Particularly flipping specimnes when switching between dorsal and ventral views. Whatever I'm doing seems very difficult and was wondering if there's a better method out there.
Clean Hands and Tools: Ensure your hands and any tools you use are clean to avoid contamination.Use Fine Tools: Utilize fine forceps or a fine brush to handle the specimens gently.Handle Carefully: Microarthropods are delicate, so handle the slides with extreme care. Avoid applying too much pressure.Avoid Contamination: Keep the environment clean and free from dust and other contaminants.Use Proper Lighting: Adequate lighting is crucial for observing the specimens clearly. Use a well-lit microscope.Steady Hands: Keep your hands steady while working under the microscope to avoid accidental jarring of the specimens.Practice Patience: Working with microarthropods requires patience. Take your time to manipulate them carefully.Document Your Work: If you're manipulating microarthropods for research purposes, document your procedures and observations carefully.
Hi Brendan,
Your university should have a copy of "A Manual of Acarology" (Ed. Krantz & Walter). There's a whole chapter in that about slide-mounting mites, which is useful for all sorts of creatures < 4 mm or so. I could send a copy of that chapter if you can't find it, but you'd have to give me a couple days. It's essential for anyone getting into mites.
Clearing your animals prior to slide-mounting lets you see the dorsum and venter of a small mite without flipping. For bigger animals (e.g. thrips) you generally go through more of a process to clear, with harsher agents, and they get mounted in "stronger, long-lasting" media (like Euparol). Fine-bodied animals like mites often get cleared and mounted in Hoyer's, a chloral-hydrate based medium. Great optics, easy to use, but slides will spoil in time (quickly if not kept in a climate-controlled environment). Spoiled slides are thankfully fairly easy to remount, but that's still a nuisance.
We also use a cavity-slide method. Clear in lactic acid, put your animal into a cavity slide with a few drops of lactic acid, and place a coverslip half over the cavity. You then use a mounted micropin to manipulate the animal while under the coverslip (simply an entomological micropin shoved into the end of a wooden skewer - wet the skewer first to make it soft). That's a preferred method for heavily sclerotised globose mites like oribatids.
Those mounted micropins can also be fashioned into micro blades, loops and hooks with a pair of fine foreceps. Before long, you'll have a small set of favourite tools made for a few cents each - the good pair of forceps are the expensive part.
Good luck!
Owen.
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