rik

Thanx, Rik. Informative and more 3D pix to look at. I just checked the fly that has been sitting (at the bottom) in Bio True. Under a 10x loupe it visually appears that it has hydrated to the first image state again.