Wednesday, December 22, 2021

Case of the Week 665

This week's case was made possible by BEI Resources and the NIH-NIAID Filariasis Research Reagent Resource (FR3) Center. They provided the materials and excellent instructions for this special experiment:

These black elliptical objects measure ~550-600 micrometers long, and came dried on a piece of paper towel. I added a strip of the paper towel to a Petri dish containing distilled water and waited about 30 minutes for the action to start. Here is what happened:

Here are some still shots of the action:



What are these objects??

Special thanks to Dr. Shelly Michalski and Teagan at the FR3 for providing the materials for this special experiment!




9 comments:

Eagleville said...

Aedes eggs and larvae?

Anonymous said...

mosquito larvae
BW from Vt

Anonymous said...

For sure those are mosquito eggs, they stick together like rafts on top of the water. The wigging larva hatches from one of these eggs. I would leave the mosquito identification to entomologists, as a kid I used to scoop the larvae with a small net to feed my Siamese beta fighters.
Florida Fan

Lyric said...

Can't ID at 1st instar, but I'm guessing these are Aedes aegypti given the source :)
Thank you for showcasing the FR3, Bobbi!!

LeAnna said...

Mosquito larvae and eggs :)

Shelly Michalski said...

Thank you Bobbi! The FR3 is always available for filariasis research and teaching needs!

Bernardino Rocha said...

It definitely belongs to the Culicidae family. Taking into account the shape/color and chorionic sculpture of the eggs, as well as the shape of the larva's head and thorax and the presence of a pronounced siphon in the terminal position of the abdomen, I think it is Aedes sp.

Salbrent said...

Awesone

Anonymous said...

Definitely Culicidae eggs and larvae. Anopheline eggs have this "hot-dog" appearance.
For the precise ID, it's probably Aedes spp. if we judge by the bulky and short respiratory siphon on the close-up picture of a larva (Culex spp. have a longer and thinner siphon).