Connected on 2014-11-14 08:45:00
from Leon County, Florida, United States
- 7:43 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is being sputter coated
- 7:50 am
- Bugscope Teambringing sample in from coating
- Bugscope Teamsample is now pumping down
- Bugscope Teamin chamber
- 8:07 am
- 8:12 am
- 8:17 am
- Bugscope Teamwe're making presets now
- 8:23 am
- 8:29 am
- 8:36 am
- 8:42 am
- TeacherGood morning Bugscope
- Bugscope TeamGood morning Ms. Karen
- TeacherWhat is this creature?
- Bugscope Teamwe are not sure
- Bugscope TeamWe now think it is a mayfly larva
- TeacherIs it real?
Bugscope Teamyes all the insects/bugs you see today are real, dead but real
- TeacherWhy does the tail have three sections?
Bugscope Teamsome have three, some have two. We are not sure why. Maybe it makes them more sensitive to things behind them
- 8:47 am
- TeacherWe are wondering what the background material is. Also, the kids have named it Gregory.
Bugscope TeamAll the insects are sitting on a layer of double stick carbon tape, with a little glob of silver paint to help them stick
- Bugscope Teamhere is a plier ant. What does the class want to name this one?
- Bugscope TeamMost ants, wasps, and bees you see are females
- TeacherWhat is the original color of what we are looking at?
Bugscope Teambrown for the ant, black for the background
- TeacherThe plier ant is Gilbert. I guess G names are popular.
- Bugscope Teameverything is covered with a thin layer of metal to make them conductive, so after coating they are all the same color anyway
- Bugscope Teammaybe we could call the ant Gilberte
- Bugscope Team?
- TeacherCan we get a closer look at the mouth?
- Bugscope Teamfeminine form of Gilbert
- Bugscope Teamthese ants feed on springtails
- Bugscope Teamand they catch them with these wild-looking mandibles
- TeacherKids are interested in seeing what's on the hairs.
- Bugscope Teamwe mount many of the insects/arthropods upside down because there are more interesting features on the ventral side --- the underside
- 8:53 am
- Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at some of the setae (which is what we are supposed to call 'hairs') that are part of the palps, between the mandibles
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that they have sticky tips
- Bugscope Teamwe can also see a small mold spore in the middle that looks like a gumdrop
- Bugscope TeamHI Hannah!
- Bugscope Teaminsects have setae (see-tee), the tiny hairs, to help them sense their environment
- TeacherHi Hannah! :)
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are mechanosensory, for sensing wind or touch
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are chemosensory, for sensing chemical odors in the air or sensing chemicals by touch (tasting)
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae are for sensing hot and cold
- TeacherCould we look at someone's eyes?
Bugscope Teamlet's go to the grasshopper
- Bugscope Teamwe can see its compound eye, to the right
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes are made of many small facets, individual lenses, called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamlet's go up closer
- TeacherWe've named it Guy. Can we zoom in on that?
Bugscope Teamawesome!
- Bugscope Teamthis is interesting. we see little flakes that resemble the wax we see on fruit like blueberries
- 8:58 am
- TeacherAre the flakes the metal you cover it with?
Bugscope TeamCate thinks it could be, but I am not sure.
- Bugscope Teami think it looks too thick for the silver paint i use, but it does look similar- flakey
- Bugscope Teamthey are most likely crystals of some sort
- Bugscope Teamyes we can likely find some silver paint to compare this with
- TeacherCross-cut potato chip or something else?
- TeacherWe are wondering about the maximum magnification of your microscope. We've read that some magnify up to 2000000 x.
Bugscope Teamthe maximum this microscope can go is 1 million x, but we really can't see much above 200,000x.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a wingscale from a moth or butterfly that is on the grasshopper's leg
- Bugscope Teamthe ridges we see are so small that they interfere with light and produce what are called structural colors
- Bugscope Teamwing scales can have both colors produced by pigment and colors produced by the narrow ridges
- Bugscope Teamthis is 25,000x
- TeacherDo the holes help it glide through the air.
Bugscope Teamit keeps the scales light. sometimes the holes will also have pigment granules in them that looks like little rods or balls
- 9:03 am
- Bugscope Teamabout 30 times better than we can see with a light microscope
- Bugscope Team50,000x now
- TeacherCan we see a spider?
Bugscope Teamthe closest thing we have to a spider is a tick
- Bugscope Teamthis is a wasp stinger
- TeacherOK. Let's see the tick.
Bugscope Teamthis is the tick's head, called a capitulum
- Bugscope Teamyou can see in the front in the middle the part that helps the hypostome stick into your skin
- Bugscope Teamsee how the spines go backward?
- Bugscope Teamthe other side of this, which we cannot see today, has finer rasping features on it like a file that help it scrap your skin
- TeacherOh, like a fishhook
Bugscope Teamexactically!
- 9:08 am
- Bugscope Teamthe things on the side of the head are palps, and they fold off to the sides when the central part -- the hypostome -- sticks into your skin
- TeacherThe kids are interested in seeing the hypostome at the highest magnification possible.
Bugscope Teamwe can actually see some of the rasping portion of the hypostome here
- Bugscope Teamthere is some juju on it that makes it hard to image well
- Bugscope Teamlike fluids from someone's skin
- TeacherThey've named this one Harkness.
Bugscope TeamSweet!
- TeacherMy classes are switching now to a new group.
- Bugscope Teamwhen they are young, like when this one would have been just called Hark, they have only six legs
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the six claws of the plier ant
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that the claw, which is at the end of the arm, is resting on the abdomen
- 9:13 am
- Bugscope Teamthe last five or so segments of the limb are called tarsi, or tarsomeres
- TeacherCan we look at the ant's head?
Bugscope Teamyes I am sorry someone wanted to talk with me
- Bugscope Teamwe can see from the scalebar that the ant's (Gilberte's) head is very small, less than a millimeter wide
- Bugscope Teamthe things on the side of the head are the antennae
- TeacherWe are wondering if you have snow in Illinois?
Bugscope Teamnot much but we did get our first flurries yesterday. There is barely anything on the ground
Bugscope Teamtomorrow the snow is supposed to stick
- TeacherCan we look at the fruit fly head?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- 9:19 am
- Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes, which take up much of the head?
- TeacherThis group is interested in seeing maximum magnification also.
- TeacherWith SEM can you see a single cell surface?
Bugscope Teamyes -- if we look at the diatoms, on one of the aquatic insects, those are single-celled algae
Bugscope Teamwe can also see bacteria, which are single cells, and we can see mammalian cells in culture
- TeacherWhat's at the edge of the eye?
Bugscope Teamnot sure! maybe some plant fibers?
Bugscope Teami agree with it being part of a plant
- Bugscope Teamlet's push the magnification with the diatoms, on the head of a mayfly larva
- Bugscope Teamdiatoms!
- TeacherThat's amazing.
- 9:24 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is 50,000x. Cate explained to the first group that we limit our resolution by staying at a long working distance from the sample
- Bugscope Teamsee how far away we are?
- Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope Teamthis is the inside of the specimen chamber, which is under vacuum
- TeacherDo you know where to go to find a pollen grain?
Bugscope Teamwe might go to see if there are any on the wasp, but we did not see any earlier
- Bugscope TeamMr Rogers
- 9:29 am
- TeacherKids think this should be on NetFlix\
Bugscope Teamhaha
- GuestIt should!
- TeacherAre those fibers part of the wasp?
Bugscope Teamfungal hyphae, spider web, plant fibers
Bugscope Teamthe spines are part of the wasp
- TeacherWhat's up with the holes?
Bugscope Teamthose are not usually holes, but this wasp's antenna is very dry, and the inner components have shrunken back. it gives us a rare view of the antenna
- Bugscope Teamthe spines with the holes in the ends of them are likely chemoreceptors that help the wasp pick up scents in the air
- Bugscope Teamthere is also some dried gunk on the surface
- Bugscope Teamthe long oval holes are where the placoid sensillae have shrunken away from the surface
- 9:35 am
- TeacherWow, we feel special.
Bugscope Teamkind of cool
- TeacherCan we see the tick next?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the tick's eight claws
- Bugscope Teamticks will climb up long grass with their legs sticking up in the air, waiting for something to come brush by them
- TeacherYes, some of our students had that experience on a field trip this year.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a sid view of the Haller's Organ, which is on one of the forelegs and helps the tick sense CO2 when we breathe.
- Bugscope Teamside view...
- Bugscope Teamif they get on you on your leg, they will make a slow climb up towards usually your head
- Guestwhy do they climb to your head?
Bugscope Teamthey don't always, but it is likely because that is the source of the CO2 that attracted them to you
- Bugscope Teamit's warm there maybe. I have had one be happy in my armpit
Bugscope Teamhaha
- 9:40 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is the opening of the mouth
- TeacherCan we look at the mold spore again.
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Bugscope Teamthe mold spore is about 1 micrometer (1 micron) wide. that is a thousandth of a millimeter and a millionth of a meter
- TeacherWe see the spore, what is that in the foreground?
Bugscope Teamthose are setae with sticky tips that help the ant secure and also taste its prey, which are springtails
- Bugscope Teamit is similar looking. Sometimes it is hard to tell them apart
- Bugscope Teammold spores are usually smaller than red blood cells
- TeacherThat looks like a red blood cell
Bugscope Teamyes it does -- it is collapsed like one. red blood cells are usually smoother, and they are 8 to 14 microns in diameter
- 9:46 am
- Bugscope Teambird red blood cells still have nuclei, but mammalian blood cells have lost them
- TeacherWe love bugscope. Thanks so much for having us. Some students are interested in their own session. I guess they will have to become teachers to do that.
Bugscope Teamif you watch the Bugscope homepage you can always log in as a guest when we are running a session
Bugscope Teama few years ago we had a student named Aditi who would log into other sessions and help us out
Bugscope Teamshe was very nice
- TeacherGreat idea. Oh I had a student named Aditi a few years ago also...
Bugscope Teamreally!
Bugscope Teamwe wish she would come back sometime to say Hi
- TeacherWe appreciate your time. The kids have to tend to a plant growth experiment now.
Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Bugscope TeamBye Hannah!
- Bugscope Teamawesome! I am horrible with plants, so good luck
- GuestThank You! This was so interesting! Bye!
- Bugscope TeamYay! Over and out!
