Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Black fly with parasite

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[edit] Black fly with parasite

Original - Black fly (Simulium yahense) with parasite (Onchocerca volvulus) emerging from the insect's antenna. 100x magnification by scanning electron microscope.

Reason

A clear and sharp electron microscope image of a parasitic worm emerging from the antenna of a black fly. 18 million humans worldwide are infected with this worm and 300,000 people have been blinded permanently because of it. Slightly smaller than usual for a featured picture (I've looked for a larger file and couldn't find one), but strong on encyclopedic value and heebie-jeebies.

Articles this image appears in

Onchocerciasis, Black fly, Parasitology, and Nematocera.

Creator

Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture

• Support as nominator Durova^Charge! 08:21, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
• My-skin-is-crawling support - The image is below 1000px in size, but not by much. Given that the parasite is nicely highlighted, there seem to be no problems with coloration or artifacts, and the subject is clearly visible in all its gruesome detail, I think it can be given a pass for resolution. --jonny-mt 09:07, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
• I'm vaguely supportive of this, especially because we have far fewer EM pictures than we should. However, I do wonder whether Onchocerca should link somewhere, perhaps a short article based on species:Onchocerca? Samsara (talk • contribs) 11:35, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

• I hacked up a quick stub. MER-C 13:11, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

• Support. Let's face it, we're not going to ever get another one with the worm crawling out of the antenna. Samsara (talk • contribs) 13:22, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
• Weak oppose until clarifications made. Is it normal for the worm to come out of the antenna? According to the article, it's normally transmitted through fly saliva. The image also doesn't tell us if this is the larva coming out of the antenna, or the fully-developed worm. Is it that the larvae inside the fly have fully developed and are consuming the fly? If not, what's happening here? So, while it is interesting, is the image encyclopedic? In other words, does it explain anything? — BRIAN0918 • 2008-02-14 17:07Z

Life cycle Onchocerca volvulus (provided for background).

• • Emergence from a segmented antenna is one of the few locations where the infection would be visible and demonstrable in an arthropod. It wouldn't be feasible to attempt scanning electron microscopy of a transmission; see Scanning_Electron_Microscope#Sample_preparation. According to the Onchoseriasis article, young larvae inhabit the fly's thoracic muscles and migrate to the head and proboscis as they mature. Some of them transfer to a new host when the fly bites a human. For illustrations of human infection, see Google images. Durova^Charge! 21:49, 14 February 2008 (UTC)
    • Yes, having nominated several SEM images for FPC, I know a little bit about how the specimens are prepared. That is why I want to know if it is normal for the worm to come out of the antenna like that, or if it is simply something that they set up to happen, or if it started to come out of the antenna as they were preparing the specimen for the SEM. If it's just a random shot of little relation to anything that normally happens, this would be comparable to an image of a person with a tape worm coming out of their nose for no real reason whatsoever, and then putting that image in the tape worm article and calling it encyclopedic. Bottom line: was this situation manufactured, or is it something that normally happens. If it's manufactured, it's not encyclopedic and is misleading to the reader. — BRIAN0918 • 2008-02-15 13:55Z
      • If you find a citation for this suspicion I will withdraw the nomination. Since it's normal for these worms to emerge from the head of a black fly, I'd say the better analogy would be of a tapeworm emerging from a person's anus. That's very encyclopedic and if I find a high quality image of that I'll certainly nominate it too. Now excuse me while I open a soda and get some pretzels. This conversation is whetting my appetite. Durova^Charge! 19:09, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
        • It's normal for the worm to come out of the mouth, not the antenna, correct? Or am I missing something not mentioned in the article? And if it's not mentioned in the article, how is the image illustrating anything discussed in the article? — BRIAN0918 • 2008-02-15 19:42Z
          • I doubt a roundworm has enough of a nervous system to realize it's taken a wrong turn and the proboscis is thataway. Durova^Charge! 22:16, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
            • Nor does a tube worm know where he's going particularly. That was the reason for my comparison. It's not encyclopedic. It depicts no process described in the article. If it is meant merely to illustrate the worm, a much better image (comparable to other FPs of animals) would be necessary. — BRIAN0918 • 2008-02-15 23:21Z
• Support Yuck. Can I stop looking at it now? Highly enc. Clegs (talk) 00:45, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
• Weak Oppose Good image but it's too small --Fir0002 01:19, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
• Support Well highlighted Smundra (talk) 04:45, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
• Support As to size, I would like to invoke two cherished principles, WP:IAR and the law of I Don't Give A Shit. Geoff Plourde (talk) 06:56, 15 February 2008 (UTC)
• Support per Jonathan Swift: "So, naturalists observe, a flea/Has smaller fleas that on him prey;/And these have smaller still to bite 'em,/And so proceed ad infinitum." --Janke | Talk 08:44, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Comment: Brian is right, and my support above is conditional - i.e. that this is not "manufactured". OTOH, why would any scientist do that? (I assume few non-scientists have access to SEMs... ;-) One possibilty is of course that the caption is misleading; the parasite is not emerging, but was only residing in the antenna, which was broken during preparation. --Janke | Talk 14:57, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

• Support - Freaky, and very nice. dihydrogen monoxide (H₂0) 10:06, 15 February 2008 (UTC)

Promoted Image:Black fly.jpg MER-C 06:41, 21 February 2008 (UTC)