Connected on 2011-02-04 09:00:00
from Brunswick, GA, US
- 7:52 am
- Bugscope Teamventing the chamber
- Bugscope Teamnow pumping the chamber down with the sample in it
- 8:10 am
- Bugscope Teamalmost there...
- Bugscope Teamthe tall thing you can see on the stub is a wasp, looks like a mud dauber
- 8:16 am
- Bugscope Teamturning on the beam...
- 8:22 am
- 8:27 am
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamSherri I am making the presets
- Bugscope Teamthis is Scot, on the ESEM right now
- TeacherGreat! I just wanted to get logged on and make sure we were set to go.
- Bugscope TeamCool! The specimens you sent are very nice.
- TeacherOh good! We were worried about them. We collected them them from the coastal wetlands. The kids had a great time.
- 8:33 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning, Sunny!
- 8:39 am
- Bugscope TeamHello Cathy!
- TeacherGood morning!
- Bugscope Teamthis wasp is kind of scary
- TeacherI know it was when it was alive!
- TeacherHi Cathy!
- TeacherHey, Sherri (and everyone!) Thanks again so much for setting this up - the kids are thrilled!
- 8:46 am
- Teacherhello all, this looks greawt
- Bugscope TeamHello Joni!
- TeacherHi Joni!
- TeacherHi, Joni!
- TeacherYour welcome Cathy but the BugScope people are the ones to thank! :)
- TeacherYes, that's right - thanks!!
- Bugscope Teamyay Thank You this is fun for us
- 8:52 am
- TeacherHi Annie!
- Bugscope TeamHello Annie!
- 8:58 am
- TeacherHi, Annie, glad you made it on!
- TeacherHey Annie
- TeacherThey are setting up the specimins
- TeacherAre we just running through pictures?
Bugscope TeamJoni I just finished making all of the presets. I am done and ready to give you control of the 'scope
- Bugscope TeamSherri has control now. She can change mag, focus, click in the screen to center, and go to the lefthand screen to click on a preset
- Bugscope Teamclicking on a preset will drive the microscope to that saved position on the stub
- TeacherGreat!
- 9:03 am
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny setae are sticky
- Bugscope Teamthe pad the setae are attached to -- sticking out of -- is called the pulvillus
- Bugscope Teamsome insects, like grasshoppers, have an inflatable globelike thing between their claws called an arolium
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that if you click on one of the grasshopper presets
- TeacherAre they flat on the tips or cupped?
- Bugscope Teamthey are a bit cupped, I think
- Bugscope Teamsometimes they have a super tiny projection on the very tip that may help them get loose
- TeacherWhen you say "sticky" does that mean they secrete a substance?
Bugscope TeamI think they do secrete a substance -- that is what I have head
- TeacherThe kids think it looks like sea grass
- TeacherSo, is Sherri the one that would have to go to the grasshopper preset?
Bugscope Teamyes unless someone else would like to drive
- Bugscope Teamyay Cool
- TeacherNope...I am fine with Sherri doing it.
- Bugscope Teamgrasshopper head
- 9:08 am
- Bugscope Teamcool compound eyes, and you can see the palps
- TeacherDixie says...Go Sherri
- TeacherMykal loves this one!
- Bugscope Teamthere are usually two sets of palps, mandibular and maxillary, that help insects taste and manipulate their food
- Teacherthe eye is very cool
- TeacherScot what is the are to the left of the eye?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the individual facets, called ommatidia
- TeacherIs their vision like a fly's?
- Bugscope Teamyes very much like that
- Bugscope Teamflies can likely see a little better, and flies often have three more eyes, called ocelli, on the top of the head
- Teacherare those nostrils of a sort?
- Bugscope Teamthat is where we lost the antenna, up top
- TeacherWhat is in the top center?
Bugscope Teamit's the base of the (missing) antenna
- Bugscope Teamgrasshoppers may have simple eyes -- ocelli -- as well. I'm not sure
- 9:13 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a wasp with a fearsome long stinger
- TeacherHe is a scary looking guy!
- TeacherHe is fearsome.
- TeacherWhat is the white area in the middle?
- Bugscope Teambecause its stinger is so long, I imagine it is a large parasitic wasp. they sting to paralyze their prey and then lay eggs
- TeacherI didn't either...then H said..his rear end.
- TeacherWe're not getting where the stinger is ...
Bugscope Teamyou mean it's not working when you click on it?
- TeacherTell me if anyone else would like control
- TeacherSo, that's the stinger?
- TeacherAhhh...there it is! Yikes
- Bugscope Teamyes I am sorry I am stuck on the phone for a sec
- StudentGood lord what a stinger!
- Bugscope TeamI think because it is so long, it is likely used to sting large caterpillars, to get past their 'fur' and then lay eggs inside of their bodies
- TeacherNathaniel would like to know why it's curved?
Bugscope Teamthat is a great question! I am not sure
- 9:19 am
- Bugscope Teambeing curved does make it stronger, however, compared to it being straight
- Bugscope Teamstingers are modified ovipositors
- TeacherHow long does it take the eggs to hatch (Brie asks)?
Bugscope Teamit really depends on the species -- likely a few weeks average
- TeacherWhat is this?
Bugscope TeamJoni this I have never seen before. There are three of these nasty hook-like stinger-like things coming from the top of this other wasp's abdomen
- TeacherLeave it to Ga bugs!
- TeacherIt looks like a clam or some other bivalve!
Bugscope Teamyes it does! the stingers in this case are pretty solid looking too
- StudentPossibly to maintain attachment during egg-laying?
Bugscope Teamyes they do look like they help the wasp secure itself to whatever it wants to hold onto
- TeacherSo, this was from a different wasp than we were looking at before?
Bugscope Teamyes this is that wasp whose head is half gone -- broken away -- with the complex and 'skeletal' mouthparts
- 9:24 am
- Bugscope Teamthe wasps we have looked at this morning are a little too large for us to see the whole body in one view on the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamthese are eye facets -- ommatidia -- of the female mosquito you sent
- Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see where you are
- TeacherDid we send some tiny insects too?
Bugscope Teamyes some very small flies, a super cute little stinkbug, a very small centipede that I forgot to make a preset of, and two ants, one of which looks pretty good
- Bugscope Teamto the left, with the scales, is the pedicel
- Bugscope Teamthe pedicel is the donut-like base of the antenna
- Bugscope Teammosquitoes, moths, butterflies and skippers, silverfish, and very few beetles and weevils have scales
- Bugscope Teamif you had tiny scales like that and you flew into a spider's web, you have a chance of leaving the scales behind and slipping away
- Bugscope Teamscales in some moths and butterflies also provide color, both from pigment and structural
- TeacherThis is so cool!
- 9:29 am
- Bugscope Teamstructural colors come from the shape and periodicity of the ridges in the scales
- TeacherAre these all concave on the ends? If so, why would that be?
Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia? they would all be swollen and round when the insect is alive. when the insect dies, especially in mosquitoes, the ommatidia shrivel, like basketballs with no air in them
- TeacherAh ha!
- Bugscope Teamfor me, even, who spend a lot of time looking at these critters, it's easy to forget how dynamic they are, always moving when they are alive
- Bugscope Teamthis is the emerald beetle you sent, and I didn't notice before, but the eye is visible behind it
- TeacherWe're amazed at how hairy they appear!
Bugscope Teamthe hairs insects are called setae, bristles, spines, trichae, microsetae, microtrichae, and then entomologists often give up and call them hairs
- TeacherHelp me find it, please?
Bugscope Teamright in the middle now
- 9:35 am
- TeacherUnreal!
- Studentgreat shot of the eye!
- TeacherAmazing!
- TeacherIt looks like eyelashes over the eye.
- Bugscope Teamanyway, the setae can be mechano (touch) sensory, chemo (smell, scent, pheromone) sensory, and/or thermo (hot/cold) sensory
- TeacherAnd what are the string-like, hair-things spreading over the eye?
Bugscope TeamI think they are more setae that are likely mechanosensory
- TeacherLOL that was funny Scot!
- Bugscope Teaminsects and other similar arthropods do not have skin -- they have an exoskeleton, which is like if you were to wear armor
- TeacherSo, Scot, but "hairs" actually have many functions, helping the critter to understand it's surroundings?
Bugscope Teamabsolutely -- the hairs stick through the armor, or shell, or cuticle, or chitin, and help the insect sense its environment. at the other end they are attached to nerves that go to the brain
- TeacherSherri can we see the Emerald Beetle mouthparts?
- Bugscope Teamants get almost all of the data they use to function via chemoreceptors, many of which are on the antennae
- 9:40 am
- TeacherWow ... very cool.
- TeacherScot, can you get the Emerald Beetle mouthparts to come up? It's not working for me.
- TeacherHi Julie
- Bugscope TeamI just clicked on them. Sometimes a preset will not work...
- Bugscope Teamthe things that look like little arms are palps -- the accessory mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamand we are centered on the antenna
- Bugscope Teamand the mouthparts, which are just confusing, to me
- TeacherIs his "mouth" below what looks like a human nose?
Bugscope TeamCathy I think it is right in the center there. Insect mouths are quite different from ours and often open side to side as well as up and down
- Bugscope Teamit is rare that we are able to look inside of one
- 9:46 am
- TeacherSee Joni! It was worth it to get these great insects!
- Teacherthanks Sherri
- Teacheryes, it was
- Bugscope Teambe sure and let me know if you have any trouble driving, and if someone else would like to drive
- Bugscope Teamthese are placoid sensilla and tiny setae, on the honeybee's antenna, just part of one segment
- TeacherI'd be happy for anyone else to take the controls!
Bugscope Teamyou are good and no one else wants to try
- Teacheramazing
- TeacherSherri you are doing fine...it would take too long for others to learn this.
- Bugscope Teambut you could let them know that it is not that hard
- Bugscope Teamha
- Studentthat's just gorgeous
- Teacher(No, Sherri - I'm fine watching! You're doing great!)
- TeacherIt looks like a strawberry.
- Bugscope TeamI think the placoid sensilla are chemoreceptors, but really I am not sire
- TeacherIt does Joni!
- Studentscot can you please explain these structures on the antenna?
- Bugscope TeamBluffbug I am not at all sure. Often, as on a roach, sensillae like that register motion or movement.
- TeacherAww, he is a cutie!
- Studentgotcha, thanks
- Teacherchemoreceptors - pick up on chemicals?
Bugscope Teamyes insects constantly monitor the air for pheromones, for example
- Bugscope Teamand speaking of smells...
- 9:51 am
- Teachercute's not the word I'd use..
- Bugscope Teamstinkbugs are said to be offended by their own stink, which sort of makes sense
- TeacherBrie would like to know what the "dents" are called.
Bugscope Teamstinkbugs are said to have a means of ameliorating the scent they produce, and I think that some of those dents have little fan-like elements in them (I have seen them before) that function to damp down the stink
- Bugscope Teamalso, however, dents can make a tiny insect look shiny -- iridescent -- to us
- TeacherWhat are the structures on either side of his face that look like the undersea vent tubes
Bugscope Teamsitnkbugs are in the order Hemiptera, so they have piercing/sucking mouthparts. that whole assembly is the piercing mouthpart, and it has a kind of hydraulic pump that we see in the center to help suck up liquids from plants, and sometimes from other insects
- 9:56 am
- TeacherJust for my info - will this session be archived so we can review it at a later date?
Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-057
- StudentScot is the tube in the ceter for puncturing plants and withdrawing sap?
Bugscope Teamyes we do not see the tip, which is further to the SE
- Bugscope TeamAnnie I just clipped and pasted the member page info. You can also take out the s from where it says https
- Bugscope Teamif you went to the Bugscope home page, and search, or Look Around, I think it says, you would see a list of session numbers. You can click on yours (2010-057) to read the chat transcript and also see the images from this session.
- TeacherIm I getting the end of it?
Bugscope Teamit is obscured by those pesky legs
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the 'stink' comes from, from between the 2nd and 3rd pair of legs
- 10:01 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is so cool!
- TeacherWOW!
- TeacherAmazing!
- TeacherVery pretty pattern.
- Bugscope TeamAnnie if you are using a Windows machine you can right-click on an open space on the screen, select Properties, and then Settings. That will let you play with the screen resolution, at least on many Windows machines.
- TeacherAre they connected?
Bugscope Teamyes I think they are connected
- TeacherWhat is the structure in the upper right corner?
- Bugscope Teamso beautiful. good thing we aren't able to broadcast the smell
- Teacher(Sorry, I'm getting a lot of excited questions here)
- Bugscope Teamwhen stinkbugs are frightened, or bothered, they emit a pretty mad smell
- TeacherI'd hate to imagine the SMELL being magnified 2500x!
Bugscope Teamhaha yeah
- TeacherSo does the "smell" flow between those? What causes the smell, a gas or a liquid?
Bugscope TeamI think it is a liquid that aerosolizes easily.
- 10:06 am
- StudentAre we looking at storage and or venting mechanisms?
Bugscope Teamthis I understand is the venting mechanism, with storage just beneath
- TeacherThis is so amazing!
- TeacherAnd can it run out of smell in a dose, like a skunk?
Bugscope TeamI think yes, they have to conserve their opportunities to stink until it can be regenerated.
- TeacherI love the name, Scot.
- TeacherAnd one more: where do they get the necessary chemicals for the smell: creat it, plants, etc.?
Bugscope Teamthink about Monarch butterflies, which eat milkweed, which is poisonous to many other critters; spiders will just cut them out of their webs. so I think this is similar; it likely comes from the plants they feed upon.
- Teacher(Yeah - we've named him "grass-hommie".)
Bugscope Teamthe central part is the arolium, which can inflate and deflate and serves to help hold onto a surface with tiny cracks in it. or that is how I understand it to work
- 10:12 am
- TeacherThanks, Scot - I had the Monarch in mind when I asked.
Bugscope Teammany insects produce chemicals that are intended, especially, to deter ants. sometimes the chemistry is relatively simple and would come from metabolizing a number of ordinary plants. but plants do produce toxins, of course.
- TeacherIt looks as if there is a wood shaving stuck to one of the hairs on his foot.
Bugscope Teamthose are scales from a butterfly or moth, likely
- TeacherBut, I thought they only ate my plants. Is he getting them off of the plants?
- TeacherWhat are gang signs?
Bugscope TeamI was making fun of the way the grasshopper is holding his hands, like a rapper or hiphop enthusiast
- TeacherOh, okay! :)
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see tiny mold spores; this is on the abdomen of the spider
- Bugscope Teamspiders are softbodied, for the most part, and when they die they often shrivel up. so they do not always look good in SEM
- TeacherThis is truly awesome!
- TeacherWow! So the spider picked up mold spores, and now we can see them?!
Bugscope Teamyes those little bouquets are the fruiting bodies
- TeacherAnnie...I agree...I am nearly speechless and that is saying something.
- TeacherThey remind me of undersea coral.
- 10:18 am
- TeacherYes Annie, or sea sponges.
- TeacherAmazing how much this looks like sea life.
Bugscope Teamthey look similar to what we see on caddisfly larvae, sometimes. they live that part of their lives underwater and pick up diatoms as well as little vessels that look much like those
- TeacherThis is the most amazing experience!
Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope Teamthe long branch-like portions of the mold, or fungus, are the fungal hyphae
- Bugscope Teamthe electron beam affects the things we are looking at, sometimes, makes them bend, for example
- TeacherUnprofessional question, Scot: you guys have a lot of fun with that 'scope, don't you? : )
Bugscope Teamoh yeah. we are so lucky to have a chance to see all of these things every day. cutting-edge research. we train grad students and postdocs, mostly, to do their own research using a variety of microscopes besides this one
- TeacherWow - that's just fantastic, Scot.
- TeacherIf I remember correctly they were about the size of a sand gnat.
- Bugscope Teamat first I thought they might be tiny parasitic wasps, of which there are hundreds of species. but wasps (and bees) have four wings, and flies (Diptera) have two wings, plus two halteres that help balance the motion of the wings.
- 10:23 am
- Bugscope Teamso we could see the halteres if we weren't sure how many wings we were looking at.
- Bugscope Teamthis is really nice
- TeacherThat just makes my skin crawl.
Bugscope Teamha I guess we are used to it here.
- TeacherThat's right out of a sci-fi movie!
- TeacherMs.Sherri read my mind.
- TeacherWhat's your skin doing now Joni??
- Bugscope Teamthe little things that look like calla lilies are those same tenent setae
- TeacherThis is a beautiful image.
- TeacherIt looks almost glassy under the tenent setae.
- TeacherNow, this is a claw - those parts don't look moveable, are they?
Bugscope Teamyes I was just thinking that. many claws open and close, and there is a tendon inside the tarsus (the 'forearm') called an unguitractor that lets them do that.
- StudentExcellent clarity, Scot, thanks
Bugscope Teamsuper nice specimens
- Bugscope Teamthis is a field-emission scanning electron microscope, and it lets us get much better resolution than an ordinary SEM.
- TeacherI was worried we didn't have enough or they wouldn't be nice enough!
Bugscope TeamI didn't have room for the click beetle or the roach.
- 10:28 am
- Bugscope Teamthe click beetle was industrially large, and in our experience roaches are pretty streamlined and not as interesting
- TeacherLooks like feathers
Bugscope TeamI think that the scales have a function, or a few functions, much like those of feathers
- Bugscope Teamthe fascicle, with four cutting mouthparts, a siphon tube (blood one way and saliva the other), and another component I don't recognize, is inside of this tube, which has a slit all down one side.
- TeacherThis is the "mean" part, right? (I hate mosquitoes.)
Bugscope Teamyes it is. only the females bite, if that makes you feel any better.
- Bugscope Teamthe males have a proboscis just like this too
- TeacherHaha - maybe a little, but it's not like they wear heels and carry purses so I can tell!
Bugscope Teamthe females have kind of ugly, spare antennae. those of the males are ornate. if you ever get close enough to look. but of course it'll be all females coming after you for blood
- 10:33 am
- StudentNo, but this parallels humans in some symbolic way
Bugscope Teamha yeah. the males are almost redundant
- Bugscope Teamwhen I saw this just by eye I thought it was a water strider
- Teacherpoor boys ...
- Bugscope Teamthe reason the females are so ravenous is because they've bred and their eggs are fertilized, but they need the protein from a blood meal to be able to successfully lay their eggs
- TeacherWhat is it sitting on?
Bugscope Teamthe background is carbon doublestick tape with a little silver paint on it
- TeacherWas this a small green insect?
Bugscope TeamI am sorry I don't remember, but it does look like a katydid, which are often green
- Bugscope Teamthere are a few species of mosquitoes, not sure if they're in the U.S., that do not bite.
- TeacherI seem to remember he was very small
Bugscope Teamyeah small and slender but I don't remember the color
- TeacherSherri, can we see the ant head?
- TeacherCould you bring up the ant comb?
- 10:39 am
- Bugscope Teamoops this is the head
- TeacherLook at that thin neck!
- Bugscope Teamthe large part of the head behind the eye is mostly full of muscle that operates the mandibles
- TeacherNon-biting mosquitoes, really? I wonder where they get _their_ protein ...
Bugscope TeamI think they eat nectar from flowers like some moths and butterflies
- TeacherLook at how small the neck attachment is to the thorax
- Bugscope Teammy favorite ants, now, are leafcutters. they are actually farmers.
- TeacherVegan mosquitoes, I love it! Is this a red ant...?
Bugscope TeamI think it was reddish brown
- Bugscope Teamants are related to wasps and bees
- TeacherYes, leafcutters are very cool.
Bugscope Teamthe workers have super long legs that let them cut bigger pieces of leaves, and they have these awesome serrated jaws that look like pinking shears
- 10:44 am
- TeacherWhat aspects make them related?
Bugscope Teamants and wasps actually look much alike. male ants fly but you rarely see them. bees and wasps, each having four wings, have hamuli -- little hooks -- that connect the fore- and hindwings in flight so there are essentially two wings
- StudentScot, does the relative smallness or even lack of eyes mean they rely more on chemical communication etc than some other insects?
Bugscope TeamI think the relative smallness has more to do with the duty -- the job description -- of the particular ant. they live underground often, so it is helpful to have a small body. and of course they don't have light underground, so chemical communication is perfect and also highly developed.
- TeacherAre these hairs that we are seeing making the patterns on the surface?
Bugscope Teamsome of those -- you can tell -- are fine hairs that may give the head a shininess. the longer strands are I think spider web. they may also be fungal hyphae.
- 10:49 am
- Teachervery cool
- Teachercan we move on to the ant comb?
Bugscope Teamyes just a sec
- Bugscope Teamworked that time : )
- Bugscope Teamyou cannot see the comb very well -- it is flattened here. it is used to clean the antennae
- TeacherSo, are these are on the antennae?
Bugscope Teamwe usually find these on the forelegs; I know it is hard to tell where you are from this perspective
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the comb is in a rounded joint, like a rounded inner elbow
- TeacherDo the hairs stand up when it combs the antennae?
Bugscope Teamyes, and usually we see them up rather than folded over
- TeacherThey look soft
Bugscope Teamha yeah
- 10:54 am
- TeacherIs that a scale from another insect that we see up in the corner?
- TeacherWhat have we not seen guys?
- Bugscope Teamthat is the comb, folded over
- Bugscope Teammaybe you have read this: if you take the scent of a dead ant and put it on a live ant, the ants whose task it is to clear the nest of dead ants will carry that live ant away regardless of its squirming
- TeacherThey do - so the comb is just that, with slits? It's hard to tell with it flat.
Bugscope TeamI am sorry this is not really the best example.
- Teacherhmmmm that could be handy around here.
Bugscope Teamoh goodness
- TeacherOoops sorry!
- TeacherNow I see "slits" on the comb - can they control it well?
- Teacher(I have a child on my lap)
- TeacherWell, you DO get enthusiastic sometimes ... ; )
- StudentThat's like a line from Holy Grail...."I'm not dead yet!"
Bugscope Teamha that's right
- TeacherOkay, did we get to all of the presets?
- 11:00 am
- Bugscope Teamspiders have the ability to autotomize their legs. so if they sense venom entering one of their legs they can just jettison it. eventually they could I suppose have no legs like the guy in Holy Grail.
- Studentlol
- TeacherHow well can the ant control the comb?
Bugscope Teampretty well, really, like a fly washing its face but the ant strokes its antennae with the comb
- Teacher(I have to go re-watch "The Holy Grail".)
- TeacherCool! That's always fun to watch ...
- TeacherWhat an awesome talent!
- StudentI won't go into "How can you tell she's a Queen Ant?"
- TeacherYeah, this is creepy. But really interesting!
- Bugscope Teamspiders, some of them, like tarantulas, have what are called 'urticating hairs' that they can release if you get too close. the hairs irritate your eyes and the linings of your nostrils, like for example if you are a dog sniffing a big ol' tarantula
- TeacherThat's "is this"...I have now made the kid get off my lap
- TeacherI sthis the inside of his mouth?
Bugscope Teamyes but it is eaten away. sometimes we find bitemarks from dustmites in places like this
- 11:05 am
- Teacherso, a dust mite ate off part of his face?
- TeacherI want a new pillow--today!!
- TeacherSo this damage was likely caused by mites?
Bugscope TeamI'm not sure, here. Usually you see what are obvious bitemarks. this may have broken end then the softer parts were eaten or rotted away. the thing is that we can see rot in the form of mold or bacteria, for example.
- TeacherLegless spiders, bald tarantulas ... faceless Sherri ...
Bugscope Teamha
- Teacher{{I love my friends}}
- Teacher; D
- Bugscope TeamIt's time for me to shut down. I really enjoyed this session.
- TeacherSo did we - thank you so much!
- TeacherWe did too...thanks
- TeacherThank you so much! This has been an amazing experience!
- StudentThanks so very much!
- Teacheryes...I feel like teaching from a book is now very bland.
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-057
- TeacherBye, All!
- Bugscope Teamthat or without the s in the https, or just searching for 2010-057 from the front page.
- Bugscope TeamBye!!!
- 11:10 am
- TeacherScot do I have an evaluation to fill out?
