What were those molecular beach balls?
Brochosomes (Image by Roman Rakitov, INHS)
Pollen would have been an obvious answer, as pollen grains are both common and come in a plethora of forms. But these weren’t pollen grains. They were brochosomes, produced in the malpighian tubules of leafhoppers and serving an as-yet-undetermined function. Perhaps, they have something to do with water retention or protection from predators. Leafhoppers produce these microstructures in such abundance that they often accumulate in the environment, showing up in odd places like the back of a parasitic wasp.
So. 10 points to Joe Wong, who guessed the answer first over on Facebook.
All you ever wanted to learn about Brochosomes, and more:
http://www.inhs.uiuc.edu/~rakitov/brochosomes.html
A personal weblog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
So cool!
Excellent! I actually knew about brochosomes in patches because they helped us identify a picture of a Cuerna striata, but I missed the ultrastructure. Pretty amazing, but there are similar structures on many mites:
http://macromite.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/1_joshuella_agrosticula_40000x.jpg
I know you have the answer and winners for this one and I’m not sending you this link because the pictures are cool. I couldn’t help but notice the similarity between the brochomsomes and the toys in pictures 3 and 6.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/feb/14/underwater-dogs-pictures#/?picture=385913198&index=0