Connected on 2012-05-31 09:00:00 from Chittenden, Vermont, United States
- 7:40am
- Bugscope Team good morning!
- Bugscope Team the sample is pumping down
- Bugscope Team we are connecting at 9 Central time, correct?
- Bugscope Team if not please let me know and I will hurry things along.
- Bugscope Team oh Welcome to Bugscope!
- Teacher Yikes. I have kids coming at 9 Eastern. oops.
- Bugscope Team As soon as we get vacuum I will start. We should be good.
- Teacher Can we meet at 9:30 EST?
Bugscope Team we'll try to have a good number of presets done by 9 your time. we can start then
- Teacher Good for 9AM EST?
Bugscope Team yes we can do it
- Teacher OK. Got it. I have backup if we need more time. I'm sorry to mess up.
- 7:47am
- 7:54am
- Bugscope Team we should be fine, no problem
- Teacher what are we looking at now?
- Bugscope Team this is part of a fly's compound eye
- Bugscope Team the individual facets are called ommatidia
- 7:59am
- Teacher we are ready to go
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Teacher what do you recomend that we start with?
Bugscope Team anything you like; you have control. we can help focus when necessary
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions about what you are seeing
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the wasp's abdomen, and we can see that the stinger is inside where it is not visible -- sorry...
- Bugscope Team now I just found this very odd looking wasp
- 8:04am
- Bugscope Team you can see its mandibles, and this is its compound eye
- Bugscope Team there are small setae on the surface of the eye that help the wasp sense when something is touching the eye
- Bugscope Team each individual facet of the eye, called an ommatidium, works like a lens
- Bugscope Team the roundness of the eye allows the wasp to have good peripheral vision -- it can see more of what is around it without turning its head
- Teacher what is the bumby thing on the left side?
- Bugscope Team having compound eyes also allows the insect to update its visual field more quickly and avoid being swatted, for example
- Teacher bumpy*
Bugscope Team that is some dirt that likely stuck on the eye after the wasp died
- Bugscope Team we often see dirt and debris, sometimes pollen and sometimes mold spores
- Bugscope Team SEM is the scanning electron microscope. I am sitting at its computer, so I can also drive the microscope directly for you.
- 8:10am
- Teacher what are the bubble like structures on the eye?
Bugscope Team the very small bubble-like structures we see now are some dried fluid on the surface of the eye. we should remember this and compare it with other eyes this morning
- Bugscope Team the tiny hair-like things, as here, are called 'setae,' pronounced see-tee.
- Teacher okay, can we further magnify?
Bugscope Team sure!
- Bugscope Team you're driving a $600,000 electron microscope
- Bugscope Team insects do not have skin; instead they have a shell made of chitin, which is kind of like if we were wearing armor
- Bugscope Team in order to feel things touching the surface of the exoskeleton (a 'skeleton on the outside'), the insect has hairs that stick through and connect to nerves underneath
- Bugscope Team different hairs (setae) can sense touch, hot/cold, wind, and even chemical smells
- 8:15am
- Bugscope Team once we get up to super high mag we realize that there is not much to see
- Bugscope Team often there is not much to see, depending on where we are...
- Bugscope Team be sure to try some of the other presets
- Bugscope Team when we use the microscope for Bugscope, we keep the sample more than an inch away from the polepiece -- from the electron source
- Teacher alright, can we see the mouth of the wood tick we sent in?
Bugscope Team it does not look good but I will drive there
- Bugscope Team I am sorry about this. It is hard to see problems like this at low mag. The tick leaked a bunch of blood, or some other fluid, right where its mouth is
- Teacher what are we looking at right now?
- Bugscope Team this is one of the sensory palps on either side of the hypostome, which is the part that sticks into your skin
- 8:21am
- Bugscope Team the palps separate on either side -- they fold down -- and then the hypostome sticks directly into your skin
- Bugscope Team the head of the tick is called the 'capitulum' -- like the word 'capitol'
- Bugscope Team the setae we see now help the tick pick up chemical smells from your skin
- Bugscope Team they're kind of like tastebuds
- Bugscope Team you also sent an insect that looks very much like a bedbug
- Teacher is that how they find us?
Bugscope Team I think different ticks can sense different things. Some sense heat from our bodies, and some sense carbon dioxide from our breath.
- Bugscope Team ticks go through life stages in which they grow and molt
- Bugscope Team when they are young they have only six legs
- Teacher can we see the bedbug?
Bugscope Team Yes! It looks good.
- Bugscope Team you can see its antennae, on either side of the head, toward the top
- Bugscope Team in the center you see a shield-like hatch that the proboscis is projecting out of, and down
- Bugscope Team to the left and right you see bulbous compound eyes
- 8:26am
- Bugscope Team and we can also see the bedbug's forelegs
- Bugscope Team when it bites, the proboscis, which is pointing downward now, points forward
- Bugscope Team much like the tick'
- Bugscope Team s palps, we see 'tastebuds' here at the tip of the proboscis
- Bugscope Team it can smell with those tastebuds and ensure that it pokes right into your skin
- Bugscope Team I think we can also see one of the stylets, or laciniae, with which it cuts into your skin
- Teacher yummy
Bugscope Team yeah cool huh?
- Teacher are these the tastebuds?
- Bugscope Team here are a couple of slightly desiccated mold spores
- Bugscope Team they do resemble tastebuds
- 8:31am
- Bugscope Team this is about 10x the magnification you can get with a light microscope
- Bugscope Team pollen looks kind of like this but is larger and the shapes seem to vary more
- Bugscope Team so pretty!
- Bugscope Team mold is always around and ready to start growing
- Teacher sweet
Bugscope Team haha
- Bugscope Team let's look at the wasp's head
- Bugscope Team wasps can have as many as 17,000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Bugscope Team 17,000 facets to each eye!
- Teacher what are the hairs for on the head?
Bugscope Team they help the wasp sense touch, and as in many insects they also help hold air near the surface of the exoskeleton, providing a more even temperature
- Bugscope Team the jaws, or mandibles, open left and right rather than up and down like our jaws
- 8:36am
- Bugscope Team this mandible has a kind of hinge like a door
- Teacher can we see the stinger?
Bugscope Team we looked for the stinger earlier, and it is inside where we cannot see it. but I will show you.
- Bugscope Team we are moving south on the body...
- Bugscope Team now we can see the narrow wasp waist
- Bugscope Team this is the abdomen
- Bugscope Team the stinger is inside that wide dark opening
- Bugscope Team we just found it! but it is a little hard to see
- Bugscope Team wasps can sting repeatedly, whereas honeybees can sting mammals only once, and the stinger gets caught in the thick skin and pulled out
- 8:42am
- Teacher did we send an insect from the orthoptera order?
Bugscope Team like maybe a grasshopper?
- Teacher yeah
- Bugscope Team let's go see...
- Bugscope Team the grasshopper is very large for the electron microscope, and we cannot even see all of its head at one time
- Bugscope Team but now I bet you can recognize it
- Teacher yes
- Bugscope Team does this look like the one you sent?
- Teacher yeah
- Bugscope Team this is its mouth, from the side
- Bugscope Team insects often have accessory mouthparts (as do other arthropods like ticks) that help them taste and manipulate their food
- Bugscope Team so the things that look like limbs here are two sets of palps
- Bugscope Team if we could see the tips of the palps we would find more of those things like tastebuds
- Teacher we have to sign off now, but thank you for your time and great expertise!!
Bugscope Team Thank You for working with us today!
- Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-177
- Bugscope Team this is your member page:
- Teacher The pleasure is ours ;)
- Bugscope Team see you next year!
- 8:48am
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Teacher great, bye
