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Help! Can someone identify these structures found in a frog's diet?

 
 
Reply Thu 4 Jun, 2015 04:11 am
Hello,
I'm studying the diet of the african clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) in Portugal and I've found these structures in a few stomachs but I can't identify them (they don't seem to belong to the other items that appear in the same stomachs). This frog's diet is mostly composed by benthic and nektonic prey but they also eat terrestrial invertebrates.
Does anyone knows of some insect with similar structures in any stage? (The first two pictures were taken in a stereomicroscope and the last one in a microscope) Thanks!

https://flic.kr/p/taj7nY
https://flic.kr/p/taucf2
https://flic.kr/p/tPJNE9
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farmerman
 
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Reply Thu 4 Jun, 2015 04:59 am
@Raquel Marques,
Im totally out of your area but, if it could be a terrestrial invertebrate, perhaps its got a crystalline structure (like chitin). If thats the case, take a chunk nd look at it under a polarized light microscope with a rotating stage and substage lighting. The crystalline structure ill appear as colo changes as you rotate the stage and the colrs are absorbed by the polarized planes of light.

Other than that, I have no clue (We look at fossil chitenous material and are able to deduce structures and chemical makeup in plane polarized light).

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