Triturus carnifex spermatophore

[caleb]

It's hard to take a picture of something that's almost completely transparent... but here's a snap of a T. carnifex spermatophore:

I've drawn an outline here, if you couldn't make it out in the first picture:

It's about 1cm high in total. As I understand it, the actual spermatozoa are in the white material at the top, the rest of it is just a jelly supporting it.

 

[paris]

actually thats a really good picture of the jelly, shows the crinkling in it and all-the only thing that throws me off is the rock its laid on, with all that algae and its colour it looks like a human arm! how is it you could take such a clear picture of it through glass? was it really close to the side?

 

[caleb]

Yes, it was pretty close to the side, and I cleaned the glass well beforehand.