Little swimmer

May 16, 2016 • 10:52 PM UTC

California, USA

140x Magnification

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Gavlea

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Pictures of an amphipod I found while I was breaking up scouring pad algae from Pt. Pinos, California, to look at under my foldscope. Amphipods are similar to crabs, both are crustaceans, but they will not grow to be much larger than a few millimeters in length. You can clearly see its two antennae coming from its head, while it is not visible in the image, these are about half as long as the rest of its body. The clear blobs are small amounts of water that were trapped between the amphipod and the slide.

Above you can see its legs and some of its back. Amphipods have similar body structure as crabs and can split into the same divisions along their bodies. While these are small, they actively swim around in water between areas using their legs for propulsion. To take these images I placed the amphipod on a glass slide with a cover slip, I then took the foldscope lens out of the scope and used the magnet holder to attach it to a magnetic metal plate on my phone near the camera lens. I was able to hold the phone and scope lens combination along with the slide up to room lighting to gain adequate light. The first image was taken from a video recording panning over the entire body. Unfortunately our little friend did not survive being compressed under the slide and these pictures may not directly reflect its normal, uncompressed, appearance.

Little swimmer

Gavlea

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