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Author Topic:   Decisions, decisions......
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(1)
Message 35 of 59 (796865)
01-05-2017 8:45 PM


Cannabis sample in the insect lab
Several weeks ago I was busy shooting images and started noticing a pungent skunky odor permeating the lab. One of the other entomologists had just made a pot of coffee and I commented that it had a strong odor. He replied that it was the first time anyone had brought him flowers and I'm going what????
Then It dawned on me what he meant. We fairly routinely have commercial cannabis growers bring samples into our lab because they are worried about pests, but there usually is not much discernable odor.
When I went to investigate there were some really amazing pot flowers that I just had to photograph. The flowers were covered with resin as you can see.
This is a variety called Christmas Cookies.
These are all female flowers and the orange tentacle-like structures are the pistils. Plants produce alkaloids like the THC in this resin as protection against plant-eating insects. Selective breeding has been able to enhance that production in modern strains of cannabis to levels that were unknown until recently.
No pests were found on these samples, but sadly we had to destroy them when we finished checking them.
Enjoy.
Edited by Tanypteryx, : spelling

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

Replies to this message:
 Message 36 by Coyote, posted 01-05-2017 8:59 PM Tanypteryx has replied
 Message 44 by 1.61803, posted 04-11-2017 10:28 AM Tanypteryx has not replied
 Message 45 by NosyNed, posted 05-12-2017 10:09 PM Tanypteryx has replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


Message 37 of 59 (796868)
01-05-2017 9:22 PM
Reply to: Message 36 by Coyote
01-05-2017 8:59 PM


Re: Cannabis sample in the insect lab
Our plant pathology lab has a little furnace they use to destroy plant samples, so we took them over to them. They need to destroy samples that may have plant disease spores, so it works fine for cannabis samples too.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 36 by Coyote, posted 01-05-2017 8:59 PM Coyote has not replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 38 by jar, posted 01-06-2017 7:17 AM Tanypteryx has replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


Message 39 of 59 (796888)
01-06-2017 8:37 PM
Reply to: Message 38 by jar
01-06-2017 7:17 AM


Re: Cannabis sample in the insect lab
This was very fresh, though. To be good for smoking it needs to be dried and cured. I am going to see if this variety is available in the local stores. Almost everything being grown in Oregon is from clones rather than seeds.
Some of the pests, primarily mites, are too small to be seen without a microscope and the majority of the growers don't want to lay out the cash for a good one.
Some simple dips in baths would get rid of the pests on the clones before they are planted or brought into close proximity with clean plants.
There is an amazing amount of BS mythology about growing pot that a lot of these guys believe. The majority of them have never studied anything about agriculture. Eventually, I expect that we will see a few large growers that know what they are doing and that use sound practices dominate the market.
Some of the folks who bring plants into the lab talk to them as if they were sentient. Neo-hippies.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

This message is a reply to:
 Message 38 by jar, posted 01-06-2017 7:17 AM jar has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 40 by jar, posted 01-06-2017 9:21 PM Tanypteryx has seen this message but not replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(3)
Message 41 of 59 (803195)
03-26-2017 9:22 PM


New realms to explore
I have 2 weeks to go until I am retiring for the 3rd time. It has been a rewarding few months that provided enough cash to upgrade to a new camera body and get 3 new microscope objectives. I still have a fair amount of work building my own personal high-resolution system for photographing things that are right at the edge of unaided human vision, but I am seeing progress.
Today I was at the point where I could actually test it out on a couple specimens. The 1st image is a dorsal view of a dragonfly head, so not super small. Shot with just a 5X objective using the technique called focus stacking, where a series of images are shot as the camera is incrementally moved a small distance closer to the subject. The focused parts of the image are then combined to create a composite with greatly expanded depth of focus.
Click to see a higher resolution view.
As you can see in this next image the depth of focus is extremely shallow and it shrinks as magnification is increased. This is a single layer out of a stack of 150 images.
The composite gives us a much better view of what this moth look eye and head look like. It was shot using a 20X objective. The software I am using to control the camera with my computer is a bit glitchy so it screwed up a couple shots in this stack. I can see a narrow ring of out-of-focus facets in the eye where I did not have overlapping depth of focus with the stack layers adjacent the missing one.
I still have a way to go on the system, but this morning I was able to machine rounded corners on a large metal plate that will be the base that the camera support column and flash brackets will be mounted on. I still need to work out some kinks in the electronics and computer controls, but now I know that it will work.
Part of the fun in this sort of work is that almost any subject becomes a new unknown realm to explore.
Enjoy

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

Replies to this message:
 Message 42 by New Cat's Eye, posted 03-27-2017 11:02 AM Tanypteryx has not replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(2)
Message 43 of 59 (804540)
04-10-2017 10:31 PM


4 days to go
I am in my last week at work and looking forward to being in charge of my own time again.
I have been busy after work and on weekends setting up my new imaging system and trying to iron out the kinks. Lost my system hard drive on a relatively new computer (only about 200 hours run time)......irritating. I still have quite a way to go before it is completely finished and I want to get the base powder coated, but I am actually starting to shoot some subjects.
This is an over view with my phone camera.
And this is a close-up of the stage. It is just sitting on a box right now but soon it will be mounted on a metal stand that will also allow me to shoot with transmitted light from below the subject and to also utilize a technique called darkfield lighting.
Enjoy

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


Message 46 of 59 (808819)
05-13-2017 11:27 AM
Reply to: Message 45 by NosyNed
05-12-2017 10:09 PM


Re: Focus Stacking
I am under the impression that you use some sort of rail to little tiny bit by little tiny bit move the camera to change the plane of focus.
Yes, I use a device called a Stack Shot, made by an outfit called Cognisys. It has a stepper motor that can very precisely move the camera in steps down to 1 micron.
STACKSHOT - AUTOMATED MACRO RAIL FOR FOCUS STACKING
But it seems to me that would change the magnification of some part of the subject as you moved closer to it. If that is the case how can software assemble that into a correct image?
Yes that is true and in the early days when I started experimenting with this technique the software was quite limited. It took a lot of post processing to get a decent image. The limitations were pretty frustrating.
Another frustrated stacker, who is a math wizard and a programmer started creating a program to address all of the problems encountered in processing stacks. I was one of his beta testers and he created an absolutely amazing program that has been very successful. The program, Zerene Stacker, aligns and resizes all the images in the stack and then builds a composite.
Some subjects will always have problem areas that the program cannot decide how to process. Specimens where there is spatial separation between features, for example head features with antennae above and legs below. The features would be sharp in different sections of the stack and an affect called diffraction allows you to see features that are directly below those that are out of focus.
Zerene has a very useful retouching tool that lets you paint from any layer in the stack to fix stacking flaws. It also has a module that lets you control the Stack Shot including setting the step size.
At high magnification depth of field is extremely shallow, so some of my stacks take 500 or more separate images to show the features I want.
As with all photography lighting is the key. Very small subject introduce their own issues with lighting. Most of us use various diffusion and reflector materials to avoid blown highlights and shadows with no details. Some people use continuous light sources, but I prefer electronic flash.
Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.
Edited by Tanypteryx, : No reason given.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

This message is a reply to:
 Message 45 by NosyNed, posted 05-12-2017 10:09 PM NosyNed has not replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(1)
Message 47 of 59 (809834)
05-21-2017 1:27 PM


This is the head and thorax of a male Chironomid midge, species ID unknown.
This stacked composite is my first tests of some new electronic flashes. I fried 2 of my old standby Nikon flahes so had to get some cheapie replacements.
The composite took 350 stacked images. Shot through my Mitutoyo 10x objective.
I wonder what sorts of molecules these antennae evolved to detect? The females do not have all the fine setae (hairs) on their antennae and normally in cases like this the females produce pheromones that the males can detect and track from long distances. The pheromones of some insect species are used in lures for sampling traps. A common one you may have seen is used in commercial Yellow Jacket traps.
This is probably the last stacked shot I will have time for before I leave on my road trip to Virginia. A new road trip

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(3)
Message 48 of 59 (815068)
07-15-2017 4:05 PM


This is a male Pachydiplax longipennis. I am trying to develop a technique to photograph dragonfly eyes that shows the optical effects of the individual ommatidia (facets). I can see this in normal photos but the high magnification extended depth of field shots show surface details but not the internal "glow" caused by the lens in each ommatidia.
Note that eyes are divided into 2 different sizes of ommatidia, larger on the upper eye and smaller looking down. It is thought that the smaller ones provide finer resolution eyesight. The upper ones provide keen enough eyesight to spot very small prey and I have seen dragonflies suddenly fly straight up to investigate other dragonflies that are so high that I could not see them unaided. Binoculars were necessary to see them at all.
Dragonflies not only have incredibly keen eyesight in almost every direction, but they can process the visual information at very high speed considering the acrobatic maneuvers during high velocity flight.
Enjoy.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(4)
Message 49 of 59 (816006)
07-27-2017 6:52 PM


Another male Pachydiplax longipennis male, anterior head.
Imagine all that visual information being processed during high speed flight maneuvers.
This is a male Sympetrum illotum.
I have been experimenting with my lighting this week. These were both shot with a single diffused flash and a reflector.
Enjoy

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

Replies to this message:
 Message 50 by jar, posted 07-27-2017 7:46 PM Tanypteryx has replied
 Message 51 by New Cat's Eye, posted 07-27-2017 7:49 PM Tanypteryx has replied
 Message 58 by caffeine, posted 12-22-2017 5:19 PM Tanypteryx has replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


Message 53 of 59 (816014)
07-27-2017 10:35 PM
Reply to: Message 50 by jar
07-27-2017 7:46 PM


What is the difference between the upper larger eye spots and the smaller lower eye spots?
In Message 48 I commented about this:
quote:
Note that eyes are divided into 2 different sizes of ommatidia, larger on the upper eye and smaller looking down. It is thought that the smaller ones provide finer resolution eyesight. The upper ones provide keen enough eyesight to spot very small prey and I have seen dragonflies suddenly fly straight up to investigate other dragonflies that are so high that I could not see them unaided. Binoculars were necessary to see them at all.
I hope that helps.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

This message is a reply to:
 Message 50 by jar, posted 07-27-2017 7:46 PM jar has not replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


(2)
Message 54 of 59 (816016)
07-27-2017 11:23 PM
Reply to: Message 51 by New Cat's Eye
07-27-2017 7:49 PM


Imagine all that visual information being processed during high-speed flight maneuvers.
What do you know about their brains?
Insects have pretty simple brains compared to, for example, mammals, but observations in the field indicate that dragonflies and damselflies engage in complex behavior that is dominated by eyesight.
Dragonflies know where moving objects will go, just like us
This is an active area of research right now to understand how seemingly simple neuro-nets can be programmed for complex behavior.
I question it being "all that" information If each lense is just detecting a 1 or a 0, then it wouldn't be that much info in total. Prolly less than just two eyes that can distinguish over a range of hundreds of nanometers of wavelengths each.
Each ommatidium (facet) has a lens that projects a focused image at the base where pigment molecules called opsins activate a nerve. So, rather than a single image being projected by a lens on a retina of rods and cones the each sees a small portion of the whole image, dragonflies have thousands of narrow-angle images being focused on the light sensitive receptors.
The light sensitive opsins are activated by light in distinct wavelength ranges. Humans have 3 opsins and very rarely 4 that determine the full wavelength range we can detect and what colors we perceive.
Dragonflies have 13 or more opsins and can see a wider range of wavelengths and that range is divided into more discrete bands of wavelengths than humans see.
I will try and find a link to a very interesting paper on recent research into dragonfly eyesight that explains a lot of these discoveries. I had to move a bunch of papers off my laptop on my roadtrip to make room for photos.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

This message is a reply to:
 Message 51 by New Cat's Eye, posted 07-27-2017 7:49 PM New Cat's Eye has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 55 by RAZD, posted 07-28-2017 7:38 AM Tanypteryx has seen this message but not replied
 Message 56 by New Cat's Eye, posted 07-28-2017 12:04 PM Tanypteryx has seen this message but not replied

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


Message 57 of 59 (826122)
12-22-2017 4:22 PM


New Projects
I haven't spent much time at EvC recently. Projects with my imaging system seem to keep me pretty busy. The past couple of years several friends and I have been rearing dragonfly eggs and documenting the development of the embryos.
I was able to get a female Aeshna palmata that I collected on October 9 to lay eggs (oviposit) for me. There has been surprisingly little research done on embryo development so I wanted to see if the eggs laid this late in the season would develop normally and hatch and over-winter as nymphs or if the eggs would go into diapause (suspended development) and over-winter and then hatch in the spring.
The eggs have been in diapause for about 3 weeks. This was shot on day 61 since oviposition. I have 2 sets of eggs, one set exposed to outdoor temperatures and the other kept inside. Both sets are exposed to normal daylight. Since both sets are at the same stages of development it appears that photo-period rather than temperature controls the timing of development.
The eggs are normally inserted round end first into plant tissue or some other substrate. The next stage will probably be the embryo switching ends inside the egg (katatrepsis), so that the pro-nymph when it hatches head first, will be unimpeded. This is a really clever adaptation to insure the survival of the nymph.
Enjoy

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

  
Tanypteryx
Member
Posts: 4344
From: Oregon, USA
Joined: 08-27-2006
Member Rating: 5.9


Message 59 of 59 (826129)
12-22-2017 9:22 PM
Reply to: Message 58 by caffeine
12-22-2017 5:19 PM


What's that thing in the middle that looks remarkably like a human eye?
That is called an ocellus or simple eye. There are 3 and most insects have them. You can see the other 2 on either side in profile. They are usually black and very shiny and what you see is a reflection, probably of my objective lens. The ocelli can detect light but may not form an image. I have heard the hypothesis that they can detect the polarity of light in the sky and ultraviolet. On dragonflies, they generally are oriented so the central one faces forward and up and the two lateral ones face each side.

What if Eleanor Roosevelt had wings? -- Monty Python
One important characteristic of a theory is that is has survived repeated attempts to falsify it. Contrary to your understanding, all available evidence confirms it. --Subbie
If evolution is shown to be false, it will be at the hands of things that are true, not made up. --percy
The reason that we have the scientific method is because common sense isn't reliable. -- Taq

This message is a reply to:
 Message 58 by caffeine, posted 12-22-2017 5:19 PM caffeine has not replied

  
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