Giorgia Di Muzio Science Illustrator

Crustacean larvae

Palicus caronii is a small Mediterranean and Atlantic crab.
These drawings were realized for the first description of its planktonic larval development, so far unknown.

Di Muzio G., Mussat Sartor R., Nurra N., Battuello M., Pessani D., Cervella P., Cuesta J.A. (2019). Morphology of planktonic zoeal stages of Palicus caronii (Decapoda, Brachyura), identified by DNA barcoding, provides novelties to Palicoidea larval systematics. Scientific Reports, 9(1) 1-10

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Drawings for the morphological description of small organisms are usually carried out through a camera lucida.

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Camera lucida is an optical device that helps the researcher in tracing exactly what he/she sees: once connected to a microscope, it allows to see through the eyepiece both what is on the slide, and one’s own hand on the page.