Crane Fly Wing Tip Comparison

Another common name for the crane fly (Wikipedia) is a "mosquito eater" - don't kill them! They are the good guys!

Here we are observing the very tip of the wing with 10x objectives. First is brightfield, darkfield, crossed polarizers and phase contrast (Ph2).

Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x brightfield Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x darkfield Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x with crossed polarizers Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x phase contrast Ph2

Next, there is epi-fluorescence at various excitation wavelengths with no diascopic illumination at all. First up is the UV-1A cube, then B-2A, and the very similar G-2A and G-2B (UV, blue and green).

Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with UV excitaiton UV-1A Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with blue excitaiton B-2A Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with green excitaiton G-2A Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with green excitaiton G-2B

Finally, adding diascopic illumination simultaneously with the epi-fluorescence can give a much better idea of what it is that you are looking at.

First, we see UV + darkfield, then add into the mix crossed polarizers, then UV + phase contrast.

Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with UV excitaiton UV-1A plus simultaneous darkfield diascopic illumination Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with UV excitaiton UV-1A plus simultaneous darkfield and crossed polarizer diascopic illumination Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with UV excitaiton UV-1A plus simultaneous phase contrast Ph2 diascopic illumination

Next, we have blue excitation plus phase contrast, as well as the G-2A and G-2B plus phase contrast.

Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with blue excitaiton B-2A plus simultaneous phase contrast Ph2 diascopic illumination Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with green excitaiton G-2A plus simultaneous phase contrast Ph2 diascopic illumination Crane fly (mosquito eater) wing tip at 10x epi-fluorescence with green excitaiton G-2B plus simultaneous phase contrast Ph2 diascopic illumination

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