Linopodes Mites on Calocera viscosa
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,379 Major grins
I was on a mushroom foray in a deciduous wood. I spotted a familiar, orange fungus on a tree stump in a shaded spot. As I focused through my Kiron 105, set at about closest focus, I could see long, fine filaments waving, apparently behind the fruiting body.
Was it a tiny spider or harvestman in distress? I changed my angle of view, to leave the view of these blocked by the fungus. I still saw them, at whatever angle I viewed. Something strange was going on. I took some frames.
I then changed to my reversed Schneider FM 40 and TC setup, FOV 6mm. At small aperture, this is difficult enough to focus and see through, even in good light, very difficult in this dim location. This is pushing the limits of hand-held macro.
Anyway, what was happening was that these mites, with very long front legs, were walking around on the surface, waving their front legs. Later research found them to be Linopodes, or a related genus. They use those long legs to pull out spores from the gills of mushrooms. Quite what they were doing on a fungus lacking gills is a mystery.
Some of the high magnification images have been cropped, some not. I have used more processing than usual to try to show details of the mites.
Harold
Was it a tiny spider or harvestman in distress? I changed my angle of view, to leave the view of these blocked by the fungus. I still saw them, at whatever angle I viewed. Something strange was going on. I took some frames.
I then changed to my reversed Schneider FM 40 and TC setup, FOV 6mm. At small aperture, this is difficult enough to focus and see through, even in good light, very difficult in this dim location. This is pushing the limits of hand-held macro.
Anyway, what was happening was that these mites, with very long front legs, were walking around on the surface, waving their front legs. Later research found them to be Linopodes, or a related genus. They use those long legs to pull out spores from the gills of mushrooms. Quite what they were doing on a fungus lacking gills is a mystery.
Some of the high magnification images have been cropped, some not. I have used more processing than usual to try to show details of the mites.
Harold
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Comments
Brian v.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lordv/
http://www.lordv.smugmug.com/
Thank, Brian,
I regularly find a similar species under bark, on the ground, in my garden, but they run too fast for framing and focus.
The mites on the fungus really need special attention to get decent images at high magnification. Even if I had a tripod with me, their almost constant motion, especially the waving, might make sharp images very difficult to obtain. Maybe, now I am aware of them, I can find them in local woods, when I don't have to keep up with the foray group.
Harold
Thanks but the background was not a matter of choice. It was a typical moss-covered tree stump. There was only one fungus of that species.
Harold