Connected on 2011-12-21 09:15:00
from Bergen, New Jersey, United States
- 7:39 am
- Bugscope TeamGood morning, Joyce!
- Bugscope Teamwe are coating the sample right now and will have it in the 'scope in a few minutes
- 7:45 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is now in the 'scope and pumping down
- Bugscope Teamvacuum is almost ready to start setup
- 7:56 am
- 8:01 am
- 8:07 am
- 8:13 am
- 8:18 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the wasp's stinger should be...
- 8:24 am
- 8:30 am
- Bugscope TeamBugday we are done making presets, and you may drive around, test things out, whenever you wish.
- 8:35 am
- Bugscope Teambe sure to let us know if you have any problems
- 8:44 am
- 9:13 am
- 9:22 am
- Bugscope Teamone thing that is happening that should not be happening is that we have two teacher logins with control of the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamhello
- Teacherhi
- GuestHi there!
- Bugscope TeamCynthia please let us know when you have questions.
- Bugscope TeamThis is a true bug (Hemipteran) you sent.
- 9:27 am
- TeacherWe are setting up still
Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- Bugscope TeamI just moved us to the wasp head...
- Bugscope Teambut you have, when you get a chance, the option of choosing from any of the presets on the lefthand screen, reachable by clicking on the lefthand arrow.
- Bugscope Teamyou can also change mag, click on the screen to center a feature (at low mag that may be used to drive in a particular direction), change contrast and brightness, and focus
- Bugscope Teamso this, now, is the head of a wasp
- TeacherI'm so sorry. We're having trouble getting our projector working. We should be up momentarily. The students are all here and ready.
Bugscope Teamno problem at all. it is of course calm and quiet here...
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the wasp's antennae; its compound eyes; its mandibles, which open like gates, left and right....
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see that the wasp is very 'hairy'\
- 9:33 am
- TeacherThe students are wondering the price of the electron microscope.
- Bugscope Teamthis one cost about $600,000 in 1998.
- Bugscope Teamit is pretty fancy; it has its own room, its own chilled water, its own power, air, nitrogen, etc.
- TeacherWow! What is its power or magnification?
Bugscope Teamit can go as high as about 800,000x but for research-quality imaging only about 200,000x.
- Bugscope Teamit has 2-nanometer (2 billionths of a meter) resolution
- TeacherWhat is the silver stuff you put on the bugs?
Bugscope Teamwe coat them with a very thin layer of gold-palladium using a sputter coater -- the coating is about 20 nm thick.
- Bugscope Teamthe coating looks sliver because palladium is silver
- Bugscope Teamusing the sputter coater is pretty cool -- when we turn on the current the argon in the chamber glows purple
- 9:38 am
- Bugscope Teamjust like any other inert gas like neon, freon, xenon...
- Bugscope Teamthe current turns the gas into a plasma that glows but also erodes the gold-palladium 'target' so that gold and palladium rain all over whatever is inside the chamber
- Bugscope Teamyou may drive if you wish, like I am.
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the right compound eye a bit better, and we see tiny hairs, called setae, and we see that one of the antennae is covering part of the eye
- Bugscope Teamthe antenna is connected to the head with a ball-and-socket joint, like our hips are attached to the pelvis
- Bugscope Teamantennae are very important to insects, especially ants, which do not usually have very good eyes
- 9:43 am
- TeacherCan we see the stinger?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that it is a few millimeters long
- TeacherHow much venom is in the stinger?
Bugscope Teamit depends on the wasp. this is actually a cicada killer wasp, so it has a lot.
- Bugscope Teamstingers are modified ovipositors
- TeacherCan we see another insect?
- Bugscope Teamovipositors are used to lay eggs as well
- TeacherIs that its mouth?
- Bugscope Teamthis is not an insect, though, but I was thinking you would not mind
- 9:48 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a centipede, and yes that is its mouth
- Bugscope Teamsee its eyes?
- Bugscope Teamthey look like little bumps, just above the antennae that go left and right
- TeacherAre the eyes the circles above the antenae?
Bugscope Teamyes they are!
- TeacherAre they compound eyes?
- Bugscope Teamthey are compound eyes as well, but they have only 12 or 15 facets, whereas those of a large wasp can have as many as 17,000 facets, which are also called ommatidia
- TeacherCould we look at the legs?
Bugscope Teamyes let's go down and look at them
- TeacherDo they use the hairs to find their food?
Bugscope Teamsome of the things that look like hairs are chemosensory, meaning that they can smell with them and find food that way
- Bugscope Teamcentipedes are kind of scary
- TeacherIt looks like a lobster!
Bugscope Teamhaha yes it does!
- Bugscope Teamsome of the lower legs have little vents on them that the centipede can let fluids come out of
- 9:54 am
- TeacherWhat are those points at the end of its legs?
Bugscope Teamthose are the tips of its feet
- TeacherAlso, is there a name for the ridges along the bottom of its body?
Bugscope Teamthey're body segments
- TeacherWhy do they need fluids to come out of their legs? Yuck!
Bugscope Teamthey can issue smelly chemicals to deter things like ants and other predators
- TeacherAha! Very useful.
Bugscope Teammany insects and comparable arthropods need to have some kind of protection specifially against ants
- TeacherAre those vents for breathing?
Bugscope Teamthat is where the chemical fluids come out
- Bugscope Teambut they do look much like spiracles, which are used for breathing
- Bugscope Teammany of the tiny hairs or spines we see are sensory
- TeacherWow!
- 9:59 am
- TeacherCan we see a different bug?
Bugscope Teamthis is a millipede
- Bugscope Teamthis is its head
- TeacherWhat do millipedes eat? Do they have teeth?
Bugscope TeamI think they eat mostly plant material
- Bugscope Teammillipedes are indeed herbivorous
- TeacherWhere are the eyes?
Bugscope Teamyou can see them now, above the ball and socket of the antenna
- TeacherYes, the students spotted them pretty quickly!
- TeacherAre they related to the centipede?
Bugscope Teamthey are distantly related to centipedes
- TeacherThere was a bug we sent in with a sticky note asking what type of bug it was. Do you know which it was and what type of bug it is?
- 10:05 am
- TeacherDoes the cicada killer actually kill cicadas? Can it sting us?
Bugscope Teamit can sting and carry cicadas away to lay eggs in it, I believe. they will sting people only defensively
- Bugscope Teamwe work with entomologists who study parasitic wasps, also called parasitoids, and they say that there is a parasitic wasp ready to lay eggs in every species of insect and every life stage of insect
- TeacherCan we see the wasp's body?
Bugscope Teamhere are its arms and legs
- Bugscope Teamand here is its abdomen
- Bugscope Teamon this wasp the sting is not visible
- Bugscope Teamall insects as adults have six legs, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen
- TeacherWhy do they curl up their legs like that? Is it just something that happens when they die?
Bugscope Teamyes it is the way the tendons inside the limbs tighten up when they die
- TeacherWhat's inside the abdomen?
Bugscope Teamthere is a venom gland, and the intestines, called malpighian tubules, and there are tracheae that carry oxygen to the organs
- 10:10 am
- TeacherDid you preset either the stinkbug or the praying mantis?
Bugscope Teamyes we did
- Bugscope Teamthe praying mantis's head is very dirty, and also very large for the SEM
- Bugscope Teamthis is the praying mantis's eye
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see that the head is very dirty
- TeacherDoes the eye stick out or protrude from its head?
Bugscope Teamyes it does!
- TeacherIt was found on the field; thus the dirt. Is there anything interesting we should see on the mantis?
Bugscope Teamthese are some odd fanlike setae that we found on the forelimbs, which are what the PM uses to catch its prey
- TeacherWhat are those things that look like feathers?
Bugscope Teamthey are setae, and it is a mystery to us just what they do -- certainly they are sensitive to wind currents
- TeacherAre they sticky?
Bugscope TeamI don't think so, not like tenent setae that flies and some beetles and wasps and bees have on the limbs
- Bugscope Teamthese are the raptorial forelimbs the PM uses to grasp its prey
- TeacherHow big are the legs?
Bugscope Teamthey are huge compared to the claws, for example -- a few centimeters
- 10:15 am
- TeacherThanks!
- Bugscope Teamwhen Cate was preparing this and putting it on the stub, one of the spines stuck through her glove
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- TeacherDid it hurt?
Bugscope TeamI think she was more surprised than hurt. They are very sharp.
- Bugscope Teamwe see something quite similar on ambush bugs, which are related to the stinkbug
- TeacherWe really enjoyed it. So sorry for the delay at the start from technological difficulties. The students are off to lunch now. Thanks again for everything!
- Bugscope Teamhey no problem
- Bugscope Teamyou can access this all later, from your home page. this is the stinkbug -- a true bug -- that you sent
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-172
- Bugscope Teamthe true bug is making gang signs with its claws, but we don't know what they mean
- Bugscope Teamsee you next time!
- 10:20 am
- Bugscope TeamBugday we have a faculty member coming in this morning with his kids, so we may use your sample to look around and show them the microscope. when that happens, as long as we are still logged in, those images will also be stored on your member page.
- Bugscope Teambrb
- 10:30 am
- TeacherThanks, guys Hope next year is smoother.
- 10:35 am
- 10:43 am
- 10:59 am
- 11:18 am