Connected on 2011-02-25 14:30:00
from Cook, Illinois, United States
- 1:29 pm
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- 1:39 pm
- 1:48 pm
- 1:55 pm
- 2:01 pm
- 2:07 pm
- TeacherHello! Looking forward to today's session. I'd like to have 2 student computers. Should I log them in as "guest"?
- Bugscope Teamyou can log them in as students if you would like
- Bugscope Teamif that is one of the available choices; sometimes it seems not to be there
- TeacherNo, I didn't see it but thought there may be a special way to access it. I'll just use guest.
- Bugscope TeamI don't know why but sometimes it does not show up.\
- 2:12 pm
- TeacherJust figured it out.
- GuestHi! I'm excited to participate in Mrs. Range's session today. We enjoyed our experience on Wednesday. The students are still talking about it.
- Bugscope Teamhello! welcome back!
- TeacherHi Mrs. N. I'm glad you're joining us!
- Studenttesting...
- GuestThanks! I'm looking forward to seeing the interesting moth head.
- Studenttesting...
- 2:18 pm
- Bugscope TeamI think we are about done with the presets.
- Bugscope Teambee right back
- Teachervery punny!
- Bugscope Teamyou may drive if you'd like
- Bugscope Teamsorry...
- 2:24 pm
- Bugscope Teamsometimes it is hard to get these to focus -- we're putting a lot of electrons in one place
- Bugscope Teamand scales are loosely attached even when they are still attached to the wing'
- Studenthi
- Bugscope Teamhello! welcome to Bugscope!
- Studentwe are almost ready
Bugscope Teamyay!
- TeacherAlright, we're ready to roll!
- Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of a fruitfly
- 2:29 pm
- Studentwhat are the little hair thingies
- Bugscope Teamthe little sticks are broken-off bristle-like setae that usually stick up between the eye facets
- TeacherWhat are the pokey looking things? Are they sharp?
- Bugscope Teamthe eye facets are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamthey are so small you would not feel them
- Bugscope Teamthe fruitfly uses them to sense windspeed and direction when it is flying
- Bugscope Teamthey stick up and then the wind moves them
- TeacherSetae? Are these for detecting movement?
Bugscope Teamyes they are mechanoreceptors
- Bugscope Teamsome setae are mechano- touch receptors
- Studentwhat the thing on the top left of the screen?
Bugscope Teamthat is part of the head
- Bugscope Teamit's the vestiture around the eye
- Bugscope Teamsome setae are chemo- scent or smell receptors
- StudentWhy does it have a heart shaped mouth
- Bugscope Teamand some setae are thermoreceptors -- they sense hot/cold
- Studentwhat is the heart thing
Bugscope Teamthose are the mouthparts, which are dried and shrunken; they are sponging mouthparts
- Studentheart
- 2:34 pm
- Studentwhat are those things in between the top of the eyes?
Bugscope Teamthe antennae, which have a pad-like components and a small branched -- aristate -- component
- Studentwhat are the little hairy things around the herat
Bugscope Teamthose are setae that likely help the fruitfly sense what it is touching
- Bugscope Teamoops I see the bases of the antennae now
- Bugscope Teamthe antenna are both busted off and gone
- Studenthow many compound eye segments does the fly have?
Bugscope TeamI think they have a few hundred
- Studentwhat are the fuzzy things around the heart thing?
- Bugscope Teama wasp and some other insects can have 5000 ommatidia per compound eye
- TeacherWere the antennae near the 'tubes' next to the eyes
Bugscope Teamthose two roundish things on the right are the bases of the antennae
- Bugscope Teamwith some flies, like houseflies, if the eyes are close together you have a male and if they are far apart you have a female -- like Mikhail Baryshnikov vs Uma Thurman
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the ant's compound eye
- Studentwhat is that thing that looks like a scar
Bugscope Teamthat is a scale from a butterfly or moth
- Studentwhat is the dot above the eye?
Bugscope Teamnot sure...
- 2:39 pm
- Studentis it dust
Bugscope Teamyes I think it is
- Studentwhat is the line that looks like a vein
Bugscope Teamoh I am not sure
- TeacherWe're commenting that it looks like there are bubbles. Are they part of the bug?
- Studentwhat are the things that look like bubbles?
- Bugscope Teamthose are bubbles in the carbon tape we use to make the specimens stick onto the stub
- Studentisthe an eye at the top?
Bugscope Teamthat is the inside of an antenna that is broken off
- TeacherDid it's leg get broken off?
Bugscope Teamor it is a a leg. I can't tell from here
- Studentis that a bug inside the bubble?
Bugscope Teamno that's just the way the carbon tape looks. We use carbon tape to stick the bugs on. It helps ground the charge from the elctrons
- TeacherIs it hollow?
Bugscope Teamyes it is hollow. when the insect is alive it has hemolymph, which is like blood to an insect, inside it
- Studentoops
- Studentis that a cone around the eye
Bugscope Teamthat was the center of the broken-off antenna
- Studentok
- 2:44 pm
- Studentwhat is it inside the pincers?
- TeacherWe're wondering if that is mold?
- GuestMrs. R...this is fascinating!
- Bugscope Teamthis was a large and for some reason dirt-eating beetle
- Bugscope Teamit looks lie plant material and dirt to me
- TeacherHello Mrs. A! Enjoy our session!
- Bugscope Teamlike not lie*
- Bugscope Teamwhen we looked at this stuff earlier it appeared to be a bunch of dirt and super tiny rocks
- Bugscope Teamas Cate says...
- Studentis it a dung beetle?
Bugscope Teamgood question, but it looked more like a darkling beetle when I put it on
- Bugscope Teamthe things we see are the mandibles, which are large and curved, around the top of the head as we see it
- Bugscope Teamoops nm
- Studentwhat is the cylinder on the left side?
- Bugscope Teamthat is yet another busted off antenna
- 2:50 pm
- Studentwhy do milipedes and centepedes have so many legs?
Bugscope TeamI think if you had a long flat or long round body shape it would be the best way to walk or run
- Studentwhy is it all crinkly and it looks smushed?
Bugscope Teamwell for one -- it dries after the insect or in this case an arthropod, dies. and it may be smushed,
- Studenthow many species of bugs have you studid
Bugscope Teamwe have only really looked at a small amount of species, though it seems like we are experts. There are so many species of insects that it is amazing. Just the other week we looked at so many species of parasitic wasps that were from a small location in Costa Rica that it was amazing
- GuestHow does a busted off antenna affect a bug's ability to live? Do they regenerate? (I'm a bug novice!)
Bugscope Teamthe antennae are important to insects and arthropods because they have many of the scent receptors
- Studentwhere is its mouth
Bugscope Teamit is to the left where you see the dimples
- Bugscope TeamI don't think antennae will regenerate unless the insect is undergoing a molt, which some insects do
- Studentwheres its mouth
- StudentWhat is your favorite \
- Studentdo millipedes have tounges
Bugscope Teamgreat question! I do not think so.
- Studentthat was someone else!
- TeacherWe're thinking that it looks as though the antennae broke off this one too. Correct?
- TeacherDoes it have ears or are the antennae used as sound receptors?
Bugscope Teamoften there are setae that are also used to sense vibration, which what sound is
- StudentWhat is your favorite bug to study
- Guestdo they have teeth
Bugscope Teaminsects and comparable arthropods do not have teeth, but sometimes they have hardened jaws with, for example, zinc in them to make them tougher
- 2:55 pm
- Studentare they arms?
Bugscope Teamyes they look like it
- Studentwhat are those things under the head
Bugscope Teamthose are some of the legs
- TeacherWhy do millipedes have so many legs?
Bugscope TeamI think it is a complement to the shape of the body
- Studentwow thats cool
- Studentwhy does it look like a fish
Bugscope TeamI think that is a coincidence. Rolypolies, however, are crustaceans like lobsters and crabs, and they have gills
- StudentWhy are the legs pointy
Bugscope Teamthose are claws at the end of the legs. They have a single claw on each leg used to help hold onto things and grab things
- Studentdo those hairs on the legs detect movement or something
Bugscope Teamoften the hairs are indeed sensory. some of them are self-sensory, for example to let the insect or centipede know when it is touching something
- Studentis
- Bugscope Teamwe often see large spines on leg joints, and the entomologists think that those spines help the insect sense when its leg is bending, for example
- TeacherThe proboscis has more than 1 part? Is that what we're seeing?
- Studentwhy id the moth head so hairy
Bugscope Teamthose are scales. Scales are all over the moth body. They give the moth color and also they work as a defense mechanism. If they get caught in a web, they can try to shake some scale loose and they are out!
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the proboscis, which is like a tongue, and it is split apart
- 3:00 pm
- Guestdo moths have compound eyes
Bugscope Teamyes they do. You can see the small bumps from here that are the facets of the eye
- GuestWhat are those long, tongue-like things you're zooming in on?
Bugscope Teamthose long fronds are scales
- Studentdo the hairs do anything or are they just there to be fashinable
Bugscope Teamas Cate said, they are responsible for color, and they also get stuck to a spider's web and can be left in the web while the moth slips out
- Studentso do they have scales on the wings
Bugscope Teamyes they do, and also on the body
- Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes you would have better peripheral vision -- you would be able to see more of the area around you at one time
- Studenthow many compound eyes are there
Bugscope Teamthere are 2 compound eyes on the moth, but there are probably thousands of ommatidia, which are the facets of the compound eye
- Studentare there 2 proboskics
Bugscope Teamno it broke at some point
- Bugscope Teamalso, if you had compound eyes it would be very difficult to get glasses that fit
- Bugscope Teamand compound eyes are very sensitive to changes in the visual field -- for example, movement
- Teacherhaha!
- Studentwhy are there so many holes on this
Bugscope Teamthey help make the scales lighter and also give the scales structural color by refracting the light differently
- Studentwhy does it have swiss scales
- GuestAre the ommatidia the parts that have a pentagon/hexagon shape to them?
Bugscope Teamyes they are!
- TeacherWhy do the wings look spongy?
- GuestHoles...they're moths, right?!
- Bugscope Teamthe holes often have pigment in or near them
- Bugscope Teamha right!
- Bugscope Teamand as Cate said, just the shape of the scales, especially the spaces between the ridges, will produce structural colors
- Studentdo the holes in the wings help it fly
Bugscope Teamthey are just holes in the scales, not the wings themselves. Having holes in scales makes the total weight lighter
- Studentwhat are the ridges on the wings for
- 3:05 pm
- Studentdo you think studying bugs is gross
Bugscope Teamwe are used to it and we think it is interesting and sometimes gross at the same time
- Studentwhat would we see in real life if we looked at this
Bugscope Teamthe naked eye would just see a fine powder if you rubbed your fingers on the wings
- TeacherIs there a reason the ommatidia are shaped the way they are?
Bugscope Teamthe shape of the ommatidia is kind of like the answer to the problem of how you stack round objects, like at a fruitseller's stand
- Bugscope Teamhexagonal shapes seem to be the best way to close pack things that are essentially round
- Studenthow did you get interested in bugs
Bugscope Teamthe more we pay attention to them the more fascinating they are -- they are an alien life form compared to us, but they have to solve many of the same problems we do, like gripping things, and communicating, and breeding, and eating
- Studentis the mouth open
Bugscope Teamit seems to be a bit open
- Studentis that hole its mouth and the little spikes its teeth
Bugscope Teamthe hole in the opening. And there is a couple of mandibles that are hinged
- GuestUsing the SEM, what is the smallest thing you viewed?
Bugscope Teamwe can see I think 5-nm gold nanoparticles
- Bugscope Teamthe SEM has 2 nm resolution, and with a test sample we can see that, but it is just a division between objects with a fine spacing
- Studentare those pincers or antennae
Bugscope Teamthose were antennae, draped around the shape of the head
- 3:10 pm
- GuestNeat! The images are beautiful works of art. I'd like to frame some of them.
- Studentwhat is the biggest bug you have ever study
Bugscope Teamwe have looked at praying mantises and large grasshoppers, and also a quite large and scary centipede
Bugscope Teamyes I'd have to agree. The centipede was the largest. It was like a small snake!
- Bugscope Teamwe do not often look at large insects or bugs because they are not so interesting, but the centipede was covered with mites, which made it pretty cool
- TeacherIs the pollen grain's surface bumpy?
Bugscope Teamit looks bumpy, but to the naked eye it just looks like powder
- Guestare the pollen grains stuck together
- GuestWhere did you find the scary centipede?
- Studentwhy do they look like vanes
Bugscope Teamthat is a shape that probably helps keep them from collapsing
- Studentis it light blue
Bugscope TeamI think it was yellow
- Studentit looks like a golf ball
Bugscope Teamit does!
- Studenthow many bump things are on it
Bugscope TeamI think 4 to 5000.
- Studentit looks like a scar
- TeacherDoes the eye stick out from its body the way it looks on screen?
Bugscope Teamthey do stick out a bit
- Bugscope Teamthe better to see you with!
- Studentwhy are the compound eyes so big
Bugscope Teamit helps the katydid see around its body, which is also fairly large
- 3:15 pm
- TeacherAre their scratches on the eye or is that from the microscope?
Bugscope Teamthose are definitely scratches. I don;t know if it was dropped on the group a lot after it died or if it got into a lot of fights when it was alive
- Studentit looks hairy he needs to shave
- Studentcan you go blind in just one of your compound eyes
Bugscope Teambecause there are so many facets, you can see out of a number of them even if some are covered over or broken
- Studentare the small hairs detectores
Bugscope Teamoften they are detectors of some sort; insects have an exoskeleton which is like wearing armor, so they need to have lots of setae sticking through the armor to help sense their environment
- TeacherIt looks like it would be soft. (& Cate, we knew he was being sarcastic!)
- Bugscope TeamCate scratched it all up. She is very careless.
Bugscope Teamhe lies!
Bugscope Teamyes I was just joking -- the katydid seems to have a rough life
- Studentwho put the bug in
Bugscope TeamCate makes almost all of the samples, and she does a good job.
- Studentbut now i can
- Studenti cant see anything
Bugscope Teamthe specimen moved a little since we made that preset
- 3:21 pm
- Studentit looks like a rose stem
- Guestwhat is that thing that looks like a flower
Bugscope Teamwe think it is a kind of fungus that grows like little unbrella after umbrella
- Studentwhat is in the backgrouns
Bugscope Teamthat is a moth or butterfly scale
- Studentbye bye ;(
- Studentwhy do they look like flowers
Bugscope Teamthose buds can easily break off and spread to other places. It's so they can travel around and spread easier
- Studentbye
- Studentbye
- Bugscope Teambye, have a great weekend, and we hope you liked today's session!
- Studentthanks for this it was cool
- TeacherWhy does the wing scale have grooves?
Bugscope Teamthe grooves function like ridges do on a potato chip, giving the scale a rigidity as small and soft as it is
- Studentthank you for the information
- TeacherThank you for your time today! We appreciate your expertise!!
- Bugscope Teambut yes mold is like a micro sized flower
- Bugscope Teamthe grooves also, as Cate said earlier, form structural colors
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamThis was fun for us!
- TeacherUs too! Have a good weekend!
- Bugscope Teamyou too!