Connected on 2008-09-26 10:00:00
from Bozeman, Mt, US
- 7:51 am
- Bugscope Team1.9
- Bugscope Team1.4
- 8:01 am
- 8:09 am
- 8:15 am
- 8:25 am
- 8:30 am
- 8:36 am
- 8:43 am
- 8:49 am
- 8:55 am
- Bugscope TeamAlex!
- 9:17 am
- 9:23 am
- Bugscope Teamhello bugzy
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope. if you want to try out the controls you can
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to bugscope!
- 9:29 am
- Bugscope Teamand of course, let us know if you have any questions
- TeacherHello... just getting my room set up.. everything looks good so far
- 9:51 am
- TeacherHi - the students should be arriving shortly
- Bugscope TeamGood deal.
- Bugscope Teamok :)
- Bugscope Teamthese are the terminal segments of a large millipede
- Bugscope Teamwhat was cool about the millipede was that it had lots of mites
- 10:08 am
- TeacherHi Scott! We are here! This is LeAnne and students.
- Bugscope TeamAlright!
- Bugscope Teamall right you have control. you can start by driving around or by clicking on a preset of your choice
- Bugscope TeamYou have control of the microscopes. If you would like you can have your students log on and ask questions.
- Bugscope Teammicroscope, that is
- Bugscope Teamif you have any trouble let us know
- TeacherWe will have a few laptops for questions here shortly. I'ill start with the insects. Where are my controls/
- Bugscope Teamyou should see, to the right of the image, a set of controls
- Bugscope Teamand to the right of the chat, a number of presets we made this morning
- Bugscope Teamif you click to drive the trick is to remember to click to stop
- Bugscope Teamsometimes click to center is easier
- Bugscope Teamif you go to a higher mag on the millipede legs you may find mites that we did not discover already
- TeacherWhat are we looking at/
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the abdomen of the millipede
- Bugscope Teamlike, its tail
- 10:13 am
- Bugscope Teamthe millipede was pretty big, like a cigar
- Bugscope Teamwe received this millipede from a school around a month ago. It was huge! We discovered through a session that it had mites all over it, so we've been using small segments ever since
- Bugscope Teamevery time I touch it, it makes me itch
- Bugscope Teamha this is cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the mites living on the millipede
- Bugscope Teamit is only a couple hundred microns long, and blind
- Bugscope Teammites go down with the ship -- when their host dies they seem to go with it
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see its limbs
- Bugscope Teamwe think they feed off of scraps of food that they find on the body of the millipede
- GuestHow big is a micron?
Bugscope Teamor a millionth of a meter
- Bugscope Teama micron is a micrometer, which is a thousandth of a millimeter
- GuestWhy are the images black and white?
- 10:18 am
- GuestWhat is an ant comb?
Bugscope Teamit is something found on ants and a few other insects. they use it to groom themselves
- Bugscope Teamwe are using electrons rather than light and do not see color. but the samples are coated with gold-palladium, so if we did see color they would be silver
- Bugscope Teamthat is an aphid
- Bugscope Teamwe were not sure it stayed in place
- Bugscope Teamthis is a beetle that you can see is very dirty
- Bugscope Teamand it lost some of its limbs
- Bugscope Teamwhen they dry they are very brittle
- GuestIs his eye compound?
- GuestWhat are the insects laying on?
Bugscope Teamwe put double stick carbon tape on an aluminum disk. on top of the carbon tape we also put a dab of silver paint which we lay the insects on
- Bugscope Teamthis is really cool -- the ant's antenna rests in a groove that sweeps back along the head
- Bugscope Teamthis ant does have a compound eye
- 10:23 am
- Bugscope Teamsome ants do not bother to have eyes
- Bugscope Teamthe eye is to the NE
- Bugscope Teamthere it is
- Bugscope Teamunder the antenna
- GuestWhy don't some ant don't have eyes?
- GuestWhy does an aphid have a beak?
- Bugscope Teamsome ants live underground and do not need eyes, and many of the ants that do have eyes rely on their antennae far more than their eyes
- Bugscope Teamthe image is constantly updating -- the electron beam is scanning across the sample constantly
- GuestWhat is a cornicle?
- Guestwhat do aphids use their beak for?
- Bugscope Teama cornicle is a small nozzle or turret on the back 'corners' of the aphid's body
- Bugscope Teamyou are asking a lot of great questions!
- Bugscope Teamsome of them ooze wax when they are bothered, and the wax soldifies very quickly
- Bugscope Teamthe wax can thus entrap an ant that is pestering an aphid
- Bugscope Teamthis is that same beetle
- 10:29 am
- GuestHow big is the beak of an aphid compared to the rest of its body?
- Bugscope Teamif you go back to it you can take the mag down and see it in context
- Teacherha ha ha
- Bugscope Teamit is small, really, compared to the rest of the body
- GuestWhat type of beetle is this?
- Bugscope Teamthis is the mouth, and we are not sure what kind of beetle we are looking at
- GuestWhat is the tube thing?
- Bugscope Teamthose tubes are palps
- GuestWhat are the palps used for?
- Bugscope Teampalps -- mandibular and maxillary -- help the beetle manipulate its food as well as taste it
- Bugscope Teamwhen you see an insect eating there is a flurry of motion
- Teacherwhat are we looking at here - inside the mouth
- Bugscope Teamand all of the palps and other mouthparts are working furiously
- Guesthow much to one of these microscopes cost?
Bugscope Teamthis one cost $600,000 when we bought it some years ago. Nowadays they would be a bit more expensive
- Bugscope Teamyes we are looking at setae at the entrance to the mouth
- GuestWhat does a beetle eat?
- Bugscope Teami think most beetles are predatory- they eat other insects
- Guesthow did you get the money?
- Bugscope Teamlike ladybugs eat aphids
- Bugscope Teamsome of them collect dung
- Bugscope Teamoh yeah dung beetles
- Bugscope Teamthe 'scope was funded by an NSF grant, and it was bought with the intent, in part, of using it for bugscope
- 10:34 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a claw with the pulvillus -- the sticky pad -- shown to good advantage
- Bugscope Teamthe pulvillus is lined with 'tenent setae' that help the fly stick to vertical surfaces
- Guestdo you have any dragonfly pictures?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the claws now
- Bugscope Teamin the database there will be dragonfly images
- GuestWhat is the fly claw for?
- Guestdo you use the microscope for other purposes than looking at bugs?
- Bugscope Teamthe fly can grasp things with its claws -- six of them
- Guestwhy do flies have claws?
- GuestWhat is the most unique insect you have looked at?
- Bugscope Teamdefinitely -- it is used for research by many groups
- Guestdo you have any pictures of butterflies?
- Teacherso cool! it looks alien!
- Bugscope Teamhard to say about the most unique
- Bugscope Teamthe flies also have the tenent setae pads on them which is important for it to walk on walls
- GuestWhat are the dots for?
- Bugscope Teamwe have looked at one of six known therevid flies collected in Israel
- Bugscope Teamof one species
- Bugscope Teamthe dots are where the ommatidia are on this true bug
- Bugscope Teamommatidia are the eye facets
- Teachere
- Teachertell us more - ommatidia?
- Bugscope Teamthis bug did not look so good today -- it appeared to have been toasted
- Bugscope Teamthere can be hundreds to thousands of ommatidia on a compound eye
- 10:39 am
- GuestWhat are the hair-like things on the bottom?
- Bugscope Teamwe think that insects with compound eyes see a single image that is made of many components, like a mosaic
- Bugscope Teamwe think each can see some sort of energy like sources of heat or visible light image and sends it back to the brain to be collected
- GuestWhat is that?
- Bugscope Teamthe thing that looks like a claw is one of the jaws of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Teamthis is part of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Teamand some of those hairs are trigger hairs -- the ones inside the jaw
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes are kind of primitive and on short stalks
- Bugscope Teamthey have few ommatidia
- GuestWhy is it so hairy?
Bugscope Teamit might be a defense mechanism like why caterpillars are so hairy- keeps the predators away
- Bugscope Teamthis is just a larva, though
- Teacherlooks like a forest full of burned trees
- Bugscope Teamthe adult is also a predator, and I have not see one but they have large eyes that make them resemble owls
- 10:44 am
- Bugscope Teamowlflies are related to antlions
- Bugscope Teamthis is really cool looking
- GuestWhat are the pokey things used for?
- Bugscope Teama very mechanical-looking rhinoceros beetle
- Teachersalt? from wendy's?
- Bugscope Teamsome of the bristles on the tarsi -- the forelimbs -- are for protection'
- Bugscope Teamyes from Wendy's
- GuestWhy is the salt cracked?
- Bugscope Teamthe salt is still forming cubic crystals, as we expect
- Bugscope Teambut it seems to be interrupted by what we think may be an anticaking agent
- GuestHow big is a rhinoceros beetle?
- Bugscope TeamIt is a couple of cm long
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of its compound eyes
- 10:49 am
- Bugscope Teamit looks like it can tip its head and put the 'horn' out in front of the body
- Bugscope Teamand if its head is tipped forward, there is a portion of the eye that is directed that way
- Bugscope Teambecause it has piercing mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamotherwise, sadly, the sample is not in very good shape
- Bugscope Teamfor higher mag imaging
- GuestWhat kink of true bug is this?
- Bugscope Teamthat thing in the middle we think is a kind of pump for sucking up liquids in plants that the beetle is piercing
- Bugscope Teambut it may be piercing other bugs -- we don't know just what it is
- Bugscope Teamwe put it on the stub yesterday thinking it was a ladybug, or at least I thought it was
- Bugscope Teamyay Annie!
- Bugscope TeamI am here to save the day!!!
- Bugscope TeamAnnie is our entomologist
- Bugscope Team;)
- Bugscope TeamWhat is the question?
- 10:54 am
- Bugscope TeamI did not go into my lobster thing, Annie
- Guestwhat is an entimologist?
- Teacherthese mouthparts look sharp?
- Bugscope Teamthey would like to know what kind of bug this is, but it is kind of hard to see, I am afraid
- Bugscope Teamcan we decrease the magnification a bit?
- Bugscope Teamthe tip of the proboscis would be very hard and sharp for piercing
- Bugscope Teamcan we take the mag down for Annie?
- Teacherhalf of our kids are heading out - the others will be with us shortly.
- Teacherthe kids that just left said, "Thank you"!!!!!
- TeacherThe others will be arriving in seconds.
- Bugscope Teamthank you for all your great questions so far
- Bugscope TeamThis looks like maybe a harlequin bug
- TeacherThe rest of the kids will be with us for the rest of the session
- Bugscope TeamExcellent
- 10:59 am
- Bugscope TeamThis is definitely a true bug, which you can tell from its long sucking mouthparts
- Bugscope TeamA true bug is an insect in the order hemipera with sucking mouthparts and forewings that are half sclerotized, and half membranous
- Teacherok - we are ready to roll. the other half of our kids are here. yay
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope TeamTrue bugs can be pests or they can be beneficial. They are considered pests when they eat something that we also want to eat, but they are beneficial when they control other insect pests.
- Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes on either side of the head
- Bugscope Teamand the antennae?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a very dirty beetle
- 11:04 am
- Guestwhat is the tube-like thing
- Teacherare these dirt clumps?
- GuestWhat are the tubes in the bottom white corner?
- Bugscope Teamyes a lot of dirt
- Bugscope Teamthe tubes are broken palps
- Guestwhat are palps?
Bugscope Teamthey help the insect manipulate its food as well as taste.smell the food
- GuestWhat are ;palps?
- GuestHow many layers are the palps?
Bugscope TeamThe palps are a tube of chitin (the exoskeleton). Inside the tubes are muscles, nerves, and some hemolymph (bug blood)
- Bugscope Teampalps are termed 'maxillary' and 'mandibular' depending on where they originate
- Teacherwhat are the little hairs called
- Bugscope Teamsetae
- 11:09 am
- GuestWhat color is 'bug blood"?
Bugscope TeamIt is kind of clear. In some really brightly colored insects, like ladybugs and green caterpillars the blood can take on the color of the insect. In ladybugs it is sort of yellow and in the caterpillars it is sort of green.
- Teacheris some of this plaque inthe beetle mouth
- Bugscope Teamthere are setae, microsetae, bristles, trichae, microtrichae....
- Bugscope Teamit is hard to tell just where the mouth opening is, exactly
- Bugscope Teamusually we can't see into it very well
- Bugscope Teamsee the curve of the compound eye here?
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia are hexagonal, and that helps them form the dome shape we see
- Teacheryes, are we also lookikng at the santennae
- GuestHow many sections are there to the compound eye?
Bugscope Teamthat depends on the insect, there could be anywhere from 20-thousands of facets
- Bugscope Teamone of the guys we have started working with is interested in how the eye gets its shape, and whether some of the ommatidia are *not* hexagonal
- GuestCan bugs detect color?
- Bugscope Teamand there are some ants that have no eyes
Bugscope TeamThere are also some insects that live in caves that have no eyes.
- GuestWhy are there hairs on the eye of the beetle?
- 11:14 am
- Bugscope Teamon a fruit fly eye the tiny hairs help the fly determine wind direction
- Bugscope Teammaybe that is also true with the beetle
- Bugscope Teamthe mechanical engineer we were working with calls those setae bristles
- Bugscope Teamthis is a mite, only a couple hundred microns long, on the underside of the millipede
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the mite is very small
- Bugscope Team*a section of millipede
- GuestHow long is a micron?
Bugscope Teama millionth of a meter or thousandth of a millimeter
- GuestHow long is a micron?
- Bugscope Teamit was pretty big when we first got it around a month or so ago, and we have been using sections ever since we learned it had mites all over it
- Teacheris this the abdomen?
- Bugscope Teamyes as Cate says this is only part of the millipede
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamrod-shaped bacteria -- the bacilli -- like anthrax -- are generally about 2 microns long
- Bugscope Teamso we can see bacteria when they are around
- 11:20 am
- GuestWhat is an ant comb?
- Bugscope Teamthe comb is a built-in component of the forelimbs that help the ant keep its antennae cleaned off
- Bugscope Teamthat helps, that is
- Bugscope Teamthere seems to be one on each side on the forelegs
- Bugscope Teamthis beetle had a hard life
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the aphid
- Bugscope Teamoops and now the ant
- Bugscope Teamthe aphid is to the west of the ant
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ant jaw
- Bugscope Teamwith a hinge
- Bugscope Teamwell not now...
- Bugscope Teamthe aphid!
- Bugscope Teamthis aphid was critical point dried or it would have been deflated and looked like a bagpipe lying on a bed
- 11:25 am
- Guesthow does an electron microscope work?
- Teacherhow big is an aphid
Bugscope Teamaphids are pretty small...some are about the size of a capital O, and they can be as large as a pencil eraser---not that big around though
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the insects/arthropods we look at have soft bodies and need to be specially dried
- GuestCan you put your finger under the electron microscope to look at it?
- Bugscope Teamyou could if you detached it from yourself and dried it a bit, but i dont think anyone wants to do that
- Bugscope Teamthe samples are in a vacuum chamber so we cannot show you our fingers
- Bugscope Teamhere I will switch, in a sec, and show you the chamber view
- Teachervery cool
- GuestThanks!
- Bugscope Teaminside of the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamthe electrons come from above
- Bugscope Teamand they hit the critters on the stage, producing secondary electrons
- GuestIs it possible to get pictures from the electron microscope in color?
- Bugscope Teamwhich are attracted by a 300-Volt bias to the cage we see in the upper right
- GuestWhat is the table in the center?
Bugscope Teamthat is where the stub with the bugs sits
- Bugscope Teamsome people will artificially color images that have already been taken
- Bugscope Teamno color because we our images come from the intensity of the signal from the 2ndary electrons at specific points on the sample
- 11:31 am
- Bugscope Teamthe upside down cone on top is where the beam comes out
- Bugscope Teamor 1 3/4 inches in diameter
- Bugscope Teamback to the cornicle?
- Bugscope Teamthe part in the upper right corner of the screen is the secondary electron detector which we have been using today to look at the insects
- GuestHow do you place the bugs inside of the microscope?
- Teacherwhat is a cornicle
Bugscope TeamA cornicle is one of two little tubes that stick out the hind end of an aphid. Cornicles secret honeydew, a sweet liquid that ants like to eat.
- Bugscope Teamthere is a door like a safe door that we can open when the chamber is vented
- Bugscope Teamthen we have to pump it down again
- Bugscope Teamwhenver we change samples we do that
- Bugscope Teamit takes 4 or 5 minutes to pump down
- Bugscope TeamSome ants protect aphids
- GuestHow long have you had these bugs and how are they preserved?
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the cornicles secrete wax that hardens and immobilizes pesky ants
- Teacheris this where ants "milk" aphids
- Bugscope Teammost of the bugs are dry, and we only keep them covered up
- Bugscope Teambut some of the bugs are in ethanol, and we dry them using a critical point dryer
- GuestWhat is a fly claw and what is it used for?
- Bugscope Teamthey use their claws to grasp, like little hands
- 11:36 am
- Bugscope Teamand they have six of them
- Bugscope Teamthe flies use their claw to grab onto things. they also have pulvillus pads full of tenent setae they use to walk on walls
- GuestIt is true that flies lay eggs every time they land?
- Bugscope Teambetween the claws and sometimes down the forearm are the pads Cate mentioned
- GuestAre the fly claws sticky?
- Bugscope Teami don't think they are sticky, but their pulvillus pads sometimes look like they will act like suction cups or velcro
- Bugscope Teamthe claws themselves are not sticky
- Bugscope Teamif you watch some insects walk you will see that they put their weight on the 'forearm' rather than the tip of the tarsi where the claws are
- GuestWhat are the white dots on the eye?
- Bugscope Teamthe white dots are something that got on the ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamommatidia are the eye facets -- maybe we said that already?
- Bugscope TeamCate has to go to class and you are now stuck with me : )
- Teacherthanks cate!!
- 11:41 am
- Bugscope TeamShe trains grad students and postdocs, mostly, to operate the electron microscopes
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the eyes of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see its jaws
- Bugscope Teamit is an insect predator, both as a larva and as an adult
- GuestAre those eyelashes?
- Bugscope Teamowlflies are related to antions
- Bugscope Teamthey look like eyelashes, don't they
- Bugscope Teamsome of them are likely trigger hairs
- GuestWhat are antions?
- Bugscope Teamthat make the jaws snap shut on prey
- Bugscope Teamoops I am sorry -- antlions
- Teacherwhat is this
- Bugscope Teamwe think those things that resemble pumpkins are spiracles
- Bugscope Teambut we are not sure
- Bugscope Teamlarvae are often quite strange
- Bugscope Teamthey might not even have six legs
- Bugscope Teamthis is a grain of salt
- Bugscope Teamfrom Wendy's
- 11:46 am
- Bugscope Teamordinary salt just looks like a cube
- Bugscope Teamand this is the tip of the leg of the rhinoceros beetle
- Bugscope Teamthe whole beetle is a few cm long, to the upper right
- Teacherhow did the salt get there
- Bugscope Teamwe got a few packets of it and sprinkled it on the stub for today
- Bugscope Teamfor awhile all the Wendy's in town had closed, and we had to ask people to pick up salt for us
- GuestHow many sections are in the eye?
- Bugscope Teamthis is the lower half of the eye of the rhino beetle
- Bugscope TeamI think there are hundreds of ommatidia on each compound eye
- Bugscope Teamthe eye continues on the other side of the shield-like piece in the middle left
- Bugscope Teamthe horn is to the left
- 11:51 am
- Teacherthank you!!! Our groups has to go....thank you thank you this was great!!!!!!!!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year?
- Bugscope Teamthis is always fun for us
- Bugscope Teamthat is the horn, tipped back against the scutellum
- Bugscope Teamthe hard shell on the back, on the dorsum
