“Scoping” out Lake Lagunita

Jul 24, 2015 • 5:14 PM UTC

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Microorganisms

Alice Dai

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In a stunning turn of events, the Prakash Lab has taken a temporary leave from the mosquito hunting grounds and come across bigger and…drier locations: Stanford’s Lake Lagunita. The lake is currently parched right now, so we went inside to take a better look at the organisms living in this microcosm. Here’s Part 1 of our adventure:
I caught a grasshopper and amputated its limbs to take a closer look at their form. Grasshoppers perform stridulation by rubbing their legs to their bodies to create mating calls. I wanted to see if we could see any of the tympanum (it’s hearing structure) in the leg. I had some trouble locating the tympanum, but took some pictures along the way.
A picture of the slide:

Here’s an interesting structure at the end of its leg. You can see that its claw-like for gripping.

There’s scaly texture in the legs as well as muscle striations:

I also found a small spider in a bag of leaves that I brought back to the lab. The pictures here show the spider’s physiology particularly well.
A picture of the slide for size:

A zoomed-out view of the spider’s abdomen:

You can see the fine sensory hairs here:

And a closeup:

The detail of the structures are fascinating since the term “form fits function” is identifiable in many of the images. Taking samples in the field gives you a different perspective on the surrounding environment. It’s really easy to bring your Foldscope and conduct similar field trips like we did. Don’t forget to post your trips!
Alice