Confocal microscopy would be my guess. You can measure the area within each optical section, and then add all the sections. You could do this with regular microscopy, but very tedious.

Micro CT scans: sample processing might be an issue.

Abalative laser tomography

Many thanks Namraj and Tim for your brilliant suggestions,

Regarding the confocal microscopy this can reduce the hatchibility of eggs because of the sheer volume of lasering. I want to keep the eggs alive to do the rest of my experiment after they are hatched. On top of this I have to measure approximately 600 eggs and conf microscopy is a time consuming in this regard. I suppose the light microscopy and measuring the projected area with emageJ would be a good precedure.

As eggs are elipsoidal in early embryonic development the measured projected area can be converted to volume through reliable formula.

Any suggestions for medium?

Cheers,

Alihan

Dear Alihan,

See the following article:

Lumbreras CJ, Galante E, Mena J (1991) Ovarian Condition as an Indicator of the Phenology of Bubas bubalus (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae). Ann Entomol Soc Am 84: 190-194.

The authors cite one way to measure the volume of oocyte with the formula of the prolate espheroid (elipsoid):

V = 4/3 π b^2 a

Where b is the semi axis of the height, and a is the semi axis of the width of the egg.

Hope that it helps you.

Best wishes,

Paulo.

Dear Alihan, you can use outline morphometrics to capture the egg size and shape. Reach me for further details.

[email protected]

Dear Paulo,

Many thanks for the useful literature that you referred me to! This formula is exactly what I need for calculation of volume via polar length (a) and radius (half of the width) (b) of the egg.

Cheers,

Alihan