Neat, thanks! Indeed, I also post a fair amount about insect cuticle, which is yet another aECM.

Yep fly larvae are baby flies that hatch from eggs. Those eggs have eggshells. Indeed, these arthropod eggshells evolutionarily pre-date amniote eggs with eggshells (like those of lizards, dinos, birds, echidnas, etc)

Those areas are fluid-filled during eggshell secretion (a liquid called hemolymph—mostly water). And then two more layers are added on top, covering everything including the cavities—"the roof network" & exochorion. Then, I suspect, the water evaporates from the laid egg if it's laid somewhere dry.

Yeah, it might be. In fact, fairly little is known about how insect eggshells get their fine-scale structure. But the idea of "spatial templating" is one of my favorite hypotheses.

Ya, you can think of the cells that build the insect eggshell as working like a 3D printer. The cells surround the yolk, secreting a bunch of protein layers onto it. Then those cells slough off and you're left with just the egg + eggshell. The eggshell is dead in the same way that mucus & teeth are.

This is a different protein :)

It's called Cp7Fc, which is only found in the eggshell. Very little is known about it. In this case, a copy of Cp7Fc has been fused to a fluorescent protein called "superfolder green fluorescent protein" (sfGFP). Unlike tubulin, Cp7Fc is secreted outside the cells.

thanks! I appreciate it.

Could I join the list? I am a biologist who makes SciArt within and apart from my research. Thanks for curating an excellent feed. (I love the guidelines, btw)

Nice! This is the first I've heard of him. Just found some of his amphipod drawings online. These are lovely.

strong agree. i come across deeply unsettling forms at the microscope more often than i would have anticipated. it's spooky down there.

i'm standing next to you pointing at you in intense silent agreement, nodding vigorously while scowling at everyone else in the room

reminds me of the Far Side cartoon about a "Beware of Doug" sign that Larson said was especially popular...

...with guys named Doug.

every once in a while this comic will pop into my head and I will laugh out loud. The facial expression in every panel kills me.