Chironomidae - A Midge Larvae

I found this guy in a sample from my microbe aquarium. I took a sample of Hornwort spines from near the top of the water level and put them in a centrifuge tube and spun them for about 6 minutes. Taking a sample of water from the bottom of the tube, this guy was one of the things I found in it.

I had never seen this larvae before, but using Google and some logical search terms it took about 10 minutes to track down an image of this guy and find out what it was. Identification has been a real problem for me, but practice is making me better at it.

The video.

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Great work.

An interesting subject as always.

Interesting shots
Brian v.

Hi Mitch. Your making great strides investigating the 'invisible' world in your yard. Great shots and a stunning video. Hope you're staying well. David.

Thanks Bas, Brian and David. I do feel like I am making advances, especially in learning how to use the microscope. There are a number of adjustments needed to get the proper lighting, or the camera just can't take a good picture. Adjustments that aren't so obvious from reading the manual or tinkering with them, until you stumble onto the right combination and then it seems so obvious. I think I have finally found the right combination.

The subjects though, are just chance. It's not like a real aquarium, where you arm yourself with a net and spot the fish you want, then just outsmart him into the net. Most of these guys, you can't see, and the ones you can see can outsmart you. LOL But it's mostly chance and it's like an Easter Egg hunt. Every once in awhile your the winner, but every day, you at least go home with something.

Cool set Mitch. Looks almost like a caterpillar

Great find! The last one is pretty interesting, so many green circles inside the creature...
I bet there are zillions of these inside me!

Thanks Kurt and Hot Shek. Maybe a hairless caterpillar.

Hot Sheck, the green circles are bug blood cells. I doubt you have any of these inside you. And this bug is big enough to be barely seen with the naked eye, so the only way this guy will get inside you, is if you eat him.

These are great shots Mitch,still amazes me at all the unseen creatures in our world.

Thanks Sharon, and the best part is, you never know what your going to dip out of the aquarium next. I think the only dependable bug I can find are the cyclops, cause I know where they hide.

must be fun seeing what you come up with from different water samples. Have you seen this Nikon small world selection?

http://www.nikonsmallw​orld.com/detail/year/2​011/10

Thanks Toby. It is fun, and always interesting to see what I dip out each time. I'm in withdrawls now though, had a bad cold the last several days and just now starting to feel up to doing any microscope work, and now of course, it's football Sunday.

I have not seen that exact link, but did see another one someone sent me. Many of the winners and runners up are people we know from the other forum. What an opportunity to learn from the best in the world, heh?

very interesting and great shots Mitch!

Thanks Nijel. Yes, this guy was very interesting to watch, and I had no idea he was in the tank at all, as they are way too small to see without a scope.