Connected on 2008-10-06 14:30:00
from Milwaukee, WI, US
- 1:33 pm
- Bugscope Team1.9
- 1:39 pm
- 1:46 pm
- 1:53 pm
- 1:58 pm
- 2:05 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe big eye
- 2:10 pm
- 2:15 pm
- 2:23 pm
- Bugscope TeamClaudi!
- Bugscope TeamSmiley on board...
- 2:28 pm
- Bugscope TeamHello Michele!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherHI there - we will start in about 5-7 minutes - i have to introduce you all!
- Bugscope Teamall right we can't wait!
- Bugscope TeamSmiley is logging in to help from Florida.
- 2:39 pm
- TeacherAre we ready to go?
- Bugscope Teamyeah you bet
- Bugscope Teamrea
- Bugscope Teamdy
- Bugscope Teamto roll
- Bugscope Teamskeeter head
- Bugscope Teamthis last batch of mosquitos has been really good
- Bugscope Teamwow, this is the best mosquito head we've ever had!
- Bugscope Teamthe mouthparts are dried out and splayed open so we can see the stylets
- Bugscope Teamit looks picture perfect...
- Bugscope Teamone per skeeter of course
- Bugscope TeamHi Annie!
- TeacherCAn the mosquito see multiple image with all the lenses?
- Bugscope Teamwas this collected before or after it sucked blood from your arm? =) lol
- Bugscope TeamAnnie is our entomologist
- Bugscope TeamYes, she was in the process of biting me when I collected her into the ethanol
- Bugscope Teamha HAH
- Bugscope Teamthey probably see a large single image
- Bugscope Teamreally????
- Bugscope Teamso directly into ethanol is the best to preserve the bugs???
Bugscope Teamwell, for some things
- TeacherCool!
- Bugscope Teammuch of the brain on some of these guys, like fruit flies, is devoted to processing images
- Bugscope TeamI had the kids collect their bugs into plastic containters and then I froze them
- Bugscope Teamyou can see now, at lower mag, that the mouthparts are 'all tore up.'
- Bugscope Teamthe thing curling around over the righthand (left) antenna is the part with the stylet
- Bugscope Teammosquitoes, butterflies, moths, skippers, and silverfish have scales
- TeacherHwy is it hairy?
- Bugscope Teamalso one or two other odd insects
- 2:45 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are often sensory
- Bugscope Teamsome are mechanosensory and some are chemosensory
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs function like nerve endings in the skin do for us
- Teacherhi its the students now!
- Bugscope Teamif you were an insect it would be like you were wearing armor all of the time, with the skeleton on the outside
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamyou are controlling a $600,000 microscope
- Bugscope Teamso you would have lots of setae sticking through the cuticle/chitin to help you sense the world around you
- Bugscope TeamHello everyone
- Bugscope Teamyeah you are doing the driving
- Bugscope Teamif you break it, we'll bill you. Just kidding! :)
- Teacherhahaah
- Bugscope Teamwe have it set up so it is hard to break remotely
- Teacherwhat is the circle thing in the middle of the head
- Bugscope Teamthis is the underside of an ant's head
- Bugscope Teamso this is the mouth
- Bugscope Teamthis is the view of the mouth from the bottom
- Bugscope Teamant mouths are confusing
- Bugscope Teamlots of little palps
- Bugscope Teamand the circle area to the right is one of its compound eyes
- Teacherwhy are they confusing
- Bugscope Teamand now you can see the jaws
- Bugscope Teamit always looks like they have another, smaller, insect in their mouth
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eye looks useful
- Bugscope Teamsometimes they will have only 10 or 12 facets (ommatidia)
- Teacheroo thats cool. Do ants eat other bugs?
Bugscope TeamThey will eat other insects. It depends upon the species. Some ants eat seeds, some eat fungus, some eat garbage and rotting animals, or other insects. THere are lots of ants!
- Bugscope Teamyes they do
- Bugscope Teamthey eat lots of stuff but are often partial to sweets
- 2:50 pm
- Bugscope Teammany insects have evolved defenses particularly oriented toward repelling ants
- Bugscope Teamsome aphids have wax that exudes from their cornicles as a liquid and instantly hardens, engulfing an ant that might be bothering them
- Bugscope Teamthe cornicles are little tubes like tiny jet exhausts on the back 'corners' of the aphid
- Bugscope Teamthis is a fly head view from the side
- Bugscope Teamand we are zoomed in on the antennae]
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae look pretty good
- Bugscope Teamthis is prob'ly a female
- TeacherHow do you know that it's a female?
- Bugscope Teamonly certain aphids have that kind of defense -- others, as Annie said, have honeydew
- TeacherWe also have another question, why woudl you want to become a "bug person"?
Bugscope TeamI wanted to study insects because they are (probably) the most dominant group of animals on the planet. They are so important to our health, our agriculture, and to our environment....there is so much to know, more than we will ever know. As an entomologist, I get to work outdoors and in the lab. I get to travel. I get to meet interesting people, who are really passionate about their work. Why would you NOT want to become a bug person?!!
- Teacheror a bug expert?
- Bugscope Teamwith some flies the males' eyes are close together and those of the females are far apart
- 2:55 pm
- Teacherneat!
- Teachernice butt
- Bugscope Teaminsects are infinitely interesting
- Teacherwhat is this image all about??
- Bugscope Teamthis is the fly booty, as you said
- GuestReally
- Bugscope Teamand it is very dirty
- Guestthis ssucks
- Guestf
- Guestf
- Bugscope Teamthis guy spent a lot of time on the floor I guess
- Bugscope Teampuggy we can boot you off please be good
- Guestsorry that was my little brother being not so smart
- Guestwhat is this now
- TeacherWe think bug people are totally interesting, thanks for the answer!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for logging in puggy -- we're running a bugscope session with Marquette U. and this is the tip of the abdomen of a fly
- Bugscope TeamHa hah, you are welcome
- TeacherWhat are the holes for?
Bugscope Teamto make it light weight
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool -- this is the surface of a single scale from a silvery moth
- 3:00 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a close up of a moth scale
- Bugscope Teamthey almost always have holes in them, and sometimes you can see pigment granules there
- Bugscope Teamthe pattern and spacing we see at high mag can result in structural color formation
- TeacherVery interesting
- Bugscope Teamyou can have not only the true color of the scale, and that portion of the wing, but also the reflected light color of the wing/scale
- TeacherDoes every moth have different patterns? LIke a snowflake....
Bugscope TeamThe development of scales and color patterns on scales are both genetically controlled. There are variation in patterns among individuals. I don't think every one is unique, but they certainly could be. It would be really hard to study.
- Bugscope TeamI think every type of scale is specific to the insect and to the color we see
- Bugscope Teamscales are sort of analogous to feathers
- Bugscope Teamand they are good for passive defense as well
- TeacherWhy are some parts smooth and others jagged looking?
Bugscope Teamthat smooth part is where scott coated the edge of the wing with silver paint and the jagged part is the part that isn't painted
- Bugscope Teamyou mean at the tip of the scale?
- TeacherWould the microscope break if we zoomed out again? Or would it not allow us to...
- Bugscope Teamgood question ; )
- Bugscope Team(about the scale shape)
- Bugscope Teamit won't break
- Bugscope Teamor do you mean individual scales lol
- 3:05 pm
- Bugscope Teamone of the problems with this type of microscope is that we cannot go to low mag
- Bugscope Team37x is about as low as we get with this 'scope at this working distance
- Teachergood to know
- Bugscope Teamactually we would get better resolution if we were closer to the sample -- if the pole piece was closer to the sample -- but we would not be able to go as low as even 37x
- Bugscope Teamthe mite on an earwig and a possible mold spore
- Bugscope TeamCate found this mite/pollen grain on the earwig you sent
- TeacherSo this is a bug on a bug?
- Bugscope Teamexactly
- Bugscope Teamyes a bug on a bug
Bugscope TeamA MITE on an earwig--neither are true bugs. The word "bug" should only be used to refer to insects in the families Hemiptera and/or Homoptera.
- Bugscope Teamthats so awesome
- TeacherCooooooooooooool
- TeacherWhat part of the earwig is that?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that it's about 1/5 of a mm long
- Bugscope Teamit's one of the limbs I think
- Bugscope Teamyou can take the mag down lower and see
- Bugscope TeamA mite is an arachnid, in fact.
- Bugscope TeamAnnie keeps us straight. She won't let us tell kids that lobsters are huge bugs.
- TeacherCoooool
- Bugscope TeamLobsters are very large bugs with double sets of antennae.
- 3:10 pm
- Teacherstudent A: delicious bugs
- Bugscope Teamdelicious with butter bugs heh
- Bugscope TeamWe got a huge millipede a month or so ago, as big as a baby snake. And we wondered why someone would want to use a microscope to look at it. But it turned out to have lots of mites. Just not good to touch -- made me itchy.
- TeacherWhat does this do?
- Bugscope Teamspiracle
- Bugscope Teamwe had been using sections of it for sessions, but today for an earlier session is when we used the last bit
- Bugscope Teamthis is what insects use to breathe through
- Teacherinteresting
- TeacherHow does it work?
- Bugscope Teamthey can close them down and hold their breath
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually I think two spiracles on each body segment, on either side
- TeacherHow many spiracles do they have on their bodies?
Bugscope TeamI think it depends on the insect, but in the general sense, there is usually one per thoracic and abdominal segment---so between 13 and 15, I guess
- TeacherWe thought there would be more...interesting
- Bugscope Teambecause they have a sort of primitive way of breathing we are lucky -- otherwise, or when they get that worked out, they could be much bigger
- 3:15 pm
- Bugscope TeamThere is some variation between how many abdominal segments some insects have,
- Bugscope Teamthis preset moved a little since we made it
- Bugscope Teamwhen you click on a preset the microscope is taking you to the place we saved, but the sample may have moved a little
- Teacherhow do we adjust this preset?
- Bugscope Teamtake the mag down slightly
- Bugscope Teamand you can prob'ly see about where we were when we made th preset
- Bugscope Teamhere you can also see that the electron beam burned a rectangle onto the lacewing's eye
- TeacherWhat is a brochosome?
Bugscope Teamsomething only leafhoppers produce
- Bugscope Teamthis lacewing was hanging around with leafhoppers, which are the only insects that produce brochosomes
- Bugscope Teambrochosomes are little waxy soccerball-like pellets
- Bugscope Teamtry over to the right now
- Bugscope Teamin this area
- TeacherWhat do they do?
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving very well
- Teacherthank you
- Bugscope Teamthey may help keep eggs from desiccating
- 3:21 pm
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure if anyone knows for sure. The leafhoppers have an 'anointing' behavior in which they spread brochosomes on their bodies.
- TeacherHow did they get on the eye?
- Bugscope Teamthis lacewing was fraternizing with leafhoppers
- Bugscope Teamnice
- Bugscope Teamthey are like little geodesic balls
- Bugscope Teamsometimes they are not round - they are oval
- Bugscope Teamwe find them on ladybugs sometimes
- Bugscope TeamI think the general consensus is that they powder their eggs with the brochosomes. Not all leafhoppers produce them, you know. The Malpighian tubules of the leafhopper actually produce the brochosomes....Malpighian tubules are like kidneys, so I guess brochosomes are kind of like kidney stones.
- Bugscope Teamnot strictly 'bugs,' as Annie would tell us.
- TeacherWhat exactly is this preset looking at?
- Bugscope Teamthat is a pretty nice earwig you sent
- Teacherwhat is the tarsus
- Bugscope Teamoh it was the tenent setae on a portion of the tarsus
- Bugscope Teamthe tarsi are the 'forearm' segments of a limb
- Bugscope Teamindividual tarsi are called tarsomeres
- Bugscope Teamand the thing with all of the tenent setae on it is called a pulvillus
- Teacherwhy r sum so long and others so short?
- 3:26 pm
- Bugscope TeamYou can call leafhoppers bugs--they are Homopterans. I think current taxonomy groups homopterans and hemipterans into one order: the Heteroptera
- Teachergotcha
- Bugscope Teamsometimes they appear (the setae) to have suction cups on the ends
- Bugscope Teamand sometimes you get the idea that the setae work more like Velcro
- TeacherAre they really ant "paws"?
- Bugscope Teamthis is an ant claw
- Bugscope Teamwe knew we would be working with people who would not let us get away with calling them 'paws'
- Bugscope Teamyou can see here, mostly, how the cuticle of the ant body is sculpted
- TeacherOk all - this is Michele again - my students had a blast and say THANK YOU!! We have to sign off :)
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for all your questions. see you next semester!
- TeacherGO BuG people!!
- Bugscope TeamThank you all!!!
- Bugscope Teamwe had a good time as well, getting Annie stirred up
- 3:32 pm
- Bugscope Teamhe should be here around the 20th
- Bugscope Teamthanks Smiley
- Bugscope TeamThanks Annie!
- Bugscope Teambye bye!!!!!
- Bugscope Teamover and out! Bye!
- Bugscope TeamBye guys.
- Bugscope TeamBye Smiley.
