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Doreen,

A couple of questions: from your email, I infer that you want to 
image the exterior surface of the intact ant. So:
The ants' cuticles will be covered by a waxy epicuticle, so a 
oleophilic fluorescent stain would be needed, or a hexane wash to 
remove the wax. Amount of wax is more-or-less dependent on ecology - 
how xeric the ant's environment is, etc.

Insect cuticle is typically autofluorescent; have you tried imaging 
for that? Or is it too dim for your needs?

Why not scanning electron microscopy? This is the simplest and best 
way to get exterior morphology of arthropods generally and insects in 
specific**. Are you trying to keep the ants alive? Environmental SEM 
should allow this, as well as imaging without sputter-coating or the 
like. This will image much finer details of the cuticle than you will 
get using fluorescence microscopy.

Phil
**There is an excellent volume, "Identification Guide to the Ant 
Genera of the World" by Barry Bolton that has SEM images of all the 
genera, and good tips for mounting the ants for the SEM.

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>
>Dear list members,
>
>we are trying to perform an unspecific fluorescence surface staining 
>of whole ants to see the structure of the cuticle. We have tried 
>water-soluble protein binding dyes like NHS-ster Dylight 549 which 
>didn't work so well and are now thinking about trying out 
>hydrophobic dyes that stain membranes unspecifically. Does anyone 
>have experience with staining insect surfaces and could give a 
>suggestion. This would be of great help.
>
>Thanks a lot, Doreen
>
>
>- - -
>Doreen Milius
>
>Bioimaging Facility
>Institute of Science and Technology Austria
>Am Campus 1
>A-3400 Maria Gugging


-- 
Philip Oshel
Microscopy Facility Supervisor
Biology Department
024C Brooks Hall
Central Michigan University
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
(989) 774-3576