With the primary colors having their own threads (see the links below), what about the lack of color at all? Let’s see some transparent/sort of transparent organisms!
A couple species of Aegithus have almost see-through elytra:
I was thinking about making a project showcasing transparent organisms recently! I think I looked it up but the only one that fit the description was for a few specific ocean taxa that people get mixed up. I like fun little collection projects about interesting traits though. The problem is it’s addicting!
I can’t think of any of my own observations with transparency that are particularly interesting but this and traits like reflective organisms (not necessarily metallic ones) could be really fun.
Not a great photo but you can see the transparency.
I’ll see if I can find anymore in my observations later.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what everyone posts on this thread.
What a fun subject! Here are 2 shots of a Clearwing Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe) feeding on an ornamental lilac in my garden near Fairbanks, Alaska
I imagine this thread will largely be the territory of fishes, so I will start with a fish.
On land, here are what I suppose are gastropod eggs. And an adult too! These guys shells are very small and very thin, so are a little transparent.
On the small end of things, here is a mosquito larva, a cute booklouse juvenile, and what I assume is a nematode.
There are some tortoise beetles with transparent wing cases, here, and here are two examples.
Though it is also a bit more obvious than we suppose, of course most insects have lovely transparent wings!
Earthworms also lay eggs like that.
Commelina erecta ssp erecta are a morning dayflower that last only a few hours; their petals go translucent before seeming to melt into nothingness.
For comparison, here is one before it begins to fade.
Another one I just thought of:
Ghost Ants ( Tapinoma melanocephalum) Very hard to spot. These I spotted the damage to the Solanum erianthum, and only when I looked more closely saw the ants.
American Thief Ants (Solenopsis molesta), which I used for the yellow organism thread, are one of my favorite species locally and are very small and can be partially translucent. This photo shows the transparency in the head https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/214085721
I sat and watched this slug eat lunch for several minutes. It was the first time I’ve seen the food get “sucked up” through the head. Cool.
These threads are like a black hole - I can’t tear myself away! Not that I’m really trying… (-: Thanks for this!
Pleurobrachia pileus (Sea Gooseberry)
Palaemon (Glass Shrimps)
From the clearwing moth family (Edited to add missed obs. link):
Synanthedon scitula (Dogwood Borer Moth)
Delicatula integrella (more translucent than transparent)
Parnassius clodius (Clodius Parnassian)
Ok, I’ve found a few more.
I think all my transparent observation are aquatic and very small. I do think they are very cool, but perhaps being transparent is not the most impressive thing when at most a few millimetres in size and there’s a strong light shone through your tissue.
That being said, my favourite is probably Tergipes tergipes, the only Nudibranch I have ever seen. (And also the only of the observations where the light comes from above rather than from below the subject)
From very close by, here is a polychaete in the family Protodrilidae:
I cannot not include a copepod. Off all the ones I’ve observed this one seems to be the most transparent one: Diacyclops bicuspidatus
This Daphnia also does a good job at being transparent, and I’m kinda fond of this image, so I’ll include it also:
Finally, while looking for the other observations, I have accidentally found one of an organism even more transparent than the others. This organism takes mimicry to the next level by skilfully impersonating a plastic bag. It is aptly called a saccate rotifer (Subclass: Monogononta). It was alive and quite agile during the photoshoot:
On that note, here is a Tubificine worm, with its corkscrew-shaped gut visible through its completely transparent body.
