Our website access statistics show that there has been a constant increase
in page hits (i.e. page clicks) over the years. At present we do have about
30,000 page hits per month.
This is, of course, nothing when compared to a weather forecast website
or an erotic site. But it is quite competitive for an internet domain dealing
with a very special kind of microscopic beings only. So, once again,
welcome to you all as your are definitely members of a rare but persistent
minority group, possibly even an endangered species variant of
homo sapiens ;-) "Sure, they're cute, but this
might be a bit much: |
But now we will return to the moulting of tardigrades. In the last issue of the Water Bear web base we had seen an eutardigrade striving in order to get rid of its old skin. But you will rarely come across pictures of moulting heterotardigrades
in the scientific literature. |
Typical terrestrial eutardigrade. | |
Typical terrestrial heterotardigrade. The
armour plates are present here but visible only when the microscope is
exactly focusing on them.
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The moulting of an eutardigrade can be easily recognized by its
erratic movements. The cuticula remains fully transparent throughout the process,
similar to those modern transparent foils for flower bouquets. |
Heterotardigrade during moulting.
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The moulting of heterotardigrades is a difficult scenario for photomicrography as the animals are optically dense (opaque). Also our CCD has become a little bit angry and has produced some noise which doesn't show up here due to the modest image size. |
Heterotardigrade during moulting. Ventral view. The contracted shape ot the "newly born" animal and its intestine within the body are clearly visible. |
And, no matter whether eutardigrade or heterotardigrade, after many hours
the animals leave their old skin. Some of them deposit their eggs
in the cuticula during the last stage of moulting. |
Eutardigrade Ramazzottius oberhaeuseri leaving its old skin. | |
Heterotardigrade (genus echiniscus) eggs in
otherwise empty cuticula. |
© Text, images and video clips by
Martin Mach (webmaster@baertierchen.de).
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