
(mais par contre ça ne veut pas dire que l'identification est fausse).
Forum communautaire francophone des insectes et autres arthropodes
Animateur : kristobal21
Il ya une petite phrase répétée deux fois, je pense que c'est une erreur d'inattention de sa partDear Vincent,
the white spots are artefacts in this sense: the body of Tomoceridae is covered with colourless translucent microscopic small
scales. These scales reflect/refract the environmental light in such a way that it causes all kinds of iridisation colour effects.
In other words, the colour of Tomoceridae that we see is not caused by pigmentation of the skin but by iridisation effects of the
light in the scales. In other words the colour of Tomoceridae depends strongly on the environmental light conditions. In other words
Tomoceridae can appear to have different colours depending on environmental light conditions. In normal day light conditions,
Tomocerus vulgaris has a deep purple background colour with golden transverse bands at the segment margins. this can be observed
easily with a 5x handheld magnification glass in normal day light.
Bothriotricha (long fine sense hairs) are placed in a pit of the skin. In some macroshots, the white spots correspond with those
pits. In the center of each spot (pit) a bothriotrichum is placed.
To conclude: the white spots are artefacts in the sense that it are not spots produced by skin pigmentation but spots produced by
optical illusion of iridisation effects.
In fact, all colours in Tomoceridae are optical illusion colours produced by iridisation effects, not by skin pigmentation. The
underlying skin colour of Tomoceridae is yellowish/brownish. Use a fine brush to remove the scale cover of Tomoceridae to reveal the
underlying true yellow skin colour.
I hope this helps clarifying the white spots of this 'Tomocerus albomaculatus' (I like the name) ;-)
Your pictures are excellent illustrations of the complex iridisation effects in Tomocerus vulgaris.
Kind regards,
Frans