Fig. 1 in Hylomus cervarius

Fig. 1. The scheme illustrating the general workflow when dealing with samples containing Milnesium specimens characterised by multiple claw configurations (CCs). After the extraction of specimens and exuviae with eggs from the sample, the material is divided into the dead and alive specimens. The dead ones are mounted on permanent slides (1) and immediately examined under PCM to check for the potential presence of multiple species in the sample. Provided there is a large number of dead specimens, they can be also used for imaging in SEM (6) but note there can be multiple species in the sample. Next, the alive specimens and exuviae are examined on the temporary water slide to assign the CC to the specimen (2). This laborious step allows for the assessment of the exact number of specimens per CC available for further analysis. In this study we immediately set aside some specimens from each CC for DNA extraction and sequencing (4). In parallel, a separate culture for each CC is established (3) as when the culture is thriving additional specimens can be dedicated for required analysis i.e., permanent slides preparation (1), DNA sequencing (4), imaging in SEM (5) or developmental tracking (6).