Long legged fly, odd foot!

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lauriek
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Long legged fly, odd foot!

Post by lauriek »

You know how some of those Dolichopodidae flies have some little things on some of their feet, like little fat ankles? Well I wondered what they were so I shot one, here's the stack:

Image

and here's a 100% pixel crop of the 'foot' itself

Image

Does anyone know what the heck that big black feathery bit is for? Also that foot is pretty complicated, with I presume a physical solid foot inside that white bit, and then the dark hook thing, and the little feathery white bit on the end, it doesn't look very practical as a foot to me, would love to understand better how that works!!

Incidentally I left this one in the freezer for too long (a few weeks at least) and the eyes went a bit manky, so I turned it upside down!

Harold Gough
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Post by Harold Gough »

The function could be anything from tasting to holding on like Velcro, for upside down support.

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

rjlittlefield
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Post by rjlittlefield »

Or aerodynamics, or female preference during mating dances, or... ?

See http://www.photomacrography.net/forum/v ... .php?t=725 for a similarly bizarre anatomy that may (or may not!) be better understood.

It's great fun looking at these high-mag stacked images of interesting anatomy. Somehow it's just not the same effect, to assemble an image in your head by rocking the focus knob. :?

--Rik

Harold Gough
Posts: 5786
Joined: Sun Mar 09, 2008 2:17 am
Location: Reading, Berkshire, England

Post by Harold Gough »

rjlittlefield wrote:
It's great fun looking at these high-mag stacked images of interesting anatomy. Somehow it's just not the same effect, to assemble an image in your head by rocking the focus knob. :?

--Rik
Rik,

You have an advantage over me: my head doesn't have a focus knob! :D

Harold
My images are a medium for sharing some of my experiences: they are not me.

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