Larval octopus

[perke]

Hi all,

A couple of months ago I got some larval octopuses pop up in a light trap. I got my friend Brian Paavo( I have to give him some recognition for taking the photos) to take some SEM photos of them.

I thought you all might want to have a look. The one I've posted is just the whole animal but if there is interest I have a couple more that I can post .

 

[tonmo]

Wow! That's an awesome picture... Post more if you've got 'em!

 

[Steve O'Shea]

That is a stunning pic Kerry! Stating the obvious, but for those of you not-so familiar with the frustration of trying to orient a gold-plated specimen inside an SEM, the animal is upside down (the eyes are constricted), and the funnel is the large structure at the top; the points of mantle attachment to the head are lateral. Interesting structures on the arms (the papillae)!

Did you have any light-microscopic imagery of this fellow before SEM preparation? Colour observations? That would be rather interesting (there's papers in this sort of thing).

Looking forward to some squid ones too!!!
Me

 

[perke]

Thanks for the response. Unfortunatly I didn't get light microscope pictures (and now I'm kicking myself). The little fella was pretty spectacular though now that I think about it . I actually got 20 or so of them but they seemed similar to the ones that we already had in the aquarium so I didn't think to much of it. Here are some more photos with a close up of the arms just for you Steve.

 

[reefan]

very cool pics
JJ

 

[Octomatt]

Agreed! Amazing photos!