Connected on 2011-09-09 11:00:00
from Maricopa, Arizona, United States
- 10:07 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the sample in the chamber now, in the CCD view
- Bugscope Teamit is pumping down -- we are waiting for it to reach the right vacuum level
- Bugscope Teamthen we'll start setup for today's session
- 10:16 am
- 10:21 am
- 10:27 am
- 10:33 am
- 10:38 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning, Mrs Hill!
- Bugscope Teamwe are finishing presets, almost done
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- 10:45 am
- TeacherGood Morning!
- 10:50 am
- Bugscope Teammorning Mrs. Hill
- TeacherHi there, are we supposed to be locating the CCD view now? We aren't sure about how to do that.
- Bugscope Teamwe have to put it into CCD mode manually. Give us a few minutes and we can do that. Scot went upstairs really quick to grab some food
- TeacherHe can eat after working with bugs?!
- Bugscope Teamhaha yeah. But only if they aren't really juicy!
- Bugscope Teamthe CCD detector needs to be replaced...
- Bugscope TeamSo here is the CCD and it is a little dim because the camera is dying slowly. But near the middle is the sample with all the critters on it
- Teacherwow.
- Bugscope Teamyeah we are used to eating around bugs now
- 10:56 am
- Bugscope Teamor pretty much
- Bugscope TeamI still get grossed out by big juicy ones, as Cate said
- Teacherugh.
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamwe take advantage of the gross-out factor in Bugscope
- TeacherI have heard a couple of "fear factor" comments from my class. :)
- TeacherI could totalllllly handle lady bugs!
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the compound eyes, which are a bit shrunken compared to when the fly was alive
- Bugscope Teamin the center of the head are the antennae, which have that pad part I forget what it's called, and the branch part, called the aristate antenna
- Teacherinteresting!
- 11:01 am
- Bugscope Teamtons of setae -- hairs, bristles
- TeacherWhat are the spiney hair things around the head and on the back??
Bugscope Teamthose are similar to cat whiskers. They help the fly feel what is around it
- Bugscope Teamthe fly can sense touch, and wind, with those mechanosensory setae
- Bugscope Teamit also has setae that allow it to smell or taste the air, and setae that sense hot/cold
- Bugscope Teamsome setae -- the tenent setae -- are the sticky hairs that help the fly cling to surfaces, like glass, or like the ceiling
- TeacherIt is amazing how complicated a simple fly is. :) Where is its mouth?
Bugscope Teamthe mouth is south, just a bit
- Bugscope Teamwe can see the extension of it at the bottom of the area we are looking at now
- Bugscope Teamnow we are starting to get kind of gross
- Teachermuch groaning happening here. :P
- Bugscope Teamusually the proboscis is swollen with liquid, not as shrunken as it is now
- Bugscope Teamthis fly has sponging mouthparts
- 11:06 am
- Bugscope Teamit spits up on its food to digest it a bit, and then sucks or sponges it all up
- Bugscope Teamyou would really cause a sensation in the cafeteria if you ate like that
- Bugscope Teamcertainly no one would want to sit with you
- TeacherHoly Cow!
- TeacherDoes it suck it like a hose or scoop like a cat tongue?
Bugscope Teammaybe Cate knows better than I do, but I think it works like a sponge
- Bugscope Teami don't think it sucks it. It would have a different mouth part
- Bugscope Teamprobably more like a lapping I guess
- Bugscope Teamthe thing that looks like a leaf, kind of, is a scale from another insect like a butterfly or moth
- Bugscope Teamactually here it looks like it has been fraternizing with a leafhopper
- Bugscope Teambecause we see those tiny things like soccerballs called brochosomes that come only from leafhoppers
- TeacherIs that pollen?
Bugscope Teamthese are brochosomes which only leafhoppers can make. They are natural nanoparticles
- TeacherWow. We are in awe.
- Bugscope Teamyes as Cate says when we see brochosomes like this we are imaging on the nanoscale
- 11:11 am
- Bugscope Teamthey are usually a few hundred nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teambeautiful tiny particles
- TeacherWe always think of flies as really dirty. Do they carry germs as well as leafhopper bits?
Bugscope Teamwe don't often see bacteria on insects, even flies. So I don't think they are as germy as people say, but I could be wrong
- Bugscope Teamticks usually have bacteria on them though
- Bugscope Teamit is pretty dirty, though, isn't it? if bacteria were hanging out here we would see them
- TeacherOne of my students would like to know if that debris hurts the fly's eyes.
Bugscope Teamno they probably don't even realize it's there. They also can't blink it away, but they do rub their forearms on their eyes to help clean them. You've probably seen that action when they land
- 11:16 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can click to get the 'scope to drive to other presets if you would like
- Bugscope Teamit's me (Scot) playing with the 'scope while we're talking
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamisn't this cool?
- TeacherIs he holding something in his mouth?
Bugscope Teamit's a little stick
- Bugscope Teamsee her wraparound eyes?
- Bugscope Teamthey both have a lot of ommatidia that you wouldn't want to have to count!
- 11:21 am
- TeacherHow are the wasps eyes similar to a fly's eyes?
Bugscope Teamthey are very similar. female fly eyes are often far apart whereas those of males are often close together and almost touching, but with wasps, I believe most of the ones we see are females, and of course they're not flies but wasps.
- Bugscope Teamwasps and flies both have the two big compound eyes (we see one of now) as well as three ocelli -- or simple eyes -- on the back of the head
- Bugscope Teamthe bump we see now at the back of the head is an ocellus
- Bugscope Teamand there are two more we cannot see now
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli are light-sensitive but may not collect images; they help the fly or wasp or bee maintain its orientation with respect to the sun
- TeacherIs antenna jointed? Is it retractable?
Bugscope Teamthey are jointed, like an elbow
- 11:26 am
- TeacherThis ant is upside down right?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamthese ants are so tiny I'm just glad I didn't squish it trying to put it on the stub
- Bugscope Teamants often look like they have another insect in their mouth. it's because we see those long palps that look like legs, which in a way they are
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the scorpion's tiny claws
- TeacherThe mouth area on the ant looked really complicated.
Bugscope Teamyes it is -- it is really busy with four palps sticking out of it
- Bugscope Teamthe palps are mouthparts that help the ant manipulate food and also taste it
- TeacherWe thinks this looks like human skin.
- Bugscope Teamit looks like skin but it is hardened, kind of like your fingernails
- Bugscope Teamour skin would look similar, with all the flakiness to it
- Bugscope Teaminsects and comparable arthropods like scorpions have an exoskeleton, kind of a shell around them, kind of like armor
- 11:32 am
- Bugscope Teambecause they have a shell around them, and it is hardened, they need to have those tiny setae stick through that shell so they can sense the environment around them
- Bugscope Teamthe setae, like the little bristle-like ones we see now, reach inside the cuticle (what the shell is sometimes called) and connect with nerve endings within
- Bugscope Teamthese setae are fluted, like Roman columns
- Bugscope Teamthe fluting makes they strong and more rigid
- Bugscope Teamsee the micron bar at the lower left of the screen?
- Bugscope Teamit reads 2 microns, or micrometers
- Bugscope Teama normal rod-shaped bacterium is about 2 microns (micrometers) long
- TeacherIncredible.
- Bugscope Teama micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter and a millionth of a meter
- 11:37 am
- Bugscope Teamwhen we were looking at the brochosomes, we are on the nano scale, as we had said, and they are perhaps 350 billionths of a meter in diameter
- Bugscope Team350 nanometers
- TeacherOr another dead friendly centipede?
- TeacherIs this our friendly centipede?
Bugscope Teamyes but it was very long so I had to cut it in half
- Bugscope Teamlooks kind of like Bugs Bunny
- Bugscope Teamit seems to have puked on itself when it died because there is some dried goop covering its moutparts
- Teacherlovely.
- Bugscope Teamthe fangs are right in front of us but as Cate said they are covered in goop
- Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope Teambut we are sorry not to have a better view for you
- TeacherThis is really cool none the less. You can't stop centipede vomit.
- Bugscope Teamcentipedes are kind of like spiders in that they often inject venom into their prey. the venom dissolves the inside of the prey, and the centipede sucks it all back up like a milkshake, like a spider does
- Bugscope Teamtalk about a busy mouth, here we are
- TeacherYou aren't kidding!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the scorpion has little forked fangs
- Bugscope Teamthat is what those sharp things are -- the fangs
- 11:43 am
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae we see here are likely chemosensory, so the scorpion can taste its food
- Bugscope Teamthe scorpion may hold its prey with its fangs and then sting with its tail
- Teacherhaha--either one...both are abundant here.
- TeacherWe think this earwig looks like a cactus...you don't have them there do you?
Bugscope Teamcacti or earwigs?
Bugscope TeamIn have prickly pear cactus in the front yard, but they don't like the wintertime much
- Bugscope TeamOops I meant to say "I have..."
- Bugscope Teamwe don't naturally have cacti, just what people buy, but we do have a lot of earwigs.
- Bugscope Teamwe don't have large cacti here
- Teacher:)
- 11:48 am
- Bugscope Teamearwigs often have mites living on them, as we saw
- Bugscope Teamstinger!
- Bugscope Teamthis is kind of blunt, which means it hurts more when it punches into your skin
- TeacherDoesn't look so sharp.
- Bugscope Teamand also, it does not have hooklike edges that would make it stick into your skin. meaning that it can sting repeatedly
- TeacherLooks like marble or blood vessels. Ouch with the repeated stinging.
- Bugscope Teamwe think what we are seeing here is a lot of juju like what the centipede puked up
- Teacheroh my.
- Bugscope Teamit's dried on venom, perhaps, that leaked down the stinger
- Bugscope Teamit forms a film
- Bugscope Teamwasp venom isn't as potent as bee venom, but because they can sting multiple times it evens out in the end
- Bugscope Teamcercopods!
- TeacherWe don't know what this is.
- 11:53 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is the pincer tail
- Bugscope Teamof the earwig
- Bugscope Teamthe cercopods of a male earwig are more bowed
- TeacherOh! Those we know...we just don't know the fancy bug language. :)
- Bugscope Teamearwigs are known for caring for their young
- Teacherthat is sweet.
- TeacherDo you know what this is?
- Bugscope Teamit could be a scale that is very dirty
- Bugscope Teamyou found something we do not recognize
- Bugscope Teamcerco or cerca means in Latin to fence or to close in on something, and pod means foot
- TeacherHoly crow. This is cool.
- Bugscope Teamso a cercopod could be a foot-like appendage that pinches. at least in this case it seems to work...
- TeacherWe are kind of scientists like that. :D
Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- 11:59 am
- Bugscope Teamwe like it when Bugscope participants find things we had not already seen
- Bugscope Teamthis is something we'd seen, but we don't know what these pits do
- Bugscope Teamwe think, maybe, that they are chemosensory pits
- Bugscope Teamwow good job focussing!
- Bugscope Teammosquito ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamommatidia are what the individual facets of the compound eye are called
- TeacherWe feel like we could do a pretty good job picking out ommatidia in a line up now.
- Bugscope Teamthese are shriveled, at bit, from when the mosquito was alive
- Bugscope Teamthey would normally be a lot rounder than this, but they shrunk a little after they died
- 12:04 pm
- TeacherThey look surprisingly soft.
- Bugscope Teamoh look! the focus got better!
- Bugscope Teamthis is hard to focus remotely
- TeacherAmaaaaaaaaazing.
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use the microscope like this, for Bugscope, we have a slight disadvantage in looking at things at high magnification
- Bugscope Teambut it looks pretty good at more than 40,000x!
- TeacherWe have a new appreciation for bugs. :)
- Bugscope Teambe sure to check out the mosquito's mouthparts
- Bugscope Teambut are still really gross right?
- Bugscope Teamyou now know that they are a lot hairier than they seem
- Teacherthey will always be gross...we will just appreciate them more.
Bugscope Teamthis allows you to see just how gross they are
- Teacherugh.
- Bugscope Teamthere we go
- Bugscope Teamstingers sometimes look like this and not the like the blunt one you saw
- 12:09 pm
- Bugscope Teamtwo of the stylets that cut into your skin so the mosquito can drink your blood and then lay eggs
- Bugscope Teamfemale mosquitoes are the ones that bite, and thye need blood in order to get enough protein to successfully lay their eggs
- Bugscope Teamso they are ravenous just because they really really want to produce baby mosquitoes.
- Teacherdelightful. What is the silly string looking stuff around the stylets?
Bugscope Teamthat is part of the sheath that the fascicle -- the bundle of stylets and the siphon tube -- is protected with
- Bugscope Teamit might have little tastebud hairs on it
- Bugscope Teamsome of those setae may be chemosensory -- as Cate just said
- TeacherTo better enjoy our blood.
- Bugscope Teamsome people are clearly more tasty than others
- 12:14 pm
- TeacherWe have really enjoyed this! Thank you so very much for the time and energy you put into making this a wonderful experience for our class!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamwe are glad you all had a good time and we hope to see you again
- TeacherWe will be doing this again. You guys are the best!!
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-071
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teambe sure to apply soon --- we are getting so busy we are booked into next year
- Bugscope Teambelow I had copied a link to your member page
- TeacherThank you!
- Bugscope TeamSave us some more scorpions and centipedes!
