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 :D .

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=74

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

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

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 :oops: . 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. :wink:

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=77

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=78

http://www.tonmo.com/phpBB/download.php?id=79

very cool pics
JJ

Agreed! Amazing photos!