VFTs in *uber* macro mode!!

[moonflower]

My roomate just completed a course in electron microscopy, and for her final project she asked if she could use some of my VFT's traps to examine. The deal was she could use as many as she wanted, if I could get copies of the scans

so here they are... although since they are not my pictures, please PM me if you want to use them anywhere and I will give you the appropriate credits. she did say i can put them up though!

trap leaf

trigger hair

closeup of "eyelash"

 

[Tinytimid]

WOW! Those are some incredible pictures!

 

[DerbyCityNeps]

thats in micro meters right? what are the 'eyelashes'? the trigger hairs?

 

[moonflower]

lol "eyelashes" is lack of a better term for the teeth-pointy-things-whatever they are on the edge of the trap. finals crunchtime, brain cells are elsewhere trigger hair is on the inside of the trap. i'm not sure why the trap surface has that pitted look... the leaf had to be dried to be scanned (they have to do all kinds of weirdness to the samples before they scan them) so it's dehydrated, but that doesn't explain what the shapes are. i thought it was interesting that the teeth-eyelash-things twisted up with drying too.

and yup it's micrometers

tiny!

 

[bugfreak]

that is awesome! thanks for sharing.

to think, i just turned in a paper on electron microscopy for a general physics class. the topic was more on aberration correctors and looking at stuff on an atomic scale though.

 

[SpyCspider]

hands down, one of the coolest things i've seen regarding CPs

I like how the edge spines are twisty...never knew that, or was that due to the drying process?