Connected on 2012-04-02 10:00:00
from York, Pennsylvania, United States
- 8:59 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- 9:26 am
- Bugscope TeamHello ZB!
- Bugscope Teamwe are waiting for the vacuum to get just a bit better before we start making presets for today's session.
- Bugscope Teamwhere are you from?
- Bugscope TeamOh and I should have said Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamHello ZB!
- GuestHello.
- Bugscope Teamso presently you have a view of the vacuum chamber, where the bugs are, until we can turn the electron beam on.
- GuestI'm from Pennsylvania.
Bugscope TeamCool!
- Bugscope Teamin a few minutes we should be able to start
- Bugscope Teamwe'll be making adjustments to the 'scope, briefly, and then start finding interesting places on the stub for today's school
- Bugscope Teamare you with the school in York?
- Bugscope TeamSouthwest York?
- 9:34 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning SWYH!
- TeacherHello! We are the homeschool group from York Coutny PA.
- TeacherHi Zoe! Zoe is signing on as our guest today from another location.
- Bugscope Teamwe are connecting with you officially at 11 your time, correct?
- Bugscope Teamright now we are just starting to make the presets for your session. it took the vacuum a bit long to pump down
- TeacherYes--11am
Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- 9:40 am
- 9:46 am
- 9:51 am
- TeacherDid our bugs arrive in time to be prepared for use today?
Bugscope TeamI don't have them, I'm sorry.
- TeacherOk.
- Bugscope TeamI hope you like what we have today.
- 9:57 am
- TeacherI'm sure it will be great.
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll anytime now
- 10:02 am
- TeacherSO are we!
- Bugscope Teammoth and butterfly scales are notoriously difficult to keep from charging up with electrons
- Bugscope Teamnote that you have the ability to focus, which is up or down
- Bugscope Teambut since I am sitting at the SEM, I can help sometimes
- Bugscope Teamyou're at 100,000x, and it is not always easy to find things to look at, at super high mag like this
- TeacherYes, a little help with focus would be good, my computer seems a little slow.
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the latticework in an individual wing scale
- Bugscope Teamscales produce the colors we see on butterfly and moth wings
- 10:07 am
- Bugscope Teamthe colors can be both structural and pigmented
- Bugscope Teamthis is really too high to see anything
- Bugscope Teamwhen we use the scanning electron microscope for Bugscope we have the specimens at a long working distance so you can go to reasonably high mag but also see all or most of a particular specimen
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges we see now are about 2 micrometers apart, the length of many bacilli -- rod-shaped bacteria
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges interfere with the wavelengths of visible light and produce structural colors
- Bugscope Teamyou can select from any of the presets on the left, if you wish
- TeacherHow many scales are on a butterfly wing?
Bugscope Team10's to 100's of thousands
- Bugscope Teamand we are looking at one, up close; this is the powder that falls from a butterfly's wing as you stroke it
- Bugscope Teamwe do not see pigment granules here; if they were here they would be in those interstices
- TeacherHow big is one scale?
Bugscope Teamlet'
- Bugscope Teamoops
- 10:12 am
- Bugscope Teamlet's take the mag down and see how big a scale is
- Bugscope Teamthese are about 50 microns (micrometers) wide and perhaps 200 to 250 microns long.
- Bugscope Teamsee how they glow?
- Bugscope Teamthat is because they are loose, and that makes them hard to image. but that looseness is what helps save the life of the insect when it flies into a spiderweb
- Teacherhow do they glow?
Bugscope Teamthey are not conductive, and even though we have coated them with gold-palladium, they charge up with electrons
- Teacherdo scales grow back after they come off?
Bugscope Teamno. insects with wings are adults, and they do not molt or grow anymore.
- Bugscope Teamif an insect or arthropod goes through a number of molts, it can recover broken limbs, but once as insect has wings, that is it
- Teacherso as long as the butterfly doesn't leave too many scales on the spiderweb--it has enough others left to be ok?
Bugscope Teamexactly!
- Bugscope Teammosquitoes have scales as well, and silverfish
- 10:17 am
- Bugscope Teamfew insects, relatively, have scales
- Bugscope Teamthis is the base of the proboscis, and it is torn a bit
- Bugscope Teamthe female mosquitoes, like this, are the ones that bite; they require a blood meal in order to be able to successfully lay their eggs
- Bugscope Teamthis actually looks like it was chewed upon by mites
- Bugscope Teamsee the mold spores?
- Bugscope Teamalso, a piece of a scale
- Bugscope Teammold spores resemble pollen but are smaller and usually have smaller spines or bumps
- Teacherwhat do mosquitos eat when they aren't having a blood meal?
Bugscope Teamnectar from flowers, or nothing
- Bugscope Teamthe males may or may not eat, but if they eat, it is nectar
- Teacherso mosquitos are pollinators?
Bugscope TeamI am not sure if they are considered pollinators, but certainly they could be...
- Bugscope Teamwe don't find them covered with pollen
- Teacherdo the larva eat?
Bugscope Teamyes, in the water
- 10:23 am
- Teacherhow do you tell the difference between male and female mosquitos?
Bugscope Teammale mosquitos have big frilly antennae, while the female antennae are much more simple
- Teacherwhy do mosquito bites itch?
Bugscope Teamwe have a reaction to the saliva that is injected to help thin our blood so it doesn't clot
- Bugscope Teamthese are ommatidia -- the eye facets
- Bugscope Teamthey shrivel after the mosquitoes die
- Bugscope Teamnormally they are pumped up, round, like basketballs
- Bugscope Teamsee the antennae?
- TeacherHow many eye facets are on one eye?
Bugscope TeamI think only several hundred. Some wasps can have 17,000 ommatidia per compound eye.
- TeacherZB are you still with us?
- Bugscope Teamwe can tell this is a female because she has simple antennae
- GuestYeah. This is really interesting.
- 10:29 am
- Teacherdo wasps see 17,000 images or does it all combine into one image in their brain?
Bugscope Teamit seems to be a combination, like watching a mosaic of images that constantly moves
- Teacherdo they have brains?
Bugscope Teamthey have brains that are proportional to their size
- Bugscope Teamhaving compound eyes give insects much better peripheral vision, of course, and it also allows them to perceive motion much more quickly than we do
- Bugscope Teamthis is the proboscis, which is slit, like a sheath, for the fascicle, which is what the bundle of biting parts is called
- Bugscope TeamIt may also have to do with breathing, because mosquitoes can detect CO2.
- Teacherhow do mosquitos choose who to bite? Some people get more bites than others
Bugscope Teamsome people taste better, or actually smell better
Bugscope Teamgenetics accounts for most of it. Scientists are trying to study what compounds attract mosquitos
- Bugscope Teampeople that produce excess uric acid tend to lure more mosquitos
- 10:34 am
- Teacherlady bugs like these, right?
Bugscope Teamyes, they can eat up to 50 a day!
- Teacherhow do mosquitos mates?
Bugscope Teamthey are said to mate in midair, and it takes perhaps 15 seconds. but there are a lot of species, and I'm sure there are exceptions. Some likely mate while they are not flying
- Bugscope Teamgood job driving!
- Bugscope Teamyou zeroed in on one of the compound eyes, of course. you can see that it has few ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamlooks like 75 to 100; I'm sure some graduate student has counted them
- TeacherAre compound eyes a trait of all insects?
Bugscope Teamno. some insects have simple eyes, or both compound and simple eyes (ocelli); some insects do not bother to have eyes, like termites and some ants
- TeacherWe are getting wiggly here. I'd like to turn control of the microscope over to ZB for the time being. Ok ZB?
- Bugscope Teamsome ants can see very well, and some just barely; ants, like many insects, communicate best using chemical signals
- TeacherYay for Anna, our driver! How many eye facets for aphids?
Bugscope Teamthere could be around 100 or so on each eye
- TeacherDo you have a tick we can see?
Bugscope Teamno ticks today
- 10:39 am
- TeacherWould spiders have both types of eyes?
Bugscope Teamspiders have what look like simple eyes to us, but one of our entomologist friends told me this weekend that those eight eyes can vary greatly in their capabilities
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders can see very well, but many cannot and rely more on their ability to sense vibration
- Bugscope TeamZB you have control of the microscope
- Bugscope Teamthis is a silverfish
- TeacherSo if spiders can see very well, what is the need for 8 or more eyes?
Bugscope Teamsince they don't have big bulbous compound eyes that can see almost 360 degrees around them, the 8 eyes probably help to do the same function. I find they are usually placed on the head in a circular way
- Bugscope Teamthe spiders with weaker eyesight probably get a lot of directional information from the shadows they see
- 10:45 am
- Bugscope Teambacteria!
- Bugscope Teamthis is pretty cool
- Bugscope Teamthey're on scales on the silverfish's head
- Bugscope Teamrare that they look so good
- TeacherDo the scales on the silverfish act the same way that they do on a butterfly wing?
Bugscope Teamin many ways they do; note of course that they reflect silver light
- Bugscope Teamand yes, they protect the silverfish from spider webs
- Bugscope Teamas far as we've seen they don't have pigment granules like butterfly scales tend to have
- Bugscope Teamit has been said that scales without holes through them represent a more primitive state
- Bugscope Teamscales are modified setae
- Bugscope Teamsetae are what the hairs are that we've been seeing
- TeacherSo the silver colour we see on silverfish is just based on the light that reflects off of their scales?
Bugscope TeamI believe that is true. The silver comes from the spacing of the ridges we are seeing now.
- 10:50 am
- Bugscope Teamlike the way a record, which is black, usually, reflects colored light from its grooves
- Bugscope Teamsetae are what insects and similar arthropods use to sense touch, wind, smell, hot/cold...
- TeacherWhat are we looking at now?
Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the silverfish
- Bugscope Teamthe setae on here are really pretty
- Bugscope Teamand now we see on the left, the base of one of the antennae
- Bugscope Teamscales and setae, and microsetae can also help an insect with thermoregulation
- TeacherWhat sort of eyes do silverfish have?
Bugscope Teamthey have very few facets on the side of the head
- Bugscope Teamthey have compound eyes but they are likely not super good
- Bugscope TeamZB is doing a very good job driving as well
- TeacherYay ZB!
- GuestThanks. :) Sorry I took so long to notice that I could control it.
- Bugscope TeamI will take you to the eyes if you would like
- TeacherI'd like that :)
- GuestSure.
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae, or spines, or bristles, are for proprioception
- 10:56 am
- TeacherProprioception?
Bugscope Teamself sensing -- so that you know if your limb is extended, or overextended, for example
- Bugscope Teamwhoa there are bacteria on the eye
- TeacherSo how many facets do silverfish have?
- Bugscope Teambacteria can form biofilms, which is what makes them dangerous because they can be bad bacteria and also hard to wash off of food
- TeacherOn their eyes that is...
Bugscope Teamlooks like around 9-10
- Bugscope Teamwasps and many other flying insects, bees etc., have what are called ocelli on the tops of their heads. ocelli are simple eyes that usually come in threes, and they (moths have them too) help the insect keep its orientation with respect to the sun, or the moon
- Bugscope Teamthese bacteria do not have a biofilm protecting them
- Bugscope Teambiofilms are self produced environments that the bacteria can swim around in
- 11:01 am
- Bugscope TeamI had to help someone with the transmisssion electron microscope (TEM) for a sec.
- Bugscope Teamsilverfish are usually on my list of bugs to squish instantly without thinking when i see them in my house, along with centipedes
- Bugscope Teamlet's look at the wasp, when you are ready
- Bugscope Teamwhen you drive, you can click on any of the presets on the lefthand screen
- 11:06 am
- TeacherHave you seen Microcosmos?
Bugscope TeamI haven't.
- Bugscope Teami think I might have in high school
- Bugscope TeamI just put the trailer up.
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- TeacherSomeof us watched it yesterday to get in the mood for Bugscope. It is a fabulous documentary available on Netflix. It isn't narrated, you are just watching bugs close-up. Very, very good.
- Bugscope Teamwasps are related to ants and to bees
- Bugscope Teamthe trailer I have on is in French
- Bugscope Teamsee how the wasp has two wings on each side?
- TeacherYes, it's a French film
- Bugscope Teamwasps and bees, among some other flying insects, have four wings
- Bugscope Teamone thing that does is help them fold their wings when they go into the hive
- Bugscope Teamexcept for the queen ant, who can fly until she lands back in the nest, having been fertilized, and her attendants pull her wings off
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the wing has a hole I must have poked into it
- Bugscope Teamand it has tiny setae called microsetae
- 11:11 am
- Bugscope Teamanyway, when wasps and bees fly, they connect their fore- and hindwings
- Bugscope Teamso even where we are now we can see the hamuli that use to connect their wings
- Bugscope Teamyou can see spiracles now as well
- Bugscope Teamthis is the thorax, mostly
- Bugscope Teamlimbs are attached to the thorax
- Bugscope Teamthe wasp is making gang signs, but we don
- Bugscope Teamdon't know what they mean
- Teachersuch amazing detail
- Bugscope Teamthis is the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamit has lots of microsetae on it that help it reflect light as well as help with thermoregulation -- sometimes the same thing
- Bugscope Teamthese setae do not extend through the cuticle -- through the chitin -- like the large setae we see that are connected to nerves on the inside of the body
- 11:16 am
- Bugscope Teamthe spiracles are breathing pores
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see a number of claws
- Bugscope Teambetween the claws are pads, called pulvilli, that have lots of setae on them, called tenent setae, that help the wasp walk on vertical surfaces
- Bugscope Teamthis is beautiful
- Bugscope Teamthose central spines help the wasp sense when it is grasping something
- Bugscope Teamthe pulvillus is in the middle. it is kind of heart shaped right now
- Bugscope Teamthe pulvillus is a little sticky pad full of little hairs
- 11:21 am
- Bugscope Teamthis wasp likely has 5000 to 7000 ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamit also has ocelli, but we do not see them
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia are a bit shriveled since the wasp died
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the spiracles through which the wasp breathes
- 11:27 am
- Bugscope Teamall of the images you see are collected onto your member page
- Bugscope Teamas well as the chat text
- Bugscope Teamso you can see it all later
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-197
- TeacherThank you!
- TeacherWe've lost our young kids here. Do you have anything else ZB?
- GuestNope. Thanks for inviting me!
- Bugscope Teamhey that happens with young kids.
- Bugscope Teamwe can let you go anytime you wish
- Bugscope Teamof course
- TeacherThis was great. We are making a day of it. We started with go-fish played with insect flashcards. Next we will make scoops of ice cream look like bugs by decorating with candy. :)
Bugscope Teamhaha and then eat them?
- TeacherHope you get to see Microcosmos. IT's the perfect compliment to the bugscope program!
- Bugscope Teamwe'll check it out
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- TeacherThanks for all the great info. THis was a fabulous experience for everydbody!
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!
- TeacherBye!
- GuestThis was great. Bye!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope TeamBye ZB!
