Connected on 2011-10-03 10:00:00
from Taylor, Wisconsin, United States
- 9:08 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope TeamI am finishing coating the sample & will have it in the 'scope soon
- 9:20 am
- Bugscope Teamvacuum is a little slow...
- Bugscope Teamsometimes samples are a bit juicy and take a little while to pump down
- Bugscope Teamonce the vacuum is low enough we can turn on the electron beam and start looking for cool places on the sample to make into presets
- Bugscope Team1.6 x 10-4...
- Bugscope Teamgoing for 1.3 x 10-4 Torr
- Bugscope Team1.5...
- Bugscope Teamstill 1.5
- Bugscope Team1.4
- Bugscope Teamyay
- 9:26 am
- Bugscope Teamalmost there..
- Bugscope Teamcricket may be a little juicy, and the spiders
- Bugscope Teamas soon as the vac is okay I will turn on the electron beam and the whole central screen will light up
- Bugscope Teamtrue bug
- 9:32 am
- 9:37 am
- TeacherGood Morning
- TeacherThis is Mrs. Beyer from Holy Rosary.
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamWe will be ready in 10-15 minutes
- 9:42 am
- Bugscope Teamif that sounds good to you
- TeacherThe kids aren't here yet we will be ready at 10:00
- Bugscope Teamgreat!
- Guesthello
- Bugscope Teamhello MYP!
- Guestwhat is that?
- Bugscope Teamparasitic wasp
- Guestcool
- 9:47 am
- 9:52 am
- 9:58 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the Monarch butterfly
- Teacherwe are all ready
Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope
- Bugscope Teamyou can choose from any of the presets on the lefthand screen
- 10:03 am
- Bugscope Teamhere we are looking at the place where the proboscis is attached to the face of the Monarch
- Bugscope Teamon the lower right we see the tube that is coiled up right now -- the proboscis
- Bugscope Teamwhen the Monarch feeds -- on milkweed -- it can extend the proboscis into flowers
- Bugscope Teamif the proboscis gets gummed up with nectar, the butterfly can clean it by separating it into two halves and wiping it down with its forearms
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eyes on either side of the head\
- Teacherthats cool can we see more of the proboscis
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes in an insect like the Monarch may have as many as 17,000 individual facets, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamyou can use click to center -- click on the screen -- to get a feature to move to the center
- 10:08 am
- Bugscope TeamMonarchs and other butterflies, as well as moths, are hard to image using the scanning electron microscope because they charge up with electrons from the electron beam we are using to collect images
- Bugscope Teamall of the tiny setae and scales are often not grounded very well -- they are loose\
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see one of the compound eyes
- Teacherawesome and lets go look at a mosquito
- Bugscope Teamthe butterfly can see almost 360 degrees around it without moving its head
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the mosquitoes
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its head
- Bugscope Teamwhich is kind of flattened
- 10:14 am
- Bugscope Teamthe mosquito is dry, and its eyes are not round and bulbous anymore
- Bugscope Teamyou can tell males from females because male mosquitoes have very frilly, fancy antennae
- Teacherwe think its a female are we right
- Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamfemale antennae are very simple-looking compared to those of a male
- Bugscope Teamsee all of the tiny scales?
- Bugscope Teamthey're like feathers, in a way
- Bugscope Teammosquitoes, moths, butterflies, and silverfish have scales; very few other insects may have them
- Bugscope Teamscales are what make a butterfly's wing feel silky
- Teachercan you tell us what the halters do
Bugscope Teamhalteres are found in flies, and flies are in the Diptera, which means "two wings"
- Bugscope Teamdi- means two, and -ptera means wing
- 10:19 am
- Bugscope Teamthe halteres are tiny modified hindwings that look like little punching bags, like a boxer's punching bag, on a stalk
- Bugscope Teamthe halteres beat when the wings beat, but their motion is opposite that of the wings
- Bugscope Teamthe halteres balance the movement of the fly in the air by beating opposite the way the wings beat
- Bugscope Teamyou may be able to see halteres on the small fly
- Bugscope Teaminsects like bees and wasps have four wings and thus do not have halteres
- Teacherhow many types of mosquitoes are there
Bugscope Teamthere are thousands of species; there is even a species in which the female does not drink blood. but they are not found in the U.S>
- Bugscope Teamthe females may live on nectar until they are fertilized; then they are ravenous for blood because they need the protein and iron so they can successfully lay their eggs
- Teacherhow long do fly live
Bugscope Teamthere are so many flies, but generally four to six weeks
- 10:24 am
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia appear to form almost perfect hexagons
- Bugscope Teamspiders do not have compound eyes, and many spiders cannot see very well\
- Teacherhow many parts of the fly eye are there
- Bugscope Teammaybe 3 to 5000 ommatidia; it depends on the fly]\
- Bugscope Teammany flying insects also have simple eyes called ocelli on the back or top of the head
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli do not see as well as mostly registering dark and light, and they help keep the wasp, in this case, oriented with respect to the sun
- Bugscope Teamthis is a tiny parasitic wasp\
- Bugscope Teamoohh
- Bugscope Teamthis is the super tiny beetle you sent
- Bugscope Teamit was so small I was afraid to squeeze it when I picked it up with forceps
- 10:30 am
- Bugscope Teamsee its compound eye, streamlined into the head?
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny indentations in the exoskeleton make it more sturdy, and they also reflect light so that a tiny beetle like this is shiny
- Bugscope Teamit has only a few hundred facets to its compound eye
- Bugscope TeamI'm sorry I don't know anything about these beetles\
- Teacherwe found it in a pond
Bugscope Teamyou did a fantastic job collecting specimens
- Teacherdid our cockroach work
Bugscope TeamI'm sorry -- it was too juicy to go into the 'scope. also quite large\
- Bugscope Teamthere was a dry roach as well, but I ran out of room on the stub\
- Bugscope Teamthis is so pretty
- Teacherwhat is this
- Bugscope Teaminsects breathe through openings in their cuticle -- they have an exoskeleton, which is like a shell -- called spiracles
- 10:35 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a closeup view of one of the spiracles on the larger larval insect -- caterpillar -- you sent
- Bugscope Teamthese protect the opening of the spiracle from letting in dust, but they are very interesting -- they resemble the gill-like structures we see on caddisfly larvae
- Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see where you are on the caterpillar\
- Bugscope Teamthis is a super small black ant
- Bugscope Teamalmost all of the ants you see are females
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that she has very rudimentary compound eyes
- Teachercan you tell us about the mouth
- Bugscope Teamants often look like they have a whole other insect in their mouths\
- Bugscope Teamthere are two sets of palps, called mandibular and maxillary palps, and they function like tiny utensils to help the ant feed, but they are like utensils that can also taste things
- 10:40 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a diatom -- a silica-shelled tiny water creature
- Bugscope Teamyou can see lots of diatoms on the cricket's head
- Bugscope Teamto the back in this view you can see a circular diatom -- it looks like a fancy hubcap
- Bugscope Teamyou find diatoms in the water, of course, and also in dirt
- Bugscope Teamif there were bacteria here, we would be able to see them as well
- Bugscope Teamthis is another diatom that looks like a super tiny canoe
- Bugscope Teamlots of tiny rocks as well
- Bugscope Teamif we took the mag down further you would see that we are looking at a very small area on the cricket's head
- Bugscope Teamyou sent very cool specimens
- 10:46 am
- Bugscope Teamlet me know if you have any trouble getting to a particular preset -- sometimes they get stuck, we've noticed
- Bugscope Teamthe spiracle opens on the inside of the insect, or in this case the larval insect, the caterpillar, to ducts that bring air into the body
- Teachertell us about this
- Bugscope Teamthis outer surface functions like a grille to keep big chunky stuff out
- Bugscope Teamusually an insect has two spiracles per body segment, and they are often on the sides of the body
- Bugscope Teamso they do not breathe through their mouths, but through the spiracles\
- Bugscope Teamthe inner ducts are called tracheae
- Bugscope Teamthat allows them to keep from getting too dry -- if they just close their spiracles
- Bugscope Teamit's really good for us that insects have what is actually an inefficient means of breathing and getting oxygen to their inner organs
- 10:51 am
- Teacherwe cant get the cenitipede or the creepy cattterpillar
Bugscope Teamthis is the creep caterpillar -- very small\
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars often have 5 or 6 simple eyes on either side of the head called 'stemmata'
- Bugscope Teamthe caterpillar's body is shriveled
- Bugscope Teamafter it died it dried up a bit
- Bugscope Teamthe head did not shrivel because it has a thicker exoskeleton
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars have six legs, like the adult insects they will become when they metamorphose
- Bugscope Teamthey also have extra legs, though, called 'prolegs'
- Bugscope Teamwe see only one eye and a tiny stub that looks like an antenna
- Bugscope Teamon this side of the head
- 10:56 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is the pedicel, which is what the base of the antenna is called
- Bugscope Teamyou can see individual scales, which look like potato chips
- Bugscope Teamif you had scales on the surface of your body and flew into a spider web, the scales would stick to the web and you could, perhaps, slip out
- Teacherwhat are we looking at
Bugscope Teamthis is where the mosquito antenna attaches to the head
- Bugscope Teamthose are tiny scales, which are actually modified setae, which is what we call the things that resemble hair
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see lots of microsetae here
- Bugscope Teammicrosetae provide more surface area that likely helps with flying, and they also help regulate the body temperature of the insect
- Bugscope Teamthis is so pretty -- one of the male antennae
- Teachertell us about this
- 11:01 am
- Bugscope Teamthe males have more ornate antennae so, in part, they will look attractive to the females, but mostly it is because they need to be able to smell low levels of chemicals in the air -- pheromones -- which are kind of like perfume
- TeacherThanks for this awesome
- Bugscope Teamthe males can find the females by using the chemoreceptors on their antennae to pick up their scent
- TeacherWe really enjoyed it
- Bugscope TeamThank you for sending such cool samples!
- Bugscope Teamplease connect with us again next year!
- Bugscope Teamit is good to apply early, now, for next year
- Bugscope Teamhttp\://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-068
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-068
- Bugscope Teamthat is better
- Bugscope Teama link to your member page\
- TeacherThanks so much this was alot of fun
Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- TeacherWe will definaatly do it again
- Bugscope Teamtotally cool!
- 11:06 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is the fly
- Bugscope Teamyou cannot see its antennae, on top of the head, very well
- Bugscope TeamMYP and Science I am going to shut down soon
- Bugscope TeamThank you for connecting today!
- Bugscope Teamour next session is Thursday morning at the same time
