Connected on 2013-11-04 12:20:00
from Cheatham, Tennessee, United States
- 11:17 am
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope! We are venting the chamber, and in a minute we will be pumping the sample to vacuum.
- Bugscope Teamoince w
- Bugscope Teamonce we get to vacuum, we will begin making presets
- 11:25 am
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Teacherhello. I am online
- Bugscope TeamNora we gave you control but would prefer to have you hold off on driving until we've collected all of the presets
- Bugscope Teamwe're going around the stub finding cool stuff for your session
- 11:32 am
- 11:39 am
- TeacherI can wait.It is not time yet.
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool. we're glad to see you on!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a fruitfly
- 11:45 am
- 11:51 am
- 11:57 am
- 12:04 pm
- Bugscope TeamNora we are ready, if you'd like to drive, look around
- Bugscope Teamoops we need to remake some of the presets...
- 12:10 pm
- 12:16 pm
- Teacherjust a minute more
- 12:21 pm
- Teacherok. ready
- Bugscope Teamso Nora is your class there?
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know when anyone has any questions
- Teacheryes
- Bugscope Teamwe're still putting in presets, but we are essentially ready
- Teacherok
- Teacherwhatismit?
- Teacherwhat is it?
- 12:26 pm
- Teacheris this the fruit fly?
- Bugscope Teamthe thing we just saw that looked kind of like a corncob was a brochosome, from a leafhopper -- an extra long one. they use them, we think, to help keep their eggs from drying out
- Bugscope Teamnow we're totally done making presets
- Bugscope Teamthis, right now is a moth scale
- Bugscope Teammoths, butterflies, silverfish, and mosquitoes have scales like this
- Bugscope Teamthis is a loose one, on the grasshopper
- Bugscope Teamscales come off easily, and thus if you were covered with scales and flew into a spiderweb, you have a good chance of leaving your scales stuck to the web and escaping
- Bugscope Teamto the lower left we see one of the grasshopper's claws
- Bugscope Teampigment granules and the way the scales are structured are responsible for the colours you see in moths and butterflies
- Teacherok
- Teachernext?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a bunch of plant material and perhaps some fungal hyphae -- strands of fungus -- on the grasshopper
- 12:31 pm
- Bugscope Teamplease note that you can click on any of the presets, to the left -- on the lefthand screen, in order to get the microscope to drive to that place.
- Bugscope Teamon the grasshopper's leg, you can see lots of hairs
Bugscope Teamthese hairs are called setae, and they help the grasshopper sense their environment
Bugscope Teamthe scale you just saw is a modified type of setae
- Bugscope Teamso I just clicked on the cranelfy preset
- Teachereyes?
Bugscope Teamyup
- Teachersouthern cranefly?
- Bugscope Teamthis one is local to Illinois -- they look like giant mosquitoes, but they are harmless and kind of clumsy
- Bugscope Teamim not sure where this cranefly is from. it is possible it was captured locally around here (central Illinois)
- Bugscope Teamthe background with all of the little craters in it is carbon tape we stick the insects to
- 12:36 pm
- Teachertoo large
- Bugscope Teamand also, to the lower right, we see silver paint, which helps the insects stick and also lets the charge from the electron beam travel to ground
- Bugscope Teamit is a little tricky driving the microscope
- Bugscope Teamthis is the crane fly, here you can see its mouth parts pointing up
Bugscope TeamMany crane fly adults, do not feed, and when they do, they feed on nectar
Bugscope TeamMost larvae feed on plant materials, and feed on plant roots
Bugscope TeamSome are carnivorous and will eat other arthropods
- Bugscope Teamyou can try the magnification - button in the top left area of the image
- Teacherhow do i minimize?
Bugscope Teamto take the microscope to the lowest magnification, you can click on the minus button at the top of the window, after 'Magnification.'
- Bugscope Teamthe scalebar on the lower left gives us a sense of the magnification
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the beetle's compound eyes, on either side of its head, and all of its mouthparts, including four palps that help it taste and manipulate its food
- Teachernext?
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see its antennae
- Bugscope Teamlet's go to the stinkbug, kind of cool
- Bugscope Teamhere is part of the stink gland on a stinkbug
- 12:41 pm
- Bugscope Teamstinkbugs do not like their own smell
- Bugscope Teamit also has some spongy parts that help with sucking up extra stink so the smell doesn't bother them
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eyes fairly well here.
Bugscope Teamthe compound eye is composed of individual units called ommatidium, each of these units collect a part of the whole image, and they work together to provide the insect with a complete view
Bugscope Teamthe complete image ends up being a mosaic like image
- Bugscope Teamso they have all of those absorbent structures, to the upper left, that help keep it from bothering the stinkbug
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the micron bar now reads '50 microns,' which is about 25 bacteria long
- Bugscope Teamso if you wanted you can take this to a lower magnification to see where you are on the ventral side (the underside) of the stinkbug
- Bugscope TeamMany stink bugs are considered to be pests. Most feed on plants.
- Bugscope Teamthe stink gland opening is on the underside of the body -- of the thorax -- between the first and second set of limbs
- Bugscope Teamso its tiny claw?
- Bugscope Teamwe can tell that its head is to the northeast
- Bugscope TeamSome countries eat them, and the distinct smell/taste is considered to be a delicacy.
- 12:46 pm
- Bugscope Teamcool! now we can see one of the compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamand we can see the base of the piercing/sucking mouthparts that make the stinkbug a 'true bug'
- Bugscope Teameverything we see is in black and white -- in grayscale -- because we are using electrons rather than light to image our specimens
- Teacherdo you have any spidersor corpions?
Bugscope Teamno i dont think we have any spiders, and definitely not scorpions. we don't come across too many of those in illinois
- Bugscope Teamthe images we see come to us as signal
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving a $600,000 scanning electron microscope from your classroom
- TeacherI can send you some:)
Bugscope Teamthat would be so cool!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a female housefly
- Bugscope Teamwe're looking at the top of the head
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its streamlined compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamand you can see, perhaps, the tiny simple eyes called ocelli
- 12:51 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow we're way up high on some of the facets of the compound eye
- Bugscope Teamthis is pretty
- Teacherpollen on the eyes?
Bugscope Teamthose are super small -- they look like pollen but are much smaller, on the nanoscale
- Bugscope Teamthey are brochosomes as well -- usually they are round like this
- Bugscope Teambrochosomes are about 250 to 400 nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teamso they are smaller than the wavelengths of visible light
- Teachernext..
- Teacherwhat are they?
Bugscope Teamthey are tiny structures said to be produced in the Malpighian tubules of leafhoppers.
- Teachermy students would like to move a little faster, please
- Bugscope Teamthis is a pollen grain
- Bugscope Teamit's spikey so it can stick to insects and thus travel around
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that it is larger than the brochosomes
- Bugscope Teamthis is the grasshopper head
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its antennae, and its mouthparts, and its compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamlarge and bulbous
- Bugscope Teamfeel free to select a preset located on the left (click on the blue and white arrow button first) to change the area
- 12:57 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a closeup of a scale, so cool
- Bugscope Teamand this is a palp; they often have things like tastebuds inside them, or at their tips
- Bugscope Teamthese are setae, very beautiful, on the silverfish
- Bugscope Teamin some butterflies, the taste buds are actually in their forelegs!
- Bugscope Teamsilverfish are mostly in the dark, and they have to be wary of spiders
- Bugscope Teamso we can see that the silverfish has scales like a butterfly or moth or mosquito
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges reflect silver light
- Bugscope Teamwhich is why silverfish look silvery
- Bugscope Teamthese guys can be pretty devastating for a library, they feed on the starches and other poly saccharides in book bindings
Bugscope Teamthey are also able to live for a long time without feeding
- 1:02 pm
- Bugscope Teamthere are the fruit flies we were looking for
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eyes, and the very small antennae
- Bugscope Teamamd also one of the arms, with all of the tarsal segments
- Teacherbe right back in 7 minutes
- Bugscope Teamsee the claw?
- 1:07 pm
- 1:13 pm
- Studentwe're back
- Studentnew class
- Bugscope Teamwe're looking at a beetle palp
- Bugscope Teamif we take the magnification down, we can see just where we are
- Bugscope Teamdo you want to try that?
- Studentyes
- Bugscope Teamnow we see one of the eyes, to the right
- Bugscope Teamlooks like a golfball
- Bugscope Teamdo you see where we were, now? on the right?
- 1:18 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis beetle's head is about 1 mm wide
- Studentwhat is the tooth looking appendage?
- Bugscope Teamin the front of the head, the big flat thing is called a clypeus -- one of the mouthparts
- Bugscope Teambelow the clypeus is one of the mandibles
- Bugscope Teaminsect mouthparts usually open left and right, instead of up and down like ours
- Bugscope Teamthe clypeus slides up and down, though, and then the mandibles open to the left and right like a gate
- Bugscope TeamThey use the mandibles to break hard things, seeds, other insects' cuticles, etc...
- Bugscope Teamflies do not have the same kinds of mouthparts
- Bugscope TeamThis is a fly, you can see it's antennae right above the eyes (the two twinkie looking like things)
- 1:23 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae have a twinkie part and a branched part called an arista
- Studentwhat about biting flies
Bugscope Teamthey have slashing/cutting mouthparts, and we do not see them as often, thankfully
- Bugscope Teamhorseflies and deerflies, for example, cut the skin to make blood flow and then drink that
- Bugscope Teamthis funny-looking dude is a silverfish
- Bugscope Teamthey eat the glue that holds your books together
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that it has a clypeus like the beetle, and you can see a tiny forked mandible beneath that
- Bugscope Teaminsect mouths are often very complicated
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that one of the silverfish's antennae is broken
- Bugscope Teamthis is another kind of fly
- Bugscope Teama cranefly
- 1:29 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes, with many tiny facets called ommatidia -- individual lenses
- Bugscope Teamflies often have sponging mouthparts -- they soak up food in liquid form
Bugscope Teamsome more 'primitive' flies have chewing mouth parts still, and mosquitoes and some other biting flies have a specialized straw like mouthpart
Bugscope Teamsorry, i think I am wrong here, I was thinking about butterflies and moths (in regards to chewing mouth parts)
- Bugscope Teamthese kind of look like big mosquitos
- Bugscope Teamthe scanning electron microscope can help us collect images at much higher magnfications than light microscopes
- Studentis that an eye?
Bugscope Teamyes these are the ommatidia of a compound eye
- Studentok
- Bugscope Teamthe ommatidia are shriveled, a bit
- Studentnext please
- Bugscope Teamsome wasps have as many as 30,000 ommatidia per eye
- TeacherCool
- Bugscope Teaminsects do not breathe through their mouths
- Bugscope Teamthey have these pore-like things called spiracles
- Bugscope Teamthey can open and close them
- Bugscope Teamthere are two spiracles on either side of a body segment, usually\
- 1:34 pm
- TeacherWhat is this called?
Bugscope Teamthat was one of the thoracic spiracles on the fly body
- Bugscope Teamnow we're looking at mold spores
- Bugscope Teamthey look much like pollen but are generally softer and have smaller spikes
- Bugscope Teamif we take the mag down we can see where we are
- Bugscope Teamin the foreground, to the left, we see one of the palps that grasshoppers have, with a flat opening
- Studentok
- TeacherWhat do they use them for
- Bugscope Teampalps help insects taste and also manipulate their food
- TeacherOk
- Bugscope Teamnow we see that we were in a tiny valley on the grasshopper's head, where the mold spores were
- Studentok
- Bugscope Teamthe grasshopper seems to have an extra eye in the middle of its forehead, between the antennae
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes help insects see better -- all around them -- without moving their heads
- Bugscope Teamalso, if you had compound eyes
- 1:39 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou would be able to see movement
- Bugscope Teammore quickly
- TeacherSo they can see every side of there body with them kind of eyes
Bugscope Teamyes! it is super helpful in the insect world, where things move so very quickly
- Bugscope TeamBruce you have the same name as the Hulk.
- Bugscope TeamThe extra eye is called and ocellus, it is used to differentiate light and dark, and aids in flight and also circadian rhythm (body's internal clock)
- TeacherI know.. Hahaha
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the beetle's claws
- Bugscope Teamwe can see the sticky hairs, called tenent setae, that help the beetle climb walls
- TeacherHow many claws do they have???
Bugscope Teamthey have six sets of claws -- one set of claws per limb
- TeacherDo the not have peripheral vision?
Bugscope Teamthey have better peripheral vision than we do
Bugscope Teamsome insects (like the dragonfly) can see 360 degrees around
- TeacherCan they hurt you with their claws?
Bugscope Teamno they are so small we can hardly feel them
- Bugscope Teamnot all claws have double tips like that
- Bugscope Teamsome claws open and close using an internal tendon called an unguitractor
- 1:44 pm
- TeacherDo they ever use them for defense or to kill prey?
Bugscope TeamI'm sure they do sometimes
- Bugscope Teampraying mantids have little teeth-like parts on their legs that help keep their prey in place
- Bugscope Teamyou know sometimes we see beetles that cannot climb, but clearly these can, no problem
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of one of the super tiny tenent setae
- Bugscope Team2 microns, on the scalebar at the bottom left of the image, is as long as a bacterium
- Bugscope Teamthose setae (hairs) are called microsetae; they are not sensory like setae
- TeacherWhat is on the tips of the hair that makes them stay on a wall
Bugscope Teamsometimes it is a fluid, and sometimes it is just the shape and the fact that there are many of them
- 1:49 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges we see now, on this moth scale, are so small that they interfere with the wavelengths of visible light and produce colors just from their shape
- Bugscope TeamI want to see if we can find some brochosomes
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a female housefly
- Bugscope Teamhere are three extra eyes, simple eyes called ocelli
- Bugscope Teamthese are the ocelli, and we see setae and microsetae
- 1:54 pm
- Bugscope Teamawesome
- Studentbreak time..5 minutes please..
- TeacherBye you're awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bugscope Teamthank you Huff!
- TeacherWe love you!
Bugscope Teamsweet
- TeacherBy thanks for the experience
Bugscope Teambye Hulk!
- Bugscope Teamnow we see brochosomes on a ragweed pollen grain
Bugscope Teambrochosomes serve a protective function in leafhoppers, waterproofing and excrement-proofing
- 2:01 pm
- 2:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a small beetle
- Studentwe are back..
Bugscope Teamwelcome back@
- Studentok
- GuestWhat does this do?
- Studenthello?
- GuestHow do I use this?
- Bugscope Teamhere I will show you again
- Bugscope Teamwe are using electrons to image. electrons hit the sample and secondary electrons come back from the metal coating. the secondary electrons are gathered in a detector, where it reads the signal from them and gives us this image
- Bugscope Teamthere is a camera inside the chamber, but you don't see it when imaging
- 2:11 pm
- Studentthis is the camera?
Bugscope Teamthis is the inside of the chamber, where the electron beam is impinging on the sample
- GuestHow do I see the image on my phone
Bugscope Teamum go to Bugscope and log in from there; is that what you mean?
- GuestWhat is this bug?
Bugscope Teamthis looks like a little longhorned beetle
- GuestAll I have is the chat
Bugscope TeamI'm sorry -- when you get to a larger computer you can go to the webpage and look at archived images. I'll try with my phone and see what happens.
- GuestOkay thank you I appreciate it
Bugscope TeamJenkaDink43 I am sorry -- I get the same as you, no images.
- 2:16 pm
- Studentnext
- GuestOkay it is fine I was just curious to see if I could show others what we were learning today
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a hsol\\
- Bugscope Teamhousefly
- Bugscope Teamnow we see its antennae and its compound eye, to the lower portion of the image
- Bugscope Teamthere are some plant fibers on the eye, to the left
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the mouthparts tuck into the front of the face
- Bugscope Teamhere is another housefly head, another female housefly
- Bugscope Teamwhen we were looking at it earlier we found a pollen grain with nanoparticles on it
- Bugscope Teamhere is the compound eye, to the left, with hundreds and thousands of ommatidia
- GuestWhat do they use the hairs for above their eyes?
Bugscope Teamthey are mostly for sense of touch.
- Bugscope Teamto the far right we see two ocelli -- simple eyes
- Bugscope Teamwe're looking from a funny angle, from the top of the head
- 2:21 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny hairlike things are called microsetae, and they form the vestiture - the dressing of the head
- GuestThe curved hair like structure above the eye what is it for?
- Bugscope Teamthat is likely a mechanosensory sete
- Bugscope Teamseta, sorry
- Bugscope Teamyes the big hairs are more for sense of touch, or mechanosensory like sj said
- Bugscope Teamthis is a pollen grain, we think ragweed pollen
- Bugscope Teamamong the microsetae
- Bugscope Teamsmaller hairs are often for sense of touch, or other things like smell/taste, temperature, etc
- Bugscope Teamsee the little soccerball like things?
- Studentyes
- Bugscope Teamthose are brochosomes, which are produced by leafhoppers but get onto a lot of other insects
- Bugscope Teamthey are nanoparticles, 250 to 400 nm in diameter
- GuestSo basically it's like the nerves in our fingers that can feel things and sense temperature
Bugscope Teamyes exactically insects do not have skin so they need to have setae that stick through the cuticle so they can sense their environment
- GuestOh I gotcha
Bugscope Teaminsects and comparable arthropods -- it's like they're wearing a suit of armor all of the time
- 2:26 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a silverfish
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the silverfish is covered with tiny rounded scales
- Studentyes
- GuestWhy do you call it a silverfish? If it's not a fish?
Bugscope Teamit's silver in color and when it runs it kind of squirms like a fish
- GuestOh I understand
- Bugscope Teamthey're like potato chips
- Bugscope Teamit also has scales but not like a fish, i don't think it has anything to do with why they called it that
- Bugscope Teammoths, butterflies, mosquitoes, silverfish, and few other insects have scales, which protect them from getting caught in spiderwebs
- Bugscope TeamI think it's 'cause they are silvery and kind of slimy the way they move, like a small fish
- Studentnext
- GuestOh I understand thank you
- Bugscope Teamwe can see its compound eyes, and also its mouthparts, including its palps, which in grasshoppers have hollow openings
- 2:32 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis grasshopper has an extra eye in its forehead
- Studentwhy
- Bugscope Teami think it helps with balance by seeing where the sun is in the sky
- Bugscope Teamusually simple eyes like this help orient insects with the sky, with the sun and other features so they don't get lost
- GuestIs it to see things more clear coming from above? To help avoid predators?
Bugscope Teamthey use the compound eyes, which produce better images, to see predators
- Studentok
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes also give the insect better peripheral vision as well as being more sensitive to motion
- GuestSorry my phone is a bit slow sending in my questions or responses
Bugscope Teamwe're happy to be working with you
- Bugscope Teamsee the mold spore on the eye?
- Studentwhat is the elongated structure?
Bugscope Teamsome of those things we don't know what they are
- Bugscope Teamthe little spines probably help the grasshopper feel things touching its head
- 2:37 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe elongated structure here looks like a broken off seta with some juju coating it
- Guest Why does Duru consist of being a little bitch?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a cranefly
- Studentplease excuse my infantile students
- Bugscope Teamlooks like a very large mosquito
- GuestI'm sorry that was not actually me
- Bugscope Teamit's ok
- Bugscope Teamwe can see its compound eyes quite clearly
- Studentwhat is that?
- Bugscope Teamcrystals
- Bugscope Teamsuper small crystals of sugar, perhaps
- Studentcrystals on the eye
- Studentsugar on the cranefly
- 2:42 pm
- Bugscope Teamnot a problem. really
- GuestI appreciate everything you have done for us and have a nice day my apologies again
Bugscope Teamwe had fun, no worries
- Bugscope Teamoh and we do not know what this is
Bugscope Teamit's a clump of pollen grains all stuck together
- Bugscope Teamtime for us to shut down and let the researchers get back in
- Studentthank you so much. they are gone. it was great. a litle slow.
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Nora!
- StudentI think the third show was the best of the 3
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year!
- Bugscope Teamthank you for using bugscope with us todau
- Bugscope Teamtoday*
- Studentsorry about the profanity
- Studentmy classes are all jocks and all male
- Bugscope Teamall good
- Studentbye
- Bugscope TeamBye!