~Protaphorura armata~

OK this is rather an unusual post, this is a Protaphorura armata I found in local woodland that had struck this pose and was hardly moving, I kind of thought it might be getting ready to shed its skin, it was definitely alive as in some stacking sequences its legs moved. Anyway, I decided to attempt a focus stack, I had my MP-E on 72mm of tubes and then whacked on my 1.4x teleconverter, I had my aperture set at F/4 and took 12 images in this handheld focus stack. Still need to work out what magnification this was at :o)

 

Protaphorura armata are a blind Collembola and feed on fungi, they can often be found in large colonies under fallen branches in woodland, they are usually about 2mm in length. They are also very easy to keep in culture and have been used in scientific studies on invertebrate/fungi feeding interactions.

 

What we see here is a rather unique view of the underside of a Protaphorura armata with mouthparts visible. Something just a little bit unusual I thought you might enjoy seeing :o)

 

 

VIEW ON BLACK AND REALLY WORTH VIEWING ORIGINAL SIZE :o)

Done