Connected on 2012-03-20 11:45:00
from Orange, California, United States
- 11:16 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down and we are about ready to start on presets
- 11:21 am
- 11:27 am
- 11:34 am
- 11:39 am
- 11:46 am
- 11:53 am
- Bugscope Teamhi!
- TeacherHi my name is Sara
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- TeacherThank you
- Bugscope TeamSara you have control of the microscope now.
- 11:58 am
- Bugscope Teamso you can, for example, use the controls above the image to change the mag, etc.
- Bugscope Teamyou can also click on the blue/white lefthand arrow to bring the lefthand screen to the center.
- Bugscope Teamha of course you already have it working...
- Bugscope Teamthis is an ant's claw, reaching out toward us
- TeacherWhat our we looking at
Bugscope Teamthe 2 bigger curved spikes are the claws
- Bugscope Teamthe ant has six legs, and each leg has a claw at the tip
- Bugscope Teamyou can see there are a lot of little spikes and those are all setae (pronounced see-tee), which are basically bug hairs
- Bugscope Teaminsects have a head; a thorax, which all of the legs are attached to; six legs; an abdomen; and two antennae.
- Teacherwhat do they use their claws for
Bugscope Teamkind of the same things we use our hands for -- to grasp things
- Bugscope Teambetween the claws are fine setae, some of which are sticky and help the ant cling to smooth surfaces
- 12:04 pm
- TeacherIs there a purpose for the hair
Bugscope Teaminsect exoskeletons aren't sensitive like our skins are, so they need those hairs for feedback about their surroundings. Like when they are touching something. They are similar to cat whiskers
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs (setae) can be mechano (touch) sensory, chemo (smell or scent) sensory, and/or thermo (temperature) sensory, among other properties.
- Teacherdo they use there claws for protection or war
Bugscope Teamsome insects use them to help wrestle other insects
- TeacherIs the flies claw sticky
Bugscope Teamthe individual setae, which we can see now, on those two split pads toward the bottom of the screen, are sticky
- 12:10 pm
- Bugscope Teama pad with sticky 'tenent' setae on it is called the 'pulvillus'
- TeacherWhat do you think it looks simaler to
Bugscope Teamin this case the pads we see look like tropical flowers, like ginger
- TeacherWhat parts of the flie helps them move away from a flie swater
Bugscope Teamtheir eyes see movement really fast. So fast that when a human moves looks like slow motion. They also have special hairs that can sense changes in wind direction, so they probably take a cue from that to move
- TeacherDo the flies claws help in the same way as ant claws
Bugscope Teamyes they do!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the hatch where the larva of the jumping bean moth comes in and eventually leaves
- 12:17 pm
- TeacherWhat inside of the hatch
Bugscope Teamif you take the magnification down you will see that this is a trapdoor built into the jumping bean
- Bugscope Teamthere, we did it
- Bugscope Teamthere's nothing behind it right now, because the moth already emerged
- Bugscope Teamthat is where we were looking
- Bugscope Teamthis was an exceptionally neat moth, and it closed the door behind it when it left
- TeacherWhy is the insect called Mexican Jumping Bean
- Bugscope Teamone reason there are scales all over is because the moth struggled a bit to get out
- 12:22 pm
- Bugscope Teamscales also function like feathers do on a bird's wing, giving it lift in the air; they also form the colors we see on the wings
- TeacherWhy do the moths have scales
Bugscope Teammoths, butterflies, mosquitoes, and silverfish have scales, and one thing that scales do for them is protect them when they fly or run into spider webs. the scales get stuck to the web and come off easily, allowing the insect to escape
Bugscope Teamanother thing scales do is give the butterflies/moths coloring. In a lot of cases that coloring is a defensive mechanism. It could give the wings an appearance of eyes or could give them a bright coloring to warn off other creatures
- TeacherWhat is the crack in the hatch
Bugscope Teamwe might have broken it ourselves when we put the bean down on the stub
- TeacherWhat is this
Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a moth. The curly thing is the proboscis, which it uses to drink from like a straw. The 2 big round parts are the compound eyes.
- 12:28 pm
- Bugscope Teammost moths drink from plants, but there is a moth that drinks blood!
- Bugscope Teamscales are actually modified setae (hairs) as well; the moth is covered with them
- Bugscope Teamit also has a bit of a mohawk
Bugscope Teamthey are surprisingly stylish
- TeacherWhat are compound eyes
Bugscope Teamit means they are made up of many facets that each is like a lens that acquires an image
- Bugscope Teamwhen the moth wants to drink nectar from deep within a flower, it forces hemolymph (insect 'blood') into the proboscis, which makes it extend like a party favor on New Year's Eve
- Bugscope Teamwhen the moth was alive it did not have all of this fungus on its compound eye, nor all of those loose scales
- 12:33 pm
- Bugscope Teamto make the samples I put the insects on an aluminum disk that is covered in carbon tape. The tape helps ground any charge and also help the insects stick on. The holes around the insect are from the tape
- Teacherwhat is the hole in the back
Bugscope Teamthat is at the tip of the abdomen, where it excretes waste, called 'frass'
- Teacherwhy is it so ugly
Bugscope Teamit is naturally ugly, in part; also it is dry and a bit shriveled; also its proboscis is broken
- 12:38 pm
- Bugscope Teamhello CNote!
- TeacherHow big is it i9n real life
- Bugscope Teamsee where the scale bar says 500 microns? that is half a millimeter
- Bugscope Teamit's super tiny
- Bugscope Teamit is only about 2 millimeters long
- TeacherHow long can a bed bug last
Bugscope Teamthey can live for about a year and can lay up to 12 eggs per day
- Bugscope Teambedbugs can go without eating for months
- 12:43 pm
- TeacherHow come it looks like a square when it is under the microscope\
- Bugscope Teamthis is salt from wendy's restaurant
- Bugscope Teami was telling Scot earlier that it looked like the cube from the Portal video game
- Teacherwhat is the black lines
Bugscope Teambehind the cube? That is another feature of the carbon tape
- TeacherWhy are there tiny cubes on the salt
Bugscope Teamcrystals of sodium chloride (table salt) form cubes. with this kind of salt, the cube forming has been disrupted by (we think) another chemical that is added to keep the salt from clumping. but the sodium chloride still forms tiny cubes. it's really kind of cool.
- Bugscope Teamthe moth eye has fungus on it
- 12:48 pm
- Bugscope Teamwhen things die, fungus and bacteria come from the air, from spores in the air, and settle on the dead things, feeding off of them and making them decay quickly
- TeacherWhy does it have so many eyes on its eye
Bugscope TeamThe better to see you with! Flying insects tend to have more facets so they can get a more detailed view around them. They also allow them to see almost 360 degrees around
- TeacherHow do the eyes get fungus on them
Bugscope Teamonce the insect dies, fungal spores land on it and fungus starts growing
- TeacherHow many sets of eyes does it have
Bugscope Teamit has 2 big compound eyes but probably thousands of ommatidia (facets)
- Bugscope Teammoths also have three 'simple' eyes called ocelli on the tops of their heads
- 12:55 pm
- Bugscope Teambecause they are formed from many facets, and the facets are oriented to many directions, compound eyes are very sensitive to movement -- as the visual field changes they can pick up on that very quickly. so it is good to have lots of lenses like that.
- TeacherIf they only have one set ofeyes would they survive better
Bugscope Teamthe very big compound eyes help them. So the more facets they have the better they can survive, especially for flying insects. Regular ants that live in the ground have much smaller eyes, but they depend on their antennae for their information
- TeacherHoow much does the electron microscope cost
Bugscope TeamThe scanning electron microscope you are using right now cost $600,000 in 1999.
- TeacherWhat would you need to become a sciencetest to study bugs
Bugscope Teamif you started out with a degree in biology, you could easily begin to specialize in college; later, in graduate school, you could study insects almost exclusively.
- TeacherCan youy zoom in all the way
- TeacherHow many years of schooling did it take to do mthis
Bugscope Teamyou can do it with a college degree, and really it is not hard; we've done it for more than a few years now
- Bugscope Teamthe main part of the microscope is about as big as a fridge
- TeacherWhat does the electron microscope look l;ike\
Bugscope Teamit looks kind of like a desk with a computer on it, with electronics boxes and also a separate square table with the column on it that is about 6 feet high
- 1:00 pm
- Bugscope Teamhttp://itg.beckman.illinois.edu/microscopy_suite/equipment/images/esem1.gif is a picture
- Bugscope Teamyou can also access all the chat and images from today by going to your member page
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that those fine features of one ommatidium are less than 500 nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2012-012
- TeacherThank you this was a great expirence., Thanks for your time we really appricate it. I wish we could do this more often From Mrs. Hawkins class
Bugscope Teamsee you next year! please apply soon for next year, because we want to see you again and we have been busy lately.
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamCNote please let us know if you have any questions. We have a few minutes before we need to shut the 'scope down.
- 1:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamalright we are shutting down...
- Bugscope TeamThank you for connecting with us today!
