Macro photos of freshwater amphipods

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ECooper

ECooper

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Jun 30, 2010
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amphipod tiff spotted edit colour_filtered unsharpen_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

It has been waaaaay too long since I posted any photos. Funny how life can speed-up and suck all your time—especially over Christmas holidays when you have kids! Anyhow, I’m back and after a 2-week hiatus I have finally posted some photos on my blog of freshwater amphipods (that I took last summer). The photo above is of a very pretty specimen of Gammarus lacustris; apparently the only species of freshwater gammarid amphipod found in British Columbia.

Whenever (and wherever) I have collected freshwater Gammarus in the past, they have been coloured drab shades of brown and olive green. But as you can see, the specimensIcollectedfrom this particular stream showed some real diversity in colouration, including some really pretty specimens with bright red spots on a translucent yellowish body. Others had a single very obvious bright red spot on their side. I still don’t know if the spot was on the critter’s exoskeleton or was something inside the body…


amphipod red spot sharpened copyright ernie cooper_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr

I really need to get back to that stream again this summer to collect more of these crittersand do a better job of photographing them…

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress.com
 
Rbishop

Rbishop

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Great shots! I wonder if Niko evolved from them?
 
metricliman

metricliman

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The embedded pics don't work for me :confused:.
In fact, the flickr photostream doesn't work. But I looked on your website, the pics are awesome!
 
ECooper

ECooper

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Hi all, and thank you for the kind words.

The mystery of the amphipod with the red spot has been solved...it turns out that the red spot was actually an acanthocephalan (thorny-headed or spiny-headed worm) parasite called Polymorphus. Acanthocephalans are parasitic and don’t have a digestive tract; they are basically a sack containing reproductive organs and musculature with a spiny proboscis that can stick out of one end. The proboscis is used to stab into and attach to the gut of its host (the animal in which it is living and feeding from). They ingest nutrients directly through their body surface.

The cool thing is how Polymorphus alters the behaviour of the host amphipod. Gammarus lacustris are preyed upon by ducks (amongst other predators). Needless to say they generally try to avoid being eaten and tend to avoid light and stay away from the surface (where ducks are). However, Polymorphus eventually causes its host to becomes attracted by light and swim towards the surface to increase the likelihood of being eaten by a duck. The bird then becomes infected by the parasite...

Below I’ve uploaded a tightly cropped version of the red-spot photo. Now I’m wondering what the little clump is that is growing on the back of the amphipod (in the upper right corner of the photo)?

Cheers,
EC
www.macrocritters.wordpress .com


amphipod red spot very tight crop_filtered by ernie.cooper, on Flickr
 
captmicha

captmicha

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Dec 6, 2006
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I really need to get back to that stream again this summer to collect more of these crittersand do a better job of photographing them…
Click to expand...
Shove it. Seriously. Those are better shots than I could ever hope to achieve in my LIFE. I WANT your camera and skills. Incredible photos. I need to check out your videos also.
 
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