Connected on 2009-10-29 12:00:00
from Medford, OR, US
- 11:26 am
- Bugscope TeamWe're setting up for today's session.
- 11:34 am
- 11:39 am
- 11:46 am
- 11:52 am
- TeacherHello! We're excited about today's session!
- Bugscope TeamHello! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamWe are almost done setting up.
- Bugscope TeamCate and Alex are doing the setup.
- Bugscope TeamThis is the abdomen of one of the spiders.
- Bugscope Teamwas the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamwe wanted to see if the pattern showed up
- Bugscope Teamhello! welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamjust unlocked the session
- Bugscope TeamAlright now you may drive if you wish. Alex is ScotJ for now..
- 11:58 am
- Bugscope Teamnow it's me :)
- TeacherExcellent! We are not going to have all students back for about 10 minutes.
- Bugscope TeamDreamExtreme you have control of the microscope anytime you wish.
- Bugscope TeamHello glake!
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when you have questions
- GuestHello. Thank you for letting me view.
- Bugscope Teamabout the samples, or the microscope...
- Bugscope Teamglake once we start, DreamEx has control of the microscope and can click on any of the presets to tell the microscope to go to that place. DreamEx also can drive directly, change the mag, etc.
- 12:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamlet us know if you have questions -- that's what Alex, Annie, Cate, and I are here for.
- GuestThis is fabulous. I just heard about this site a few minutes ago and thought I'd observe and let my teachers know what I thought about Bugscope. I wish I could grab them now to obeserve this spider.
- Bugscope Teamglake I am driving a bit so you can see some more of the presets, until the school starts
- Bugscope Teamthis is another spider, and we can see the serrations in the side of this fang
- GuestThank you so much. I'm trying not to intrude on the session you are beginning.
- Bugscope Teamand here we see a few ommatidia -- the facets of the eye -- of the bee
- GuestDo you have a posted schedule of upcoming sessions?
- Bugscope Teamwe can see now that the eye has lots of fungal hyphae on its surface -- the fungus is doing its job
- Bugscope Teamon the front page of the web site, on the right side, but it doesn'
- 12:08 pm
- Bugscope Teamt show when we're in session because that's where it says Lucky You!
- GuestYes, I feel very lucky indeed to come at just the right time.
- Bugscope Teamwe are booked into January or February now -- we can only do so many session per week because other people use the microscope for their research
- GuestWhat is this that we are viewing?
- Bugscope Teamthis is part of the vestiture on the bee's head, but it is mostly fungus
- Bugscope Teamand here we are on the tenent setae -- the tiny sticky hairs that help the fly cling to surfaces
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see where the tenent setae are, at the end of one of the tarsi
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the fly's claws
- GuestAmazing. Certainly exciting.
- 12:13 pm
- Bugscope Teamlooks like dirt here -- dirtbombs
- TeacherWe're here. We're going to read back through the chat window quickly.
- Bugscope Teamcool, you should see controls on the right, you can start using them to control the scope anytime
- Bugscope TeamDreamEx you are the supreme ruler.
- Bugscope Teamand if you have any questions, please just ask
- Bugscope Teamyou can click on a preset to goto that location
- 12:18 pm
- TeacherWonderful! Thank you! We have about 30 5th grade students in the room now.
- Bugscope Teamflying aphid
- Bugscope Teamhi students! welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamaphids have soft bodies, so if we cannot critical point dry them they will shrivel, often
- Bugscope Teamthis is a winged aphid you sent us
- Bugscope Teamwe had these all over town for a week or so
- Bugscope Teamyou couldn't go outside without getting them on you
- TeacherIs the aphid we sent you the same variety you have locally?
- Bugscope Teamyeah, they were aphids that feed off the soybeans, and since the soybean crop yield was low this year, they were looking for some other food, and found us humans!!! ack!! attack of the aphids!!!
- Bugscope Teamluckily the ladybugs are helping take care of them
- Bugscope Teamthese are, as Alex said, soybean aphids. they were green
- Bugscope Teamyeah the ladybugs are fat and happy
- Bugscope TeamIn the fall the soybean aphids migrate from their summer host (soybeans) to their winter hibernation spot (buckthorn)
- TeacherWe know them well! We'd love to have fat and happy ladybugs around here!
- Bugscope TeamSoybean aphids, like soybeans, are originally from China. They are an invasive species.
- Bugscope Teamwe can mail some to you -- they've started to come inside
- 12:24 pm
- Bugscope Teamclick to stop
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the doublestick carbon tape in the background
- TeacherWhat are we looking at here? The students are grossing out!
- Bugscope Teamoften we put silver paint down to help ground the critters, but aphids are so small they would be engulfed in paint
- Bugscope Teamit's another aphid
- Bugscope Teamnot sure what all the juju is outside of its body
- Bugscope Teamvery long proboscis
- Bugscope Teamyou can take the mag up if you want
- Bugscope TeamI think I see one of the eyes. Which you could center on using click to center.
- Bugscope Teamthe eye!
- Bugscope Teamit's a little compound eye
- Bugscope TeamAphids can transmit diseases to plants, they also secrete a sticky substance called honeydew, which gums up the plant and grows mildew
- Bugscope Teamlooks like one of its antennae busted off.
- 12:29 pm
- Bugscope Teamsee the facets of the compound eye? you can compare them with those of the bee.
- Bugscope Teamants like sweet stuff and sometimes 'farm' aphids for the honeydew
- Bugscope Teamhoneydew is excreted from the cornicles, which are little tubes that look like dual exhausts on the back of the aphid
- TeacherWe're going to jump to the bee eye now.
- Bugscope Teambut some aphids don't like to be bothered by ants, so they excrete glue, rather than honeydew, from the cornicles
- Bugscope Teamthis is quite different
- Bugscope Teamyou can tell about how big the eye is by looking at the micron bar, to the lower left on the screen
- Bugscope Teamhoney bees are cool. How often do we get to eat something an insect produces
Bugscope TeamWell Cate, you would be surprised. The red dye that is commonly used in juices and fruit snacks come from an insect, as does confectioners shellac, which is also used in some candies. Red dye and shellac are not nearly as yummy as honey, though!
- Bugscope Teamthis bee was enveloped in fungus
- 12:34 pm
- Bugscope Teamand you can see it all over
- TeacherIs fungus common with bees, or was this an especially unhygenic bee?
- Bugscope Teamit is something that came along after the bee died
- Bugscope Teameventually everything that dies, except Lenin, will rot
- TeacherThank you, Scott, for giving us our daily dose of Lenin humor!
- Bugscope TeamI think Timothy Leary's head is probably not covered with fungus, but it may have freezer burn.
- TeacherOkay, we now have well over half of the class that will avoid juices and fruit snacks!
- Bugscope Teamwell i hope they don't avoid honey, because the process in which that is made can sound gross
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the tip of one of the bee's jaws
- Bugscope TeamIt is not in EVERY red thing--and really, I would rather eat a dye made from an insect than some weird chemical.
- Bugscope Teamon the left
- Bugscope TeamAnnie is an entomologist, and sometimes she does eat insects.
- 12:39 pm
- Bugscope TeamOn occasion, I have eaten an insect on purpose. I don't really like them though, they taste like dirt.
- Bugscope Teamlike some cerambycid species can only be distinguished by tasting them
- Bugscope TeamI would rather eat other things.
- Bugscope TeamI have never eaten a cerambycid, Scot
- Bugscope Teamthat would be tantamount to cannibalism
- Bugscope TeamAlthough they do eat the larvae in the tropics
- TeacherThe students are asking about the rather large specimin we sent you. Were you able to use it at all?
- Bugscope Teamthe mole cricket?
- Bugscope Teamit was a mole cricket
- Bugscope Teamit is so huge, we put it in its own desiccator
- Bugscope Teamwe use it to scare people
- TeacherYes, I believe so. Were you able to dry it? We were all pretty scared of it too!
- Bugscope Teamthe microscope stage is 50 mm in diameter, and mole cricket would have filled the whole stage
- Bugscope TeamMole crickets are a great example of ecological convergence--if you look at a picture of a mole cricket and a picture of a mole and you make the photos the same size, they are difficult to tell apart.
- Bugscope Teamit is still drying. it may be interesting if it has mites
- 12:45 pm
- Bugscope Teambe sure and check out a couple of the spiders you sent!
- TeacherWe're trying to jump to a new preset, but it won't let us.
- Bugscope TeamI can't drive either! sorry about that -- we will fix it
- Bugscope Teamel fixto grande
- Bugscope TeamA mole cricket is a good find--someone in the class is a budding entomologist, I think!
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the fangs of one of the spiders, and we can see here how the edge is serrated like a steak knife
- TeacherWe actually thought it was a Jerusalem Cricket...were we wrong?
Bugscope TeamUmm...well, it could be. I haven't actually seen the cricket...I am in CA, and the cricket is in Illinois!
- 12:50 pm
- TeacherWe just zoomed out for context. Is this the top or underside of the spider?
- Bugscope Teamyes this is the underside
- Bugscope Teamunderside, yeah, cate got ya
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the pedipalps, and you can see the crossed fangs, below
- TeacherAre the pedipalps the coiled parts?
Bugscope Teamyes we have never seen them quite like this before
- 12:55 pm
- TeacherMcKenzie, our student who brought that spider in (and named him Lancy) just said, "Awww...he was so unique!"
- Bugscope TeamDreamEx it may be a Jerusalem cricket. It is very smelly, and we were mostly impressed by its size but did not want to get too close.
- Bugscope Teamwell the males are the ones with big palps like that, so it is a good name
- Bugscope Teamyou all sent us so many spiders. We could only fit 2 though sorry
- TeacherCourtney, our student who brought in the MegaCricket, found three of them. 1 was in her kitchen!
- TeacherIn our last minutes with you, is there anything you'd especially like us to see?
- Bugscope Teamthere you have found the fangs -- I think you are doing quite well
- Bugscope Teamsee if there is a poison pore
- Bugscope TeamThose Jerusalem crickets freak me out a little. They look kind of like a creepy baby doll. I get them in some of my beetle traps here in California.
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see one of the claws, just below where we are now.
- Bugscope Teamthe poison pores, or venom ducts, are at the end of the fang, but Cate says they didn't show up -- they are either covered or on the opposite side
- 1:01 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the claws -- at the end of one of the eight legs
- Bugscope Teamspiders have the ability to jettison their limbs at will, for example if they get bitten and they can sense venom entering that limb they will just let it go
- Bugscope Teamyou might check out the roly polies
- TeacherWhich preset is that?
- Bugscope Team7
- Bugscope Teamand 6
- Bugscope Teamthe rolled up one is no. 7
- Bugscope Teamthis is its eye, and if you take the mag down you can see the whole head
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see its antennae
- 1:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamits head is below the antennae
- TeacherHow long does it take you typically to prepare a bug for the microscope?
Bugscope Teamprobably about 10 minutes or so. I select the insects to use, then I put them on the aluminum disk that has carbon tape on it and dab silver paint around them. Before they go in the microscope we also coat everything with gold-palladium to make it conductive
- Bugscope Teamtrue bug head
- Bugscope Teamthis is its proboscis. it has piercing/sucking mouthparts like an aphid
- Bugscope Teamthe proboscis is a bit to the left
- 1:11 pm
- Bugscope Teamwhat a long proboscis!
- Bugscope Teamwe must be reaching the end
- TeacherScot, Cate, Alex, and Annie...THANK YOU! This has been amazing and we've enjoyed the experience. We need to go now.
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- Bugscope TeamYou are welcome!
- Bugscope Teamthank you! you did a great job
- Bugscope Teamyour session chat and images are all saved to you member page....
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-087
- TeacherThank you! Goodbye!
- Bugscope Teamthank you for sending in your fun insects and spiders
- Bugscope Teamyou can review the session chat and images anytime you want, with your class, just vist that site
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-087
- GuestThank you for allowing me to view their session. It was truely amazing.
- GuestHave a wonderful afternoon!!
- Bugscope Teamyou too! Thank you!
