Connected on 2014-05-21 09:45:00
from Franklin, Ohio, United States
- 8:50 am
- Bugscope Teamsample will be out of the sputter coater in a few minutes, and we'll put it into the 'scope to pump down
- Bugscope Teamit's 8:50 here
- 9:01 am
- Bugscope Teamnow we're waiting for the sample chamber to reach the right vacuum so we can turn the electron beam on
- Bugscope Teamif one of the big specimens outgasses, we may need to stop and take it out of the chamber
- 9:12 am
- Bugscope Teamalmost there...
- Bugscope TeamHi Kate!
- Bugscope TeamWe're just now startting to set up for today's session.
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- 9:18 am
- 9:28 am
- 9:35 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll
- Bugscope TeamKate please let us know if you have any questions
- 9:41 am
- GuestI am actually the teacher but couldn't find password.
- Bugscope TeamI can give you control as a Guest
- GuestGreat
- Bugscope Teamyou have control now
- GuestRoderick - why is it called a cucumber beetle?
- 9:46 am
- Bugscope TeamI believe it is because they are found on cucumbers, but it is interesting that they also resemble cucumbers, in their coloration.
- Bugscope Teamof course if I was a beetle that fed on cucumbers I would want to blend in
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the palps, the mandibles (jaws), and the edge of one antenna
- GuestReilly asks what is the "hairy" stuff on the mouth.
Bugscope Teamthose are setae, pronounced see-tee, and they are sensory hairs -- some sense touch, some sense hot/cold, and some serve as tastebuds -- they are chemoreceptors
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae also serve to filter dust and debris, to keep them out of the mout
- Bugscope Teamthis is a portion of the stinkbug's compound eye
- Bugscope Teamwe are looking at individual facets of the eye, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamwe see, also, some debris on the eye
- Bugscope Teamyou can change mag, if you wish,, using the controls along the top of the viewing screen
- 9:52 am
- Bugscope Teaminsects usually see most of the colors we do, but they can also, often, see in wavelengths we do not, as in UV
- Bugscope Teamwe can see a seta here that is likely mechanosensory -- it helps the insect sense when something is touching it
- GuestAmalie ask why are there differnt parts?
Bugscope Teamthe different parts -- all of the facets -- mean that the eye can be dome-like, and thus the stinkbug can see more at one time -- it can see around it better without turning its head
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the tick. when it bites the portions on each side fold down and away
- 9:57 am
- Bugscope Teamthe head is called the capitulum, and the central part is called the hypostome -- it's the part that gets buried in your skin
- GuestWill asks how does the compound eye work compared to our eye?
Bugscope Teamin a way it is not as good, but in another way it is better than ours because compound eyes seem to have a much better sensitivity to changes in the optical field, meaning that they sense motion very rapidly
Bugscope TeamThey have better sensitivity to motion as Scott has said, but their resolution is not nearly as good as ours. Insects that rely more on their vision tend to have more facets (ommatidia), and the insects that are in the ground and the dark tend to have much less
- GuestMarissa asks what are lines on top of the head?
Bugscope Teamwe see setae that help the tick sense its own body, and we see recurved spines that keep the hypostome stuck into your skin...
- GuestDoes it suck blood from victim, like a mosquito?
Bugscope Teamit does suck blood, but not quite the same way as a mosquito -- on the other side of its head it has a rasper that scrapes your skin to elicit the flow of blood
- Bugscope Teamthis is a true bug, which has piercing/sucking mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamthat is the proboscis; I believe this is a kind of ambush bug, which preys on other insects
- Bugscope Teamsee the dome-like compound eye, to the upper right?
- 10:02 am
- Bugscope TeamI should have said that the proboscic leads to the mouth
- Bugscope Teamhere we see some bacilli -- some rod-shaped bacteria
- GuestCaleb Stech asks what is the long line in the middle of the head?
Bugscope Teamthe long line is its proboscis, or its mouth.
Bugscope TeamThis particular one is an aradidae, or "flat bug"
Bugscope Teamnot much is known of their feeding habits
Bugscope Teamsupposedly they may feed on fungi
- Bugscope Teamand now the most bizarre-looking fly
Bugscope Teamthat looks awesome
- Bugscope Teamthe things that look like worms are palps, which are feelers that help insects feed
- Bugscope Teamwe are not sure about this, but it looks like this fly bites
- GuestCheyenne asks why are there light and dark spaces on the top of the head?
Bugscope Teamit is so odd! the furry part is called the vestiture, and one thing it does it help other flies recognize it
Bugscope Teamcertainly there is some advantage in having that but I don't know what it is
- 10:07 am
- Bugscope Teamwe think this is a parasitic wasp -- a wasp that lays its eggs in other insects
- GuestMcKenzie asks what is in its mouth?
Bugscope TeamThis fly looks like it has a sponging mouthpart, so looks like that might just be its mouth? not entirely sure sorry.
- Bugscope Teamflies have two wings, plus a set of halteres that help them balance the motion of the wings in flight
- GuestTyesha aks is the big ball with little things on it eggs?
Bugscope Teamit was hard to see for sure, but one of the balls we saw was another compound eye -- the facets were not as smooth as we see on many other insects
- Bugscope Teamthis is really cool
- Bugscope TeamThis is a tiger beetle by the way. They are those green beetles you might see hopping along on the path where there's sunlight and near areas of river banks
Bugscope Teamthey prey on other insects.
- Bugscope Teamwe see claws at both ends of this tarsus, and in the middle we see (the ridges) the pulvillus, which is a pad that helps the insect stick to walls and ceilings and things like that
- 10:13 am
- GuestKatie asks what are the ridges?
Bugscope Teamso the ridges are layers of fine setae, called tenent setae, that are sticky
- Bugscope Teamso this is awesome -- these are absorbent mounds on the underside of the stinkbug that help suck up some of the smell so the stinkbug does not have to smell itself
- GuestKyle asks can they taste through their feet?
Bugscope Teamsome can and some cannot; I would not be surprised if they had some chemosensors on their feet, like some butterflies do
Bugscope Teamhouse flies for example do have taste receptors on their feet.
- GuestScot we are switching groups so it will be about 3 minutes until the next group is in my classroom.
Bugscope TeamCool!
- GuestCaleb G asks why do they have these?
Bugscope Teamwe believe that they have them to help absorb the smell produced by the stink gland, which is nearby
Bugscope Teamas the stink bugs do not like their own stink
- 10:19 am
- Bugscope Teambee right back
- GuestWe're ready when you are.
- Bugscope Teamhi
- Bugscope TeamScott might still be out, feel free to drive around and ask questions
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool, good to go!
- Bugscope TeamThis is the eye of the stinkbug.
- Bugscope Teamnow we can get an idea of the dome-like shape of the eye, which means it can see in many directions at once
- Bugscope Teamsome flying insects also have, in addition to compound eyes, three simple eyes called ocelli
- Bugscope Teameach of those facets are called ommatidia, they work together to complete the picture
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli help wasps and flies, for example, keep oriented in the landscape
- 10:24 am
- GuestRaph asks do you think this looks like a honeycomb.
Bugscope Teamit does!
Bugscope Teamit has to do with the geometry, and how shapes pack together. kind of like a soccer ball
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool because we can see the four palps that the beetle uses to taste and also manipulate its food, since it does not have utensils like a fork or spoon or knife
- GuestRachel asks what are the hairs on top of the head.
Bugscope Teamwe think that those are likely mechanosensory -- they are for touch and wind-sensing
Bugscope Teamthey are comparable to a cat's whiskers
- Bugscope Teamthe mandible looks like a fork
- Bugscope Teamthis is an adult tick
- Bugscope Teamthe younger ticks have six legs
- Bugscope Teamyou can see things like pincers near its head that it uses to perch on leaves
- GuestKamya asks why it is called a cucumber beetle.
Bugscope TeamJoe is an entomologist and thus knows more than I do about this, but I believe it is because they are found on cucumbers, sometimes
Bugscope Teamthey care called cucumber beetles, because of what Scott said.
Bugscope Teama lot of cucumber beetles are major agricultural pests and spread various plant diseases
- Bugscope Teamthe head of the tick is called the capitulum
- 10:29 am
- Bugscope Teamwhen it bites the two side pieces fold down and only the middle sticks into your skin
- Bugscope Teamon this side of the hypostome -- the part that sticks into your skin -- there are recurved spines that hold the hypostome into your skin
- Bugscope Teamon the other side of the hypostome, there are spines that are not as spikey
- Bugscope Teamsome times when you are out in the field, you may see ticks on the ends of a blade of tall grass, waving its two front legs around.
Bugscope Teamthis is a behaviour known as questing, the tick is actively searching for its next host. they can detect carbon dioxide and heat
- GuestAmaya asks what are all the lines going across the head.
Bugscope Teamthose help the tick feel when its head is put together, like now, and when it is apart, like when it bites
- Bugscope Teamsee the sharp ridges?
- Bugscope Teamthese things keep the hypostome from slipping out of your skin
- 10:34 am
- GuestYanni asks why does this bug have long line down its head and body.
Bugscope Teamthat is the proboscis -- it is a piercing lance-like mouthpart
- Bugscope Teambedbugs, for example, have one of those as well!
- GuestNate asks how do they inject anesthesia and could this be applied to human vaccines
Bugscope TeamI am not sure how they do it physically.
Bugscope Teamthe anesthetic is a small part of their saliva, so when they bite you, the anesthetic chemicals are injected along with their saliva
Bugscope Teamthere are also anticoagulants in their saliva that keeps the blood flowing (prevents blood clots)
- Bugscope Teamwe have been told that when we see three joints in one of these proboscises, it means that the insect preys on other insects -- it pierces the other insects' exoskeletons and sucks out the hemolymph
- Bugscope Teamthis is the wildest looking fly
- 10:40 am
- GuestAngel asks why is it bumpy?
Bugscope TeamNot sure, might have something to do with their environment, these guys tend to be in bark of trees
Bugscope Teamsometimes when we see bumps up way close, they actually make the insect that has them look sparkly
- GuestLOL
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the patches will give them different colors. I think scott thought this was a yellowjacket before it was in the microscope
- Bugscope Teamif you look more to the north, i think its antennae look like bunny ears
- GuestKaleb T asks why this fly has a mullet.
Bugscope Teamit likes to party.
Bugscope Teamit is so odd-looking!
Bugscope Teammost likely, this has something to do with the fly behaviour, the hair location seems like it would be used for propriosensing (a sense of self) and possibly wind (during flight)
- GuestElijah asks why do the eyes look like ears.
Bugscope Teamif you had ears on the side of your head it would be best for hearing what is around you, so having big eyes on the sides of your head helps you see better in more directions at once
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the tick!
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure, now, just what this is. It is one of the fly's mouthparts...
- 10:45 am
- GuestBrianna asks what are the spikey things.
Bugscope Teamthey seem to be there to help filter liquids that might otherwise go right into this mouthpart
- Bugscope Teammany flies have sponging mouthparts, but some -- like deerflies and horseflies -- have cutting/slashing mouthparts
- Bugscope TeamI am a grad student
- Bugscope TeamI work in the lab full time with Scot
- GuestWe would like to thank you and ask if you are grad students.
Bugscope TeamJoe is an entomology grad student, and Cate is also in grad school now
- GuestThank you - TTYNY
- Bugscope TeamI got a degree in English and Biology a long time ago and will not likely go back to school/
- Bugscope TeamTTYNY!
- Bugscope TeamThanks!
- Bugscope Teamover and out!
- Bugscope Teamthank you!
