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Photo#377636
Late-stage embryo - Abedus herberti

Late-stage embryo - Abedus herberti
Portal, Cochise County, Arizona, USA
July 1, 2005
Size: 3.5mm
This is the embryo just prior to emergence. The egg has swollen with water and turned transparent. I dissected this one out of a blob of A. herberti eggs I found in the bottom of a sample vial - we stripped them off prior to a controlled-mating experiment years ago. I posted it as a "mystery" picture because it was so dramatically unusual, and I was interested in the guesses people might take.
The part I still can't figure out are the sections immediately lateral to the beak and immediately proximal to the prothoracic legs. How that "puzzle piece" articulates into the emerged nymph, I can't tell.

Images of this individual: tag all
Late-stage embryo - Abedus herberti Late-stage embryo - Abedus herberti Egg-mass - Abedus herberti Lone egg - Abedus herberti Metathoracic claw visible inside shell - Abedus herberti Egg surface structure - Abedus herberti

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

 
Haha!
You trickster, you knew all along! :P

 
Excellent diagnoses!
It still could be wrong, I suppose, but pretty damn good shot at it!

 
I'm confident Arlo's ID is right...
...as far as I know, he's very familiar with this species. :) It was fun to take guesses as to what it was, though!

I wonder...
This is about what I'd picture a backswimmer (Notonectidae) embryo looking like, if that makes any sense. Do you have shots of it from any other angles?

 
Nice!
I agree with Charley. I kept looking at the red claws on the tips of this mystery bug's legs and wondering what they belonged to. Check out this image that shows those exact red claws:

Did you collect it?
Was it moving?

 
I collected it
standing very still, seemed to be adhered to a chitinous fleck.

Cool!
Looks like nature's version of a pac-man ghost.

Okay, back to reality: was it aquatic? If not, it looks kind of like an arachnid sans egg shell, right before emergence.

 
Found in
riparian habitat

 
Just curious
Was it on a leaf?

 
*
Looks sort of hopperish. You can kind of make out a beak.

WOW
not a clue; but glad I never encountered it when I was camping in the Chiracahuas. :)

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