Connected on 2010-06-16 13:00:00
from South Grafton, MA, US
- 12:42 pm
- GuestHi
- Guesthi
- 12:47 pm
- Bugscope TeamHey Ben. We're just waiting for the class to join us
- Bugscope Teamyes the class is due on at 1 p.m. our time
- Bugscope Teamhihi
- Bugscope Teamhihi Cate
- Bugscope TeamJunebug!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherHi Scott, kids are at recess, just getting ready
Bugscope TeamCool!
- Bugscope Teamyay
- Bugscope Teamglad to see you! we may have a couple of guests today
- Teachergreat! i'm trying to remember how to operate the microscope
- Bugscope Teamyou should see controls to the right of the image window
- 12:52 pm
- Teachergot it
- Bugscope Teamand you should see presets beneath that, that you can click on
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the screen resolution has to be changed but looks like you are seeing the whole Bugscope interface
- Bugscope Team mites are softbodied and often look a bit shriveled, like this
- Teacherokay
- Teacheri have to leave for a minute to get kids settled. be back in 5
- Bugscope Teamcool
- 12:58 pm
- Teacherhi we're here
- Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Teacherthanks, we're excited
- Bugscope TeamLet us know whenever you have questions.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a tiny mite -- one of many on the carrion beetle
- Bugscope Teamits head is to the right
- Teacherwhat is the smallest thing an electron microscope can see
Bugscope Teama few of the newest transmission electron microscopes can see atoms
Bugscope Teamthe microscope can see things as small as 2 nanometers when set up right
- Teacherwhat color is this insect
Bugscope Teamthe main body of the beetle is black (we aren't sure the color of the mite) and the back shell of the beetle is black with some orange
- Bugscope Teamwith this microscope we can see things that are about 2 billionths of a meter across
- Teacherwhat are the spiky things
Bugscope Teamthe spikey things are setae -- kind of like hairs -- that help the insect sense its environment
- Teacherwhat is the thing in the center of the screen
Bugscope TeamI think that is a piece of dirt or dust- something that is not part of the insect
- 1:04 pm
- Bugscope Teamyes as Cate says we often see dirt, and we certainly see a lot of tiny hairs, which in insects are often called 'setae.'
- Bugscope Teamthis is a butterfly's head
- Teacherhow big and what kind of butterfly
Bugscope Teamthis is one of the bigger types of butterflies- a painted lady, they are big like monarchs
- Teacheris the coiled thing on the right a proboscis
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eye is the round thing to the left
- Teacherdo you know how long the proboscis is
Bugscope Teamwe aren't sure how long for this butterfly but I found that the hawk or Sphinx moths (adults of the hornworms), sometimes mistaken for hummingbirds, have the longest proboscis, with lengths up to 35 centimeters (14 inches) reported.
- Teacherwe raised painted ladies, monarchs, lady bugs and a cecropia moth!
- Bugscope TeamI think the proboscis is about a cm long.
- Teacherdo you constantly look at things on your microscope
Bugscope TeamThe microscope is in a multi-user facility, so that means that people from all over the university come to use the microscope throughout the day. We work with them on the microscope to train them and whenever they need help, but other times we let them work alone
- Teacherwhat is the dark thing on the left
- 1:09 pm
- Bugscope Teamthat was, I believe, either a claw or an antenna
- Teachercan you explain how the compound eye works
Bugscope TeamA compound eye is actually a collection of many smaller, very simple, eyes. Each one sees a very poor image, but their brain puts together all of the information to produce useful vision
- Teachersounds like a very cool job
- Teacherhow many little eyes are on the compond eye
Bugscope Teammaybe 5000 little lenses per dome-shaped eye
- Teachercan this kind of microscope see a germ
- Teachercan the mircroscope see bacteria
Bugscope Teamyes it can!
- Bugscope Teamsee the micron bar, on the lower left?
- Teacheryes
- Bugscope Teamthat is 5 bacteria long
- Teachercool
- Teacherwhat are the tubelike things in the background
Bugscope Teamthose are setae (bug hairs) that specialized in helping the insect walk on walls
- Teacherwhat is the stuff coming out of the right side of the pollen
Bugscope Teamevery pollen grain has the components within it that fertilize the flowers they land on, and that is where they come out
- 1:14 pm
- Teacherwhat is a butterfly scale
Bugscope Teamthey are the same stuff that makes the wings feel velvety and comes off on your fingers as powder. They are analogous to feathers on a bird
- Teacherhow many scales on a butterfly wing
Bugscope TeamI'm sure it varies from species to species, but you can easily estimate that it's in the thousands.
- Bugscope TeamOur non-compound eye has one lens that focuses a single image on our retina where we have a dense collection of light-sensitive cells that capture our whole field of vision. Although it gives us great vision, it is more complex, requires more space (the eye has to be round), and is more fragile
- Teacherhow much electron microscope costs
Bugscope TeamThis electron microscope cost about $650,000 initially, but we have added lots of equipment to it since and just keeping it running throughout the year requires tens of thousands more in service contracts and supplies
- Teacherwhat is on the left side of the slide
Bugscope Teamthat is part of the wing that the scales are attached to. It is made of a very thin layer of chitin (the same stuff as our fingernails are made of)
- Teacherwhata are the black spots on the scales
Bugscope TeamThose are actually holes, so the black is like shadow. The scale has lots of holes like that so that it can be strong but stay light and not weight the insect down
- Teacherwow! be careful with it
- Teacherwhat are the rows in the scale
Bugscope TeamThe rows are ribs, they are a structural support similar to what makes I-beams strong. Again, they are there to allow it to be strong but light
- 1:20 pm
- Teacherwhat are the black things in the background
Bugscope TeamThe dark line-shapes in the background are cracks in the surface of the tape or paint that's holding the sample down
- Teacherwjat are the feather like things
Bugscope Teamthose are longer scales found on the mosquito.
- Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at the claw, of course, and we see streaking on the image from the microscope. the streaking is from the electrons that are charging the sample up with electricity.
- Teacherdid the mosquito bit you
Bugscope Teamthis is actually a male mosquito, so they don't actually bite and drink blood like a female mosquito. Only the females bite because they need the blood in order to lay their eggs.
- Teacherwhy is it called a claw, is it like a bird claw
Bugscope Team"Claw" is not a technical term for it, we just use that because yes it does have a lot of similarity to a bird claw. They both have sharp appendages they can use to grasp onto their surroundings
- Bugscope TeamElectrons are the charged particles responsible for the flow of electricity. If the sample's metal coating isn't perfect, the electrons (electricity) can't flow and so it builds up, eventually resulting in distortions to the image
- Teacherwhy is a mosquito called a mosquito
Bugscope Teamit's spanish for little fly= mosca is fly and ito is little
- Teacherhow sharp is the claw
Bugscope Teamthe claw is very sharp but also very small, so it would not be capable of piercing your skin, for example
- 1:26 pm
- Teacherwhere is the mosquito head
Bugscope Teamhey good job!
- Bugscope Teamentomology is the study of insects, and etymology is the study of word origins. Cate just gave you the etymology of 'mosquito.'
- Teacherwe found it!
- Teacherwhat the little spheres
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that is has fewer eye facets than the butterfly
- Teacherwhat are t he hair like things on the right'
Bugscope Teamthe wavy, smaller hairlike things on the right are the fine branches of the antenna
- Teacherwhat are the fringe like things on the left
Bugscope Teamthose are scales, like the butterfly has. moths, butterflies, silverfish, mosquitoes, and very few other insects have scales
- Bugscope Teamor antennae, in this case
- Teacherwhat are the two things that point to the right that are thicker than the other hairy things
Bugscope Teamthe lower one is the tube that is the proboscis, and the upper, thinner one is one of the palps, which are accessory mouthparts
- Teacherwhere is the body part that sucks the blood
Bugscope Teamif this was a female mosuito, the proboscis would have a bundle of leaflike/tubelike things in it that are together called the 'fascicle.' That is what is inside the sheath of the proboscis.
- 1:31 pm
- Teacherand how do they pierce your skin
Bugscope Teamthey have these serrated mouthparts (like a steak knife) that are in the proboscis and they cut into your skin so that the feeding tube (which is also in the proboscis) can go in and suck out the blood
- Teacherhow does blood help the female have babies
Bugscope TeamThe blood is full of nutrients, so it's just like a big meal
- Teacheris the flat sphere with all the little spheres the head
Bugscope Teamyes! it looks like a large oval in this view. the small round thing that looks like a cushion on the head is called the pedicel, and it is the base of one of the antennae.
- Teacherhow can you tell a boy from a girl
Bugscope Teamthe boys have very ornate and orderly antennae, whereas those of the female have a simpler appearance.
- Teacherwhere are the eyes
Bugscope Teamthe eyes are the bumpy parts that cover most of the head- they have compound eyes, which just means their eyes are made of many different facets (like a diamond) called ommatidia
- Teacherhow big are the babies when they are born
Bugscope TeamI am not sure how big they are. The eggs hatch in water, and the larval mosquito is soon nearly the size of an adult mosquito.
- 1:37 pm
- Teacherwe had ladybug larva!
Bugscope Teamneat!
- Teacherwhat are the spiky things along the bck
Bugscope Teamthey are projections that we think are protective, kind of like thorns on the back that help keep the ladybug larva from getting eaten.
- Teacherwhat is the tube going to the left
- Teacherwhat are the hairlike projections underneath
Bugscope Teamwe are not sure, but usually when we see hairlike projections they are sensory setae that help the insect feel or taste its surroundings, or even feel its own body as it bends.
- Teacherwhat is the best habitat for female mosquitos to lay eggs
Bugscope Teamthey can lay eggs in a thimbleful of water - in a very small quantity of water. but it might be better to live in a slow-moving stream so there is more to eat as a larva.
- Teacherwhat do you ladybug larva eat
Bugscope Teamthe larvae eat aphids
- 1:43 pm
- Teacherchandler thinks the hairlike projections look like udders
Bugscope Teamthey do! like spikey udders
- Teacherwhy is it so lumpy
Bugscope Teamthe background is lumpy from the silver paint we used to stick the sample more firmly to the stub, and the larva is lumpy in part to make it less edible.
- Teachersorry we got kicked off, i'm junebug2 now.
- Teacherwhat is the light colored band around the long thing pointing to the right
Bugscope Teamthat is either the femur or the condyle -- one of the segments of the leg close to the body
- Bugscope Teamhey no problem, sorry that happened. we gave you control
- 1:48 pm
- Teacherthe lumps look blubber says emma
Bugscope Teamyes they do!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small fly
- Bugscope Teamwith flies sometimes you can tell the girls from the boys because with boys the eyes are very close together
- Teacherhow big can the biggest fly get
Bugscope Teamwow I am not sure, but a cranefly gets pretty big -- they look like giant mosquitoes but are harmless
- Teacherwhat is this one
Bugscope Teamthis may be a tiny housefly
- Teacherwhat is in the background
Bugscope Teamthe background is double stick carbon tape with some silver paint under the insects to help glue the insects to the specimen holder
- Teacherwhat is the bent thing behind the eyes
- Teacheris the part behind the bent thing where the wing attaches
- Teachersophia says the fly looks like a pig
Bugscope Teamit would be so sad to hear thart
- Teacherhow many smaller eyes in this compound eyes
Bugscope Teamit looks like there are a few thousand per eye.
- Bugscope Teamthat
- 1:54 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe flu also has simple eyes called ocelli on top of its head. there are three of those
- Teachermolly says it looks likje the fly has an elephant trunk
- Bugscope Teamoops the fly, I mean
- Teacherhow do you catch the insects
Bugscope Teamoften we catch them by putting a plastic cup over them, and then sliding a piece of paper or thin cardboard under that
- Bugscope Teamthe bent thing is one of the forelegs, and it is attached to the thorax, which the wing is attached to as well
- Teacherwhat are the things at the front of the head
Bugscope Teamthose are the antennae, on the front of the head to the right
- Teacherhow do you prepare them for the microscope
Bugscope TeamMost of the hard-bodied insects only need to be dried out after they die. Then they are stuck down to the sample stub and coated with an ultra-thin layer of metal in a Sputter Coater. After that they're ready to load into the microscope
- Bugscope Teamand this is a pollen grain, kind of like a cell with cytoplasm coming out of the side
- Bugscope Teamand of course this is a beetle!
- Teacherwhat are the things near the eyes
- 1:59 pm
- Bugscope Teamin the front of the head, facing us, are the mouthparts -- the mandibles and the palps. you can also see the antennae, coming out of the center, top of the head
- Teacherwhat are the point things- mouth parts
Bugscope Teamthe little pointy things are palps, which are accessory mouthparts the insect uses to both taste and manipulate its food
- Teacheris that the thorax in the bottom third of the screen
Bugscope Teamyep that's right
- Teacherdo all bugs have compound eyes
Bugscope Teammost do yes
- Bugscope Teamwhen they are caterpillars, if they go through that stage, they have simple eyes called stemmata, perhaps 10 of them.
- Teacherwe have to pack up to go home. thanks so much for your help. we loved all the pictures and the interesting facts. see you next year.
Bugscope Teamthanks for hanging out with us and using bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!]
- Bugscope Teamgreat questions from you all!
- Teacherthanks, by
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- 2:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-039/
- Bugscope Teambelow is your member page
