alien & predator

Certain members of our lab investigate the effects of virus infection on plant 'attractiveness' to insects that act as virus vectors, spreading disease from plant to plant. This means that we can't use insecticides or fungicides to keep down the numbers of other insects that like to nibble and make holey patterns in the leaves. Instead, we use biological control, in the form of tiny predatory mites that feed on the babies of the greedy herbivores.

The mites are tiny and not visible to the naked eye (at least, not to mine). But when I was working on the confocal microscope it was very obvious that the company from which we order our biological control agent wasn't just sending us some sawdust and saying it contained mites. As I was scanning along the epidermal cell layer, I suddenly came across a six legged creature with armour plating down its back, sitting under my lens. I was quite taken aback.

I found a few more on my tissue samples. Normally I rinse the tissue well before imaging, but this time I must not have cleaned the leaves as thoroughly as usual. I quite like the images, they look rather cool. I'm glad it's not a life-size picture though, they remind me of cockroaches.....