Connected on 2014-01-30 18:30:00
from Alameda County, California, United States
- 6:07 pm
- Bugscope Teamhello! we're working on presets...
- Teacherjust logging on.....students here at 4:30 pm (PST) - online shortly after :) See you soon!
- Teacherlooks fun so far!!! Thanks for doing this at a late hour for you :)
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool because I thought on the macro level we'd lost the honeybee's head
- 6:12 pm
- Teachervery cool. Can't hide from the SEM, huh?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a good one; you can see that it cuts like an electric steak knife, side by side
- 6:19 pm
- 6:25 pm
- 6:30 pm
- Bugscope TeamHi Kate!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- 6:37 pm
- GuestHi!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the moth proboscis
- TeacherHi there! Hi Kate!
- Bugscope Teamit's slit down the center
- TeacherWe are ready to roll!
Bugscope Teamawesome; so are we
- Bugscope TeamCSU you have control.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the moth proboscis, and as often with moths, the whole insect is charging up with electrons
- Bugscope Teamit is very difficult to coat them well.
- Bugscope Team-- to make them conductive, because they're covered with scales
- Bugscope Teamthe proboscis is coiled when it is not being used
- Bugscope Teamthis is a honeybee claw
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that it has sensory setae on it that let the bee know when something is within its grasp
- 6:42 pm
- Bugscope TeamI'm sitting at the SEM, the scanning electron microscope, so I can make small adjustments in the focus and contrast/brightness as we go along
- Bugscope Teambecause insects do not have skin -- they have an exoskeleton, like a shell -- they do not have nerve endings like we do that help us sense things we might be touching
- Bugscope Teaminstead they have thousands of setae that stick through the exoskeleton and help the insect sense its environment
- Teachertell us more about their sensory setae Scot
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are mechanosensory, so they pick up touch, and wind
- Bugscope Teamsome are chemosensory, so they can smell with them, but their discrimination of scents is far better than ours
- Bugscope Teamsome are also (the setae) thermosensory, so they can sense hot/cold
- Bugscope Teamthis is the combined head/thorax of a spider
- Bugscope Teamcalled a cephalothorax
- 6:47 pm
- Bugscope Teamright off it's a clue that this is not an insect, which has a separate head and thorax, and also, sometimes, what is called a prothorax
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that the spider has eight eyes
- Bugscope Teamthey also (spiders) rely on setae to sense their environment
- Bugscope Teamthey're very sensitive to vibration
- Bugscope Teamof course, I guess...
- Bugscope Teamspider eyes are often not very good
- TeacherWhat purpose do the hairlike fibers perform for the insects?
- Bugscope Teamthe hairlike fibers are the setae I've been talking about that have chemosensory, mechanosensory, thermosensory, and other functions, such as tenent setae that help some insects stick to things. also, scales on moths, butterflies, silverfish, and mosquitoes are modified setae that help protect them from spiders
- TeacherThis is Alan from the center table group.
Bugscope TeamHi Alan!
- TeacherThanks Scot
- Bugscope Teamthere are also much smaller setae that do not connect through the chitin to nerves below, called microsetae
- 6:52 pm
- Bugscope Teammicrosetae form patterns that help with species recognition, they likely help with thermoregulation, and they also likely help catch air when an insect is flying'
- Bugscope Teambees, alone among insects, have branched setae
- TeacherAre we looking at the honeybee's eye?
Bugscope Teamyes to the right we can see one, with setae sticking out of it
- Bugscope Teamcenter bottom is the hinge of one of the mandibles
- TeacherWhat do the setae do for the eyeball
Bugscope Teamthey are said, in fruitflies, to help them sense wind speed and direction
- TeacherVery cool
- GuestDo spiders or insects rely more on setae?
Bugscope Teambecause insects often have other kinds of chemoreceptors, and they can have better eyes, I'd go for the spiders being more dependent on setae
- TeacherWhere is the pupil for the eye?
Bugscope Teamthere is no pupil; they are compound eyes; I am not sure why praying mantises seem to have pupils, however
- Bugscope Teamwith compound eyes, all of the ommatidia serve as tiny individual lenses
- 6:59 pm
- TeacherThis is Alan again. I'm interested to see a spiders stinger. I understand that spiders sting their pray to stun them. Where is this stinger?
Bugscope Teamspiders have fangs on the underside of their head, or at the front if they point them that way; they're at the tips of the chelicers, or chelicerae
Bugscope Teamthe fangs have venom pores; they inject venom into their prey that dissolves the internal organs; then they use the fangs again to suck up the dissolved internal organs like a milkshake
- Bugscope Teamthe fangs are on the side of the spider's cephalothorax that we cannot see
- Bugscope TeamI do not see that my one message went through. Does it still say that sjSEM is replying?
- TeacherHello, this is Catherine and we are changing groups
Bugscope TeamHi Catherine!
- TeacherFirst question, why does the eye have so many "circles"?
- Bugscope Teamthe circles are the individual facets of the eye, called ommatidia; each is an independent lens
- Bugscope Teama compound eye, in many insects, can be large enough to curve around the head, giving the insect very good peripheral vision
- 7:04 pm
- Bugscope Teamalso, compound eyes update very quickly -- they make the insect very sensitive to motion
- TeacherWhat is the smooth part in the bottom right corner?
Bugscope Teamthat is a scale from a moth or butterfly
- Teachercan focus on that section, please?
- Bugscope Teamit is actually ridged, like Ruffles potato chips
- Teacherwhat is the purpose of the ridges?
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges make the scale rigid without adding too much weight, and they also, in some cases, interfere with the wavelengths of visible light, so they produce refracted light in different colors
- Teacherthat is so cool, thanks!
- Bugscope Teamthis is likely not from a moth or butterfly, now that we see it up close, because it does not have a secondary lattice pattern between the ridges
- Bugscope Teamthis is a very small ant
- 7:09 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe ants we've been able to collect are so small that they are hard to handle with forceps without breaking them
- Teachercan you zoom in on the mouth please?
- Bugscope Teamso we often make horrible messes of them trying to put them on the stub for Bugscope session
- Bugscope Teamsessions...
- Bugscope Teamserrated mandibles
- Bugscope Teamwhen we see lines parallel to the frame of the image, they are from the sample charging up with electrons
- TeacherThis is Alison, what are the two white "pointy things" above the mouth?
Bugscope Teamthose are likely mechanosensory setae, like cat or rat whiskers, that let the ant know if it has bitten something
- Teacherokay thank you!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the mandibles cut things, with those serrations
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamhere we see something else interested
- Bugscope Teaminteresting
- TeacherHi Scot, this is the next group of students. My name is Anelyse. We are super interested in knowing more about bees and their stingers! What can you tell us!?
- Bugscope TeamHi Anelyse! The stinger, we can see now, is in two parts that slide side by side to cut into your skin
- 7:15 pm
- Teacherit seems to have a lot of hairs next to the stinger, does that help it in some way?
- Teacherdo all bees have stingers? if yes, like this one?
- Bugscope Teamso it is a blade for piercing the prey and injecting venom quickly
- GuestIt looks like there is a break in it. Is there?
Bugscope Teamyes between the halves, is that what you mean? we can see, also, that there is dried fluid down the center
- Teacherovipositer is more similar to in another animal?
Bugscope Teamum turtles have something like that, for laying eggs
- Teacherwhat kind of fluid? can you refocus and show us the dried fluid?
Bugscope Teamsee down the center where it looks black?
- Teacheryes we can see that
- Bugscope Teamthe fluid charges up with electrons and does not allow the signal to come from that area
- Bugscope Teamso that is likely venom, and it comes out where the sides slide, side by side
- Teacherwe're going to zoom out to see the whole bee, thanks Scot you are awesome
- Bugscope Teamsee how the sides are barbed so they both cut and hold into the skin of the prey?
- Bugscope Teamto the left you can see amother claw
- Bugscope Teamanother clas
- Bugscope TeamD'Oh!
- Bugscope Teamclaw
- 7:20 pm
- Bugscope Teamant compound eye
- Bugscope Teamsome wasps/hornets can have as many as 17,000 ommatidia in one eye
- Teacherwow this is cool, is it full of little eyes?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the ant is charging up with electrons, doing a cannonball, upside down, and broken
- Bugscope Teamfemale fly
- Teacherthanks Scot, the next group is coming.
- Teacherhows the weather in illinois?
- Teacherit's like 70 here...
- Bugscope Teamwith flies, the males' eyes are usually close together, like Mikhail Baryshnikov
- Bugscope Teamhaha it's a heat wave today
- GuestHis eyes are really close....
- TeacherHi Scot, we're the last group...
- Bugscope Teamthe shiny things we see are the antennae, kind of hard to tell, I know
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are glowing because they are loose
- TeacherWhat is that large hole below the fangs?
Bugscope Teamthat is the opening for the mouthparts
- 7:25 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis fly has spongin mouthparts like a housefly
- Bugscope Teamsponging
- Teachercan you show us what the eye looks like?
Bugscope Teamsure!
- Bugscope Teamso to the right is the vestiture
- TeacherWhat is the debris on the eye?
Bugscope Teamthere is a single seta there that is broken
- Bugscope Teamthis is a spiracle, from which the fruitfly breathes
- Teacherwhat is the slinky like thing?
- 7:30 pm
- TeacherI was looking at a spider leg and i noticed hairs and something that looks like thorns. whta was that?
Bugscope Teamspiders have differnt types of setae, and some spiders have what are called urticating hairs that they can shoot at something that is bothering them; I kind of doubt that is what those were, but maybe
- Bugscope Teamthe slinky thing is a trachea, an inner ventilation tube that carries air to the organs
- Bugscope Teamthe spiracles open to the outside air, and these are what carry the air
- TeacherThis is super cool! can we see the trachea because the body part is borken off?
Bugscope Teamexactically
- TeacherHI Scot - Michele here again. We are going to log off and let you go home :) Any final thoughts? AWESOME images!!
- Bugscope Teamit is really cool, like you said
- TeacherThanks for chatting , Kate!!!
- GuestThanks!!!
- Bugscope TeamI really appreciate you all getting on and asking good questions.
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Kate, as well!
- Bugscope Teamsee you next time
- Bugscope Teamhi S
- Bugscope Teamare you still there?
- Bugscope TeamI'm going to shut down soon, but do you have any questions?
- Bugscope TeamS?
- 7:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamokay, Thank you!
- Bugscope Teamsee you next time