One of my ‘wish list’ diatoms. This is an example of Grovea pedalis from Papakaio, Oamaru, New Zealand. Single example on the slide mounted with the rim upwards towards the coverslip (this resulted in some complexities for imaging which I will discuss later). Mounted in Styrax. Slide also says A.S. 149/18, referring to Schmidt’s Atlas, Plate 149, Figure 18. Prepared by H Lovett. The slide came from the collection of the late Howard Lynk. Olympus BHB microscope using 450nm LED light. 63x Leitz Pl Apo 1.4 objective, oil immersion. Olympus Aplanat Achromat condenser, oil immersion, oblique lighting. 2.5x Nikon CF PL photoeyepiece. Monochrome converted Nikon d850 camera. 68 images stacked in Zerene (Pmax).
Howard (Lynk) said this one was tricky to image, and he wasn’t joking. A full stack showed the rim, which is nearest the coverslip, in a lot of detail. However details on the rim obscure the ocelli which are below them with it mounted this way. I needed to play around with the order of stacking, and how I brought individual parts of the image together to make the ocelli more visible. It still looks a little weird to me, but I prefer it to the original full stack as it allows the ocelli to be seen.
Grovea pedalis (Grove & Sturt) A.W.F.Schmidt 1896. Published in: Schmidt, A.[W.F.] (1890). Atlas der Diatomaceen-kunde Series IV: Heft [37/38]. pp. pls 145-152. Leipzig: Fues’s Verlag (R. Reisland). Schmidt’s Atlas Plate 149, Figure 18. Homotypic synonyms: Biddulphia pedalis Grove & Sturt 1887, Odontella pedalis (Grunow & Sturt) Grunow 1888.
As mentioned above this is a ‘wish list’ diatom for me, and now a treasured slide.
EDIT – I’ve been told his name is Harry Lovett, and he was a member of the Quekett Microscopical Club in the 1940s.