Connected on 2013-09-20 11:00:00
from Division No. 2, Alberta, Canada
- 9:51 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- 10:09 am
- 10:14 am
- 10:19 am
- 10:24 am
- 10:30 am
- 10:37 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- 11:20 am
- Bugscope Team:(
- 9:51 am
- 9:56 am
- 10:03 am
- 10:08 am
- Bugscope Teammaking presets for today's session
- 10:14 am
- 10:20 am
- 10:26 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- 10:35 am
- Bugscope Teamgodd morning!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Teacherwe are just making sure we can connect.
- Bugscope Teamd'oh sorry "good" morning
- Bugscope Teamcool we will be here
- Bugscope Teamwe always start an hour early so we can make the presets
- 11:01 am
- Teacherwe are here
- Bugscope Teamhi! welcome!
- Bugscope Teamwe are currently looking at a grasshopper head
- Bugscope Teamto the left is a very big compound eye
- Teacherwhat kind of grass hopper?
- Teacherthere are lots of species in southern Alberta Canada
- Bugscope TeamI'm not sure what kind of grasshopper it is -- it was collected here, like a lubber or something, not sure
- Teachercool
- Teacherso if we click the image, we can move the microscope?
- Bugscope Teamlikely it's a common field grasshopper
- Teacherwe have many around here.
- 11:06 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small one -- all of the insects have to fit on a 1.75-in. diameter stub
- Bugscope Teamyou can click to center, and you can change mag, so if you click on an edge at a low mag you can essentially move in whatever direction you want
- Bugscope Teamwe used to have a click to move capability, but remotely it is hard to tell if you're moving or not
- Bugscope Teamyou can of course click on any of the presets, on the lefthand screen, to get the microscope to move to one of those positions on the stub
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if something does not work
- Bugscope Teamonce in a while the 'scope will keep driving to one place no matter what you do
- Teachercan we drive to its wings
- Teacherit looks scary up close!
- Bugscope Teamyes but they are folded...
- 11:12 am
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the large hindleg and the folded wing
- Teacherhuge leg!
- Bugscope Teaminsects have hairs all over them to help them feel what is going on
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the mouthparts
Bugscope Teamthe appendage looking like things are palps that help it manoeuver food around and also gustatory senses (taste)
- Teacherdo they breathe through pores?
Bugscope Teamyes. there are ports along their bodies that are connected to a trachea. The trachea transports the oxygen
- 11:17 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a fruitfly
- Bugscope Teamits head fell off at some point
- Bugscope Teammaybe Joe has; I've never eaten insects on purpose
- Bugscope Teamhaha sj
- Teacherno wonder they are so hard to catch with all of those sensors
- Teacherhave you ever eaten a grasshopper?
Bugscope Teamnot a grasshopper. but crickets, and they're not too bad.
- Bugscope Teamflies taste like paper
- TeacherWe have accidentally eaten a few too
- Bugscope Teamany time you eat broccoli, you're probably eating a lot of insects
- Bugscope Teamyou can look at other stuff on the stub today, if you want; we set up a different set of insects/arthropods each time we do this
- Bugscope Teamit might taste better with chocolate or cheese
- Teacherhow do we do that
Bugscope Teamclick on one of the presets on the lefthand screen
- Teachermy name is kingi i ate one , I roasted it with a magnifying glass
Bugscope Teamhaha poor grasshopper
- 11:22 am
- Teachergross
- Bugscope Teamthe background in all of these views is carbon doublestick tape
- Bugscope Teamthe specimens are all coated with gold-palladium to make them conductive
- Teacherdid you catch all of these bugs?
Bugscope Teamsome of them we caught and some of them other people caught and sent or brought them to us
- Bugscope Teamthe fruitfly that we made into a preset came from down here
- Bugscope Teamin the Underworld, where we work
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the beetle's compound eyes, and its antennae, and a fringe that helps it know when it is moving its head
- Teacherit has an interesting mouth
- Bugscope Teamthis isn't the mouth. the mouth is to the north a little bit
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the head is attached to the thorax
- Teacherohhhhhhh
- Bugscope Teamclick beetles are called that because they have an escape mechanism, where they can pop themselves up into the air
- Teacherdoes it have pinchers?
Bugscope Teamtheir claws are kind of like pinchers, and their mouthparts -- the mandibles --are like pinchers as well
- Bugscope Teamright now we're looking at the mandibular and maxillary palps
- Teacherdo they bite people?
- 11:28 am
- Bugscope Teamthey might bite in self defense
- Bugscope Teampalps are accessory mouthparts that help taste and maneuver food into the mouth, as Joe had said below
- Bugscope Teamclick beetles click in self-defense as well, like if you lean on one it will pop against your back
- Bugscope Teamthese are wing scales
- Teacherwe are looking at the butterfly wing
- Teacherwe grew butterfies once... they were painted lady butterflys
- Bugscope Teambutterflies, moths, silverfish, mosquitoes, and few other insects have scales
- Bugscope Teamthose seem to be pretty common for classes to grow. maybe they are extra hardy?
- Bugscope Teamscales are modified setae, and one of their purposes is to protect the insect from spiderwebs
- Bugscope Teamthese are butterfly scales, and the way that they are grooved determines the colours you see (in part)
Bugscope Teamthese grooves reflect and refract light giving off the colours you see, and they may also contain colours in them as well
- Bugscope Teamas Joe says, butterflies and moths, especially, can have both structural colors and colors derived from pigment
- Teacherwe didn't know that mosquitoes had scales
- Teacherwe wondered about the patterns on a butterdly wing
Bugscope Teamsome butterflies that look exactly alike to us do not look at all the same to another insect because they reflect or refract colors in the UV range of light that we do not see
- 11:33 am
- Teacherthat is amazing
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we see pigment granules in the little holes we can see now
- Teacherthere is a lot of math ...things to count when you look close up!
- Teacherwhat do you have to do to the insects to make them ready to view?
Bugscope Teamwe stick them only aluminum disks that fit into the microscope. The disks have carbon tape, but we also use a dab of silver paint to help glue them on better and to help ground any extra charge. Then we coat everything with gold/palladium alloy to make them conductive for the electrons
- Bugscope Teamyou can get an idea of the size of the specimens/features by comparing it with the data bar at the bottom left of the screen
- Teacherants are creepy looking
Bugscope Teamants are almost all females
- Bugscope Teamall the workers are female.
- Bugscope Teamthe same is true for bees
- Bugscope Teamif you see a flying ant it is either queen, out for a cruise, or a male ant
- 11:38 am
- Bugscope Teamand wasps. ants and wasps and bees are related
- Bugscope Teamwhen they have wings, they have four wings, compared to a fly, which has only two
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen of an ant, as we see here, is called a 'gaster'
- Teacherthat is very interesting
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we find a tiny stinger at the tip of the gaster
- Teachertheyare so strong
- Bugscope Teamyou can see where the antenna fits into the head with a ball and socket joint
Bugscope Teamants have very good chemosensors, they rely on chemicals to find food, and recognize nest mates and who their queen is
Bugscope Teamif a worker ant somehow gains the ability to reproduce (workers usually will not have this ability), they will be attacked by nest mates because of changes in their chemical profile.
- Teacherewwwwww
- Teacherwe want to check out the lady bug
- Bugscope Teama lovely baby ladybug
- Bugscope Teamso cute!
- Bugscope Teamthis is what they look like before they metamorphose into their adult form
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the palps
- 11:43 am
- Teacherit looks like it is smiling
- Bugscope Teamlarval insects (caterpillars) often have five or so small eyes per side of the head
- Teacherhow long does it take them to change to an adult?
Bugscope Teamegg to adult is roughly 3 weeks or so depending on species
- Bugscope Teamthey spend a couple of weeks eating and then change into cute little spotted beetles
- Teachersometimes they stay in our windows over the winter...
- Bugscope Teamyes they do that here too
- Teacherbetween the window sill and the frame
- 11:49 am
- Teacherhow many wings do they have?
Bugscope Teambeetles all have 4 wings, 2 of which are for flight, and the other 2 have been modified into a hard shell called the elytra
Bugscope Teamthe elytra acts as an air foil of sorts
Bugscope Team*airfoil
- Teacheryikes!
- Bugscope Teamfruitfly
- Teacherwe have some in our home on occasion!
- Bugscope Teamfruitflies and many other flying insects have an extra three eyes on the tops of their heads
- Bugscope Teamcurrently we are sharing the lab with a number of fruitflies
- Bugscope Teamsomeone's experiment went feral
- Teacherwhy are some fruit flys red?
Bugscope Teamthey have a large variety of eye colors and other mutations
- 11:54 am
- Teachermy grandma catches them with a tall jar with a yeast mixture in it.
Bugscope Teamthat's what we should do here
- Teacher:(
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure what purpose a different eye color would serve, except to identify the fruitfly to potential mates
Bugscope Teamcolor in they eyes play a number of roles, they can restore photoconverted visual pigments, and in some cases, they fine-tune their spectral sensitivity
- Teacherwell, thank you for all of the very interesting information.
- Bugscope Teamthank you for connecting with us today!
- Bugscope TeamSorry we missed you a couple days ago
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- Bugscope Teamthanks!
- Bugscope Teamhave a good weekend!
- Teacherit was our fault. how often do you offer these sessions?
- Teacherwe will watch out for bugs!
- Bugscope Teamusually we run bugscope about 2 times a week. You are always welcome to sign up again in the future
- Bugscope Teamyes!
- Teacherwe have a little zoomy microscope for our computer but this is way more cool!
- 12:00 pm
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see the inside of the microscope
- Teacherneat!
- Bugscope TeamI just vented it, so we will be able to open the door soon
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the insects we were just looking at
- Teacherhave fun catching those fruit flies!!!
Bugscope Teamhaha Thank you!
- Bugscope TeamBye!