Connected on 2011-01-10 13:30:00
from Austin, TX, US
- 1:10 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are making today's presets
- 1:15 pm
- 1:20 pm
- TeacherDo we need sound or will we be communicating through chat session only?
- Bugscope TeamChat only. Not sure how sound would work for us, in different rooms, etc.
- TeacherGreat. Thank you.
- Bugscope Teamfew more critters to make presets of
- Bugscope Teamthis is all from your group in TX except the mosquito and the fruit fly
- TeacherAwesome!
- Bugscope Teamvery small spider
- Bugscope Teamspiders are often not so easy to figure out
- 1:26 pm
- Bugscope TeamMr Morgan we are ready to roll!
- Bugscope Team Please try the presets, make sure you have control.
- TeacherWe are ready to for you to razel dazzle us.
- TeacherFocus and contrast working
- Bugscope Teamthese are plumose (shaped like a Christmas tree, sort of) setae on the spider's body.
- Bugscope Teamspiders are softbodied, and when they die their bodies shrivel up. which makes them hard to image, sometimes. especially when they're so small.
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders have what are called 'urticating hairs,' which irritate your nasal passages if you breathe them in. tarantulas have them, for example
- Bugscope Teamthis is the abdomen, and the flattened thing is one of the legs
- 1:31 pm
- Bugscope Teamif you click on the blue arrow to the left you can see the other presets we made for your session
- Bugscope Teamand if you click on any one of them, the 'scope will drive to that place
- Bugscope Teamat the tip of the spider's abdomen are the spinnerettes, but they were indistinct
- Bugscope Teamthis is the moth head
- Bugscope Teamoops, sorry I mean the wasp head
- Bugscope Teamsee its compound eyes? and its antennae, and its mandibles?
- Bugscope Teamwasps and bees and many other flying insects also have simple eyes, on the top of the head, called ocelli. there are always three of those, and they help the insect keep its orientation with the sun
- Bugscope Teamthere!
- Bugscope Teamnice!
- Bugscope Teamthe moth eye may be even better for closeup imaging
- Bugscope Teamplease feel free to ask us questions about the samples, or anything else
- 1:37 pm
- Guestis the eye cracked here?
Bugscope Teamit looks more like there was something wet on it, and this is it dried up
- Bugscope Teamcracks wouldn't looks so round- more jagged
- Bugscope Teamyeah the crack may be in a film that dried onto the surface of the eye
- Bugscope Teamthis is another compound eye, up close, and you can see that it does not have a film on it
- Bugscope Teamthere is a little seta -- a little bristle, or hair -- sticking out
- Bugscope Teamthat's a pattern we see from the small parts of the eye that you won't see at higher mag
- Teacherwhat are the swirly things you see on the eyes?
Bugscope Teamwhen we see those swirly patterns we are seeing an optical illusion caused by these tiny round features we see now
- Guestwhats the hair like item?
Bugscope Teamthat is actually what you think-- a bug hair, which we call a seta.
- 1:43 pm
- Guestwhat are the dots?
Bugscope Teamwe are not sure what the dots are -- we think of them as rods or cones but they are likely neither. we see them only in insects like moths and butterflies that probably have very good vision, including (with moths, especially) the ability to see ultraviolet light. which people cannot see ...
- Bugscope Teamwhen we go to super high mag like this the image sometimes gets distorted -- all of the electrons hitting one small place at one time
- Guestwhat's that whole
Bugscope Teamthat is the pore for the seta. The seta goes through the pore and is connected to a nerve underneath
- Bugscope Teamoften when we find setae like that on the surface of an eye, they are there to help the insect sense windspeed/wind direction
- Guestwhat
- Bugscope Teamthis is a super cute beetle we do not recognize
- Bugscope Teamthis is from your cool ladybug
- Bugscope Teamits head is tucked into a turret, and because its mouthparts are as well, we think it must be able to move its head out a bit, for example to eat
- 1:48 pm
- TeacherSo this beetle was on the ladybug?
Bugscope Teamthis is the beetle we thought at first was a ladybug
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the edge of one of its mandibles -- that ridged mandible (jaw) toward the bottom of where we are looking now
- Guestcool
- Bugscope Teamthe little conical things around it are palps -- what insects use to manipulate and taste their food -- they're like accessory legs, in a way
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the front of the head/face, and to the right we see, once again, the facets of a compound eye
- Bugscope Teamplus of course more setae
- GuestWhat are the dots
Bugscope Teamthe dots to the right are ommatidia -- the eye facets. and the dots to the left are little bumps in the film on the surface of the face there
- Bugscope Teamthe facet-like things we see now are pieces of the exoskeleton -- the chitinous shell on the outside of the body
- Bugscope Teamthere are no bones -- the 'skeleton' is on the outside, more like a coat of armor
- 1:53 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is interesting
- Guestwhat are those strings?
Bugscope Teammost of the strings appear to be fungal hyphae -- the 'branches' of fungus
- TeacherDo roaches normally have these mites?
Bugscope Teamwe have never ever seen mites on a roach. that is a surprise
- Guestis a mite sticky
Bugscope Teamthey have six (I think there are six) legs that come out from under this carapace, and they seem to have sticky pads at their tips
- Guestis it upside down?
Bugscope Teamoh yes it is!
- Teacherare these hairs seta to?
Bugscope Teamyes all hairs seen on bugs are setae (plural of seta)
- Bugscope Teamthis is the edge of the shell, kind of like a turtle shell, of the mite
- 1:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamand it is upside down, like a bowl
- Bugscope Teamyou know what this is...
- Bugscope Teamit has a lot of some kind of film on it, possibly venom
- TeacherThe kids what to know why it looks curved?
Bugscope Teamit may look curved but it is very sharp. You can see the caption at the bottom right of the scales bar. it is smaller than the width of a human hair
- Guestdoes it have lots of parts
Bugscope Teamno- it has a little tube to inject the venom of the eggs, but the rest is used for stabbing
- 2:03 pm
- Teacherwhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is a haltere. It has a gyroscopic effect on the fly by beating opposite the wings
- Bugscope Teamsome stingers have a dual purpose: they sting but they are also ovipositors. ovipositors are used to lay eggs. there are hundreds of species of parasitic moths, often small, that inject their eggs into prey. the eggs turn into larvae that feed on the insides of the prey (for example, a caterpillar)
- Bugscope Teamhalteres often look like little punching bags
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamstinkbugs are said to not like their own bad smell, so they have lots of little structures on the surface of their cuticle (exoskeleton) that absorb and deflect the smell
- Guestwhat's that thing in the middle
Bugscope Teamthe thing in the middle is kind of like a hydraulic hose; it is the suction portion of the mouthparts
- TeacherInteresting
- Guestwhat are the bumps?
Bugscope Teamsome of the bumps are just dirt or grime. Some are pits where setae are
- 2:09 pm
- Bugscope Teamstinkbugs/shieldbugs are 'true bugs,' called Hemiptera, and one of the features that true bugs have is piercing/sucking mouthparts
- TeacherIs the hydraulic hose like the nose of a butterfly?
Bugscope Teamin a way, yes
- Guestwhat are the black lines?
Bugscope Teamthe horizontal lines would have been like the ridges of the hose
- Guestwhat are the holes?
Bugscope Teamthose are thought to make the scales lighter, so the wings won't be weighed down. They also can bend the light to make the wings appear to have color
- 2:15 pm
- Bugscope Teamsometimes you can see pigment granules in the holes
- Guesthow many scales on a bug
Bugscope Teamthat depends on how big the insect is. But the scales are usually all over the insect- like if you touch a butterfly, you get that powder all over your fingers. That powder are all scales
- TeacherKids are asking what the vertical lines are?
Bugscope TeamProbably to give the scales structure so that they won't rip very easily
- Bugscope Teamant head!
- Teacherwhat is the triangle?
Bugscope Teamwell, we don't know -- it's part of the inside of the mouth. we rarely get such a good view of the inside of the mouth
- 2:20 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe little oval things we see now are mold spores
- Teacherwhat is all the bumping material?
Bugscope Teamthose are mold spores
- Bugscope Teammold spores often resemble pollen, but they have smaller spikes on their surfaces, and they also shrivel, like this, more often
- TeacherSo this ant was probably not alive when we collected?
Bugscope Teamit could have been but then kept in a moist place
- Guestwhat is the black line?
Bugscope Teamthe horizontal black lines, perhaps like the ones you referred to before, are from charging -- when the electrons that raster across the sample build up within the sample rather than running off, to ground
- 2:25 pm
- Guestwhat does that mean?
Bugscope Teamwhen we get a sample like an insect that is non-conductive -- that is not made of metal that will conduct electricity -- we try to make it conductive by putting a thin coat of gold-palladium (an alloy of two conductive metals) onto it, using a sputter coater. But when we look at a very small area, and/or an area that did not get coated very well, the electrons we are using to image the sample build up in the sample, in those places, rather than running off. And it gives us poor images like that.
- TeacherIs this his mouth?
Bugscope TeamI think it is the mouth -- it is hard to tell.
- Teacheryummy...
- TeacherDo they only eat Dust?
Bugscope Teamthey eat small flakes of skin, for example in someone's bedsheets, and on the surface of a pillow. they are so small we cannot see them, but some people are allergic to them or their waste.
- Bugscope Teamjust so you know, you can access the images and chat from today on your member pager at https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-097
- TeacherCool stuff. Better than looking at Semiconductor chips all day.
- Bugscope Teamyes, they chips can be fun, but aren't always as diverse as insects
- 2:31 pm
- Guestthankyou very much!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamsj was worried they were lice (which scared me), but I'm sticking with dust mites
- Bugscope TeamThis is fun for us. We enjoyed having you. Please come visit again next year!
- TeacherThank you very much. We enjoyed the session thoroughly. It was wonderful.
- Guestby
- GuestWe will
- Bugscope Teamthis may not be a dustmite; it may be another kind of mite. dustmites are softbodied like spiders, and when they die they usually shrivel up -- like aphids -- and are almost unrecognizable.
- Bugscope Teamwe are glad you all had a great time!
- Bugscope TeamBye! And Thank You again!
- Guestby
- Bugscope TeamGood Bye!
- 2:38 pm
- TeacherWhen will the images be available online?
