Connected on 2012-12-17 09:00:00
from Winnebago, Illinois, United States
- 7:47 am
- Bugscope Teamstarting setup for this morning's session
- Bugscope Teamsample is still coating
- 7:53 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is now in 'scope and pumping down
- 8:02 am
- Bugscope Teamwaiting for vacuum to get just a bit better
- Bugscope Teamone more tenth
- 8:09 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- Teacherlogin looks good, going to set up the Smartboard
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- 8:15 am
- 8:22 am
- 8:27 am
- 8:33 am
- 8:41 am
- 8:47 am
- Teacherhow are things on your end....we are just about ready
- 8:52 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready -- sorry I was looking something up about the sizes of cocci
- Bugscope TeamI think these are mold spores
- Bugscope Teamyou are welcome to start at any time
- Bugscope Teamlet us know when you have questions
- Teacherok
- Bugscope Teamthis is the claw of an ichneumon wasp
- Bugscope Teamits ovipositor is as long as its body
- Teacherthank you
- Bugscope Teamyou can actually see two claws, and in the middle is a pulvillus, which has tiny setae on it that help the wasp cling to surfacesae
- 8:57 am
- Bugscope Teamto the right, the thing with ridges is called an unguitractor
- Bugscope Teamthe unguitractor is a tendon that retracts and lengthens in order to close and open the claws
- Bugscope Teamthe bristles we see are mostly mechanosensory -- they help the wasp feel when it is touching something
- Teacherdoes it open up every time it lands
- Bugscope TeamI think it opens and closes much like our hands open and close -- at the will of the insect at the time
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any trouble driving
- Bugscope Teamthere are a number of presets for you to choose from on the lefthand screen
- Bugscope Teaminsects and comparable arthropods like spiders and shrimp do not have skin like we do
- Teacherwe are having trouble moving a new slide on
- Bugscope Teamthey have an exoskeleton instead
- Teacherthere we go
- Bugscope Teamsee if things work better now. sometimes we get stuck on one preset
- Bugscope Teamnot sure why
- 9:02 am
- Teacherwe got it thank you
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving an scanning electron microscope from your classroom; what you see are insects that have been stuck to a metal disc and coated with gold-palladium; everything is in a vacuum chamber
- Bugscope Teama scanning electron microscope (SEM), that is
- Teacherwhat are the hair called thats on his eyes
- Bugscope Teambecause I am sitting at the controls of the instrument, I can help with focus from here
- Bugscope Teamthis is the housefly
- Bugscope Teamone of its compound eyes is taking up most of the view here; to the right is the vestiture, which is the 'dressing' on the front of the head
- Bugscope Teamthe individual facets of the eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamsome large wasps and some moths may have as many as 17,000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Bugscope Teamthat is in addition to the ocelli, which are 'simple' eyes. there are three of those on top of the head
- Bugscope Teamwe can see dirt, debris, what looks like a web, and at least one mold spore here
- 9:08 am
- Teacherdoes the flies have pipuls
Bugscope Teamthey don't have pupils, but each individual ommatidium collects a whole image, like a lens
- Bugscope Teamyou can see how the stinger cuts into your skin
- Bugscope Teamthose barbs can make it hard to get out, but yellowjackets can sting repeatedly
- Teacherwhat are the ridges
Bugscope Teamthey're like the teeth of a saw blade; they help the stinger cut into whatever the yellowjacket wants to sting
- Teacherand what is the thing in the middle and what is the stuff on the sides
Bugscope Teamthere is debris, including dried fluid, perhaps dried venom, in the middle, and you can also see some setae, forming a kind of V shape; it's just debris, like dirt
- Bugscope Teamsetae are what we call the things that look like hairs
- Bugscope Teamsetae, bristles, spines, trichae, microsetae, microtrichae
- 9:13 am
- Bugscope Teambecause insects have an exoskeleton instead of skin, they do not have the ability to feel things touching them like we do; that is, not without the setae that stick through the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Teamsetae can be mechano- or touch-sensory, like cat or rat whiskers
- Bugscope Teamthey can be chemosensory, meaning they can pick up smells in the air or by touch (taste)
- Bugscope Teamthey can also be thermosensory, for sensing hot/cold
- Teacherdo they have senses like we do
Bugscope Teamyes they do, but they have different means of collecting the same information as we do
- Bugscope Teammany insects are far more sensitive to chemical odors than we are
- Bugscope Teamants communication is mostly via chemosensors
- Teachercould you switch it to the ladybug for us...we are having trouble
- Teacherhow do they collect the info
Bugscope Teamthrough the setae, and also the sensillae, mostly on their antennae
- Teacherthank you
- Bugscope Teamthis is a ladybug larva
- Bugscope Teamlike the caterpillar version of a ladybug before it becomes a cute little beetle
- 9:18 am
- Teacheris that fat in the middle and why does it have spikes on the back
- Bugscope Teamin the middle we see the thorax, which is the chest area that all of the legs are connected to, as well as the head and the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamthe spikes on its back are there to protect it from being eaten
- Teacherwe have no controls for focus and every thing
Bugscope Teamtry now
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars are the larval insect stages; sometimes the insects produce web from little spinnerettes near their mouths
- Bugscope Teamthe four things we see now that look like cones are palps
- Teacherthanks and is it a girl or boy and how can u tell
- Bugscope Teamwith ladybugs we cannot tell from the outside, as far as I know
- Teacheris it for protection
- Bugscope Teamwith some insects it is easy to tell
- Bugscope Teamthe palps are for tasting and also for manipulating the food into the mouth
- Bugscope Teamwith houseflies, the females' eyes are far apart, whereas the males' eyes are almost touching
- 9:23 am
- Bugscope Teamwith earwigs, those with wide curved pincers are males, and those with narrow pincers are females
- Bugscope Teamalmost all bees, wasps, and ants we see are females
- Bugscope Teamthis is the mouth of the beetle, looking from the underside of the head
- Bugscope Teaminsect mouths are very complicated
- Bugscope Teamthere are two large mandibles that cut into prey or food from the sides
- Bugscope Teamthere are also what look like two small pairs of mandibles (jaws) here, plus four palps that help the insect taste and maneuver its food into its mouth
- Teacherwhat is that
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the palps; inside are things like tastebuds on your tongue
- Bugscope Teamthat is how the beetle tastes its food
- 9:29 am
- Bugscope Teamwe can see some dried fluid on the little tastebuds
- Bugscope Teamthis is almost 26,000 times magnified
- Bugscope Teamif there were bacteria here we would see them no problem
- Bugscope Teama micron is the same as a micrometer; a micrometer is one thousandth of a millimeter, or one millionth of a meter
- Teacherhow many tastebuds does it have
Bugscope Teamit is hard to say; there are four palps like this, but insects can sometimes also taste with setae on other parts of their bodies, and they can also collect chemical signals using their antennae -- tasting the air
- Bugscope Teamthis is from a butterfly wing, I am not sure which butterfly; the colors were a beautiful blue, with orange eyespots
- Bugscope Teamscales have multiple purposes
- Bugscope Teamone is to protect their bearer from getting caught in spiderwebs
- Bugscope Teamscales are the fine powder that comes off of a moth or butterfly's wing when you stroke it
- 9:34 am
- Bugscope Teambecause they come off so easily, they stick to spiderwebs better than they stick to wings
- Teacherwhat is that little spot in the middle?
Bugscope TeamI don't know what that is -- it is some kind of dirt
- Bugscope Teamthe shapes of the scales produce colors
- Teachercan scales grow back when they are removed?
Bugscope Teamno they do not grow back; when the insect loses enough of them -- they are also kind of like feathers -- it cannot fly anymore
- Bugscope Teamoften, in the rectangular places we see now, there are pigment granules
- Bugscope Teamscales often produce both pigment-derived colors and what are called structural colors, brought about by the shapes and sizes of these ridges
- Teacherare they all the same?
Bugscope Teamno they differ according to the color of the part of the wing they are found on
- 9:39 am
- Bugscope Teamthat little piece of debris may be part of the waxy coating some insects have
- Bugscope Teamthis is another scale, from another insect
- Bugscope Teamscales are actually setae as well, just in a different shape
- Bugscope Teamthe ones without holes in them are sometimes said to be found on more primitive insects
- Teacherhow do the slides change?
Bugscope Teamwhat you are doing is driving to a different place on an aluminum sample stub that is about 50 mm in diameter and covered with today's bugs
- Bugscope Teamso when you call up one of the presets, the microscope drives to that position on the stage
- Bugscope Teamthat is why the preset does not always look just like the place to end up -- the sample may have moved a bit
- Bugscope Team'the place you end up'
- Bugscope Teamsee its compound eye, now?
- 9:45 am
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia -- the individual facets of the compound eye -- are often hexagonal
- Teacherdo wasps have simple eyes?
Bugscope Teamyes they do! on top of the head
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia are kind of scarred
- Teacherthank you so much....our first class is coming to an end we will be ready with a new group in about 7-10 minutes
Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see one of the mandibles, which is like a 'spork'
- Bugscope Teamhello Panos!
- 9:51 am
- Bugscope Teambrb
- Guesthello to anybody there. this is fantastic... i am writing about it in my blog...
Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- Bugscope TeamPanos if you have an questions later, please feel free to write me directly: sjrobin@illinois.edu
- Bugscope Team(Scot)
- Bugscope Teamum 'any' questions, of course
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we have grad student entomologists on board to help field questions, and usually Cate is on as well
- 9:57 am
- Teacherokay new class is here and we are set
- Bugscope Teamawesome!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome back!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a very small beetle, like a cucumber beetle
- Guestthank you sjrobin
Bugscope Teamcertainly. Thank you!
- Bugscope Teamthe front of the face, above the mandible, is called the 'frons'
- Bugscope Teamthe frons has an indentation in it that we see now
- Bugscope Teamyou can see two broken sensory setae here, on either side of the indentation
- Bugscope Teamoops I closed the page I was on...
- Bugscope Team I need to help someone on another instrument, quickly, and will be right back
- 10:04 am
- Teacherwhat up scot i got a question.....what is the tube like structure on top of the eye?
Bugscope Teamoh I am sorry -- I missed it
- Bugscope TeamI had to help someone with another microscope
- Teacherscotty mai boi whats the dot on the eye?
Bugscope Teamokay I am back to try and help
- Teacherkoo kool
Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope Teamthese are broken setae
- Bugscope Teammechanosensory setae
- Bugscope Teamthey are fluted, and with a kind of twisted fluting, pretty cool
- Bugscope Teamnow we're looking at individual scales on a butterfly's wing
- Bugscope Teamthis is what seems like powder to us when we rub the wing
- Teacherwhy do they have scales on there wings?
Bugscope Teamthey serve multiple purposes
- 10:09 am
- Bugscope Teamone thing they do is protect the insect when it flies into a spiderweb, by sticking to the web while the insect slips out
- Bugscope Teamthey also provide color patterns that are recognizable to other butterflies and insects
- Bugscope Teamthey also function like feathers do on a bird's wing
- Bugscope Teamin the little holes we see, we often find pigment granules, but not on this set of scales -- where we're looking now
- TeacherCan scales grow back?
Bugscope Teamno they cannot; once an insect has wings, it is an adult, and it does not molt, for example, after that
- TeacherWhat are the scales made of?
Bugscope Teamthey are made of chitin, which is a protein kind of like our fingernails
- Bugscope Teamthe exoskeleton of an insect and many other comparable arthropods is made of chitin
- Bugscope Teamit is also called cuticle
- Bugscope Teamlike a shrimp shell, for example
- Bugscope Teamthe setae stick through the cuticle, which is kind of like armor, and allow the bug to sense the world
- 10:14 am
- Bugscope Teamsome setae are mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers; some are chemosensory, to sense smells; and some are thermosensory, to sense hot/cold
- TeacherWhat are we looking at...
Bugscope Teamthis is one of the beetle's claws
- Bugscope Teaminsects, as adults, have six legs, and they often have claws at the end of each leg
- TeacherWhat do they use them for?
Bugscope Teamkind of like we use our hands -- the grab things and to help hold onto things
- Bugscope Teamclaws are hardened chitin
- TeacherWhat are those scale looking things.
Bugscope Teamthe fine features are the structure of the claw -- having that kind of texture makes the claw more sturdy
- Bugscope Teamants often have similar scale-like features on their exoskeletons
- Bugscope Teamwe do not see a pulvillus, or pad of fine tenent setae, between the claws
- Bugscope Teamif there is no pulvillus, the insect may not have the ability to walk on a ceiling, or even a wall
- Bugscope Teamhere we see the serrations on the yellowjacket's stinger
- Bugscope Teamthey help it cut into whatever it is stinging
- 10:19 am
- Teacherhow many stingers can a yellow jacket have
Bugscope Teamonly one stinger, but two halves
- Bugscope Teamwhat we see on the stinger is just dirt/debris
- Teacherwhat is the triangle on the side
Bugscope Teamthat is a bent seta, perhaps from another part of the yellowjacket's body, like the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamthis is pretty cool
- Bugscope Team20 microns is about 10 bacillus bacteria long
- Bugscope Team10 rod-shaped bacteria
- Bugscope Teamif we had bacteria on this sample we would be able to see them easily
- Bugscope Teamthis claw, or set of claws, has a pulvillus that helps it stick to surfaces
- Bugscope Teamthe patterned structure we see now, centered, is the unguitractor
- Bugscope Teamthe unguitractor is a tendon that is connected to an interior muscle
- Bugscope Teamwhen it retracts, the claw closes
- 10:25 am
- Teacherare those scalls in the back
Bugscope Teammostly we are seeing the ridges that form the surface of the unguitractor
- Teacherwhat are the things on the right side
Bugscope TeamI think they are remnants of a kind of waxy coating that some insects have
Bugscope Teamreally I am not sure
- Bugscope Teamyou can see some large bristles that help the wasp feel when it is touching something
- Bugscope Teamsome of the bristles, or setae, are for proprioception
- Bugscope Teamthe pulvillus has lots of what are called tenent setae on it
- Bugscope Teamthis is pretty cool
- Bugscope Teama female houseflu
- Bugscope Teamduh housefly sorry
- Bugscope Teampollen
- Teacherwhy does the eye have tecture
Bugscope Teamthose are individual facets of the eye, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamso they are lenses
- Teacherhow do we know its a male or female
Bugscope Teambecause its eyes are far apart
- 10:30 am
- Bugscope Teameyes in female flies are far apart, like Uma Thurman's
- Bugscope Teameyes in male flies are close together, like Mikhail Baryshnikov's
- Bugscope Teamthis is pretty cool
- Teacherwhat are thorn looking things
- Bugscope Teamcouple of different kinds of pollen, and the thorn-like things are setae
- Bugscope Teamthe setae beneath all of this are called microsetae, and they are not sensory
- Bugscope Teamthis is a kind of pollen we see sometimes
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure what kind of pollen it is
- Teacherwhat would the hairs be used for beside feeling
Bugscope Teamsometimes they help with thernoregulation; sometimes they form recognizable patterns that help their own and other species identify them
- 10:35 am
- Bugscope Teamscales are modified setae
- Bugscope Teamoops I see I typed thermoregulation incorrectly
- Teacherare the hairs used for defense
Bugscope Teamsome of the larger spine-like ones are
- Bugscope Teamkind of like porcupine quills
- Bugscope Teamdragonflies have spines on their wings that they can use to help shred the wings of other dragonflies or other winged creatures, because they like to fight
- Teacherthank you so much, this group of students really enjoyed this - they are getting ready to go now
- Bugscope Teamstinger and ovipositor
- Bugscope Teamichneumon wasp
- 10:40 am
- Teacherwhat are those things in the back round?
- Bugscope Teamthe stuff under the abdomen is silver paint, globbed up
- Bugscope Teama lot of the bubbles in the background are features on the carbon tape
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see brochosomes, which are nanoparticles that come from leafhoppers
- Bugscope Teamthey are usually 250 to 400 nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teamif you are done, we can close down now...
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Panos, for connecting today
- Bugscope Teamand Thank You STEM, and Mikayla, and IT
- 4:48 pm
- Guestvery nice initiative!
- 4:55 pm
- Guestwell, tose are types of brochosomes?
