I have also tried an alternate „more correct“ version with the medial antenna further towards the snout and the eyes a bit more to the back but it doesn’t look as cute

A (non-realistic) „sticker“ I drew in procreate of Eulalia sp., a green paddle worm of the family Phyllodocidae.

If life hands you a deadline, draw polychaete stickers!

(Am supposed to be working on velvet worm nephridia, but oh well…)

#polychaete #worm #art #marinelife

P.S.: This is true at least for Peripatopsidae. I think it‘s the same in Peripatidae too, but I‘m not sure

P.P.S.: Drawings of the three nephridia in comparison coming soon! :D

Onychophorans are weird.
They have 3 different kinds of nephridia. Small ones in the first 3 pairs of legs. Huge ones in 4 and 5. And „typical“ ones in all the remaining ones.

Also in 4 or 5, instead of having the opening (nephridiopore) at the base of the legs, they open right at the feet. Wth??

It‘s been a while but I have location info! :D

It’s from Antarctica. From the Weddell Sea

Wow! Unfassbar schön! Die Farben! :D
Ist das normales Dunkelfeld oder gibt es noch Tricks, um das Bild zu verbessern?

Die letzten Wochen war hier alles gefroren. Einzig ein Entwässerungsgraben war eisfrei, aber in dem gibt es nur Ruderfußkrebse. Darum habe ich ausführlich Copepoden fotografiert. Von dorsal und ventral

Harpacticoida Copepoden sind nicht leicht zu fotografieren. Ich habe nur sehr wenige Fotos von denen. Heute habe ich ein Weibchen ventral mit angehängter Spermatophore ablichten können.

The head of my bx41 microscope with my camera adapted to the top of it.

Breaking news! I have successfully adapted the camera to my microscope! Yaaay!

Still need a bit more distance for parfocality with the eye pieces, so I‘m ordering a helicoid extension tube.

Stunning! I didn’t know you could get different colours like that with UV! :0

This week’s UV copepods! I swear these colours are getting wilder every week.

#marineplankton 🦑

If you‘re in/around Bonn, definitely worth a visit! The exhibition is only around for a few days longer! (Until 06.04.)

A small part of the entire artwork. Crocheted corals of various kinds and other reef-life in yellows oranges and reds. It doesn’t even begin to capture the beauty of it irl

Went to a marine exhibition at the Bundeskunsthalle today. Great exhibition all the way through. But I was particularly stunned by the crocheted coral reef.

I think this is one of the most beautiful and impressive works of art I‘ve seen. It‘s a collaboration by a few hundred (>1000?) artists.

Hello cutie squish squash Spionidae larva! A gorgeous little polychaete (bristle worm) larva from last week’s sample.
#marineplankton 🦑

✹✹✹

A copepod (probably Cyclops sp.) against black background. Notably, this individual has large orange oil drops in its body.

Micro-fried-chickenleg!

#copepod #microscopy #pondlife #crustacean

Phyllodoce mucosa Phyllodoce mucosa from Isle of Man on March 30, 2025 at 04:10 PM by rhias

oh interesting! A polychaete Phyllodoce mucosa surrounding this green ball! is that where the species epithet comes from ? A mucus ball? eggs? interesting! #wormwednesday www.inaturalist.org/observations...

That’s probably eggs, I think. But they look like that in a lot of Phyllodoce species.
They also produce *tons* of defensive slime when they feel threatened. P. mucosa more than the others. I‘ve handled one once for photography and the amount of slime these little guys produce is unbelievable.

Crown of a magnolia tree (also in full bloom) against a perfectly blue sky

And also some magnolias :)

View from underneath cherry tree in full pink bloom. Due to the over-exposure the sky is almost completely white.

Just a photo from yesterday‘s walk that‘s horribly overexposed, but that I like a lot. Spring is here! :D

#cherryblossom #spring

Reference pic of a small spring og beech leaves that are in the process off turning into their autumn outfit, changing from green through yellow and orange to brown. It's for the drawing in the next pic.

A colour pencil drawing of the turning beech leaves from the photo in the previous image. It's a reasonable representation of them.

A close up on part of the drawing showing details on the turning leaves and the dark brown bark of the twig.

Joining in with the reference vs. art thing 🌿

Three copepods under UV from my sample last week. A female Pseudodiaptomus marinus, a female Pseudocalanus sp., and a Harpacticoida (I don’t know genus).

#marineplankton 🦑

Got it for 5€ at a used dvd shop.

Bluray box of the complete series of Planet Earth.

I‘m gonna have a great day tomorrow! :D

Copepod female as seen through a microscope at 100x total magnification. Lateral view. The background is turned black. The copepod is currently carrying two pale greenish egg sacs.

Another copepod for you! <3
I just think they‘re very neat.

This one‘s Eucyclops sp.

#pondlife #microscopy #crustacean #copepod

Onychophore-closeup against a black background.

Another Onychophore post! :)
This time the whole animal from the side.

I’m surprised by how well the colours got preserved. Apparently it has been collected a couple decades back and stored in ethanol ever since

#onychophore #photography #macrophotography

A helluva chonk of a bristle worm! This is the larva of a polychaete from the genus Scolelepis and it was hard to miss!

#marineplankton 🦑

Closeup of A. branchialis against a black background. It is very clearly segmented. Every 5 segments is a chaetiger (bristle-carrying segment). Later (on from chaetiger 11 or 12) the worm has very pronounced branchiae that were definitely not a nightmare ar all to draw the black background around, I promise you. :)

Haven’t posted a polychaete in a while… :)
This one’s Arenicolides branchialis. I love this very deep and dark iridescent green colour it has. In person it looked almost black.

#polychaete #worm #WormWednesday

But omg. I’m gonna be SO good at colouring stuff when I’m finished with my thesis… You won’t even believe it!
I’m gonna be the personification of the bucket tool!

I hope, the people whom I’ve told “I’m doing 3D reconstruction of animals with a microCT scanner to visualise their anatomy and morphology” never find out that most of that is just me colouring in pictures like in a colouring book.