Connected on 2014-09-25 09:30:00
from Cook County, Illinois, United States
- 8:36 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down
- 8:49 am
- 8:55 am
- 9:00 am
- 9:07 am
- 9:12 am
- 9:18 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome, Mustangs!
- Bugscope Teamgood morning, Mustangs!
- 9:24 am
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any trouble, or of course if you have questions
- Bugscope Teamwe like questions
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the presets, on the lefthand screen, and if you click on one, the microscope will drive to that place on the stub
- Bugscope Teamcan you see this?
- 9:31 am
- TeacherGood morning! We are waiting for the other class to join us, then we will be all set. :)
- TeacherWe can see the images.
- Bugscope TeamExxxxxxcellent.
- Bugscope Teamsuper cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is the antenna of the leafhopper, and to the lower left we can see its hexagonal ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamommatidia are the facets of a compound eye
- 9:36 am
- Bugscope TeamScot is moving over a bit.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a s
- Bugscope TeamLooks like 400um.
- Bugscope Teamsmall one, about 400 microns, or 0.4 mm.
- Bugscope TeamSLOW. SCOT IS SLOW.
Bugscope Teamhaha
Bugscope Team:)
- Bugscope TeamIf you want to see where you are at, you can zoom out by clicking the red "-" button next to the word Magnification. (If you don't see the "+/-" buttons, please let us know.)
- Bugscope TeamAlso, to move around, you simply click on a point in the image. Whatever you click upon will be the center of the new images.
- TeacherWhat is the part that looks like a hole in the bottom right?
Bugscope Teamit's an indented part of the head that the base of the antenna (the pedicel) fits into
- Bugscope Teamleafhoppers are interesting because they spread nanoparticles called brochosomes all over their exoskeletons and also on their eggs
- Bugscope Teamwe can see the brochosomes if we go to a higher magnification
- 9:42 am
- Teacherokay - the magnification +/- are not showing up on our end but did on the test and last year
Bugscope TeamCan you tell me what OS and browser you are currently using?
- TeacherDo the brochosomes make the exoskeletons have a rough texture?
Bugscope Teamit looks rough on the image here, but the brochosomes make the texture more waxy than rough, if you were to feel them
- Teacherwindows 7 and chrome
Bugscope TeamWe saw this problem for the first time on Tuesday. Chrome must have changed something in a recent update. :( I'll try very hard to not rant about Google right now...
- Bugscope Teamhere are some brochosomes
- Bugscope Teamare you able to use another browser?
- TeacherDo the leafhoppers look like a leaf ? Is there a way to zoom out far enough to see the whole insect too?
- TeacherWe are also wondering where you can find a leafhopper or if we might know it by a different name.
Bugscope Teamthey are the little dudes and dudettes you see when you brush your arm across a bush, outdoors; they hop!
Bugscope Teamthey are often quite small
Bugscope TeamI've seen quite a few of them this year. Most I've seen range from 0.5-0.7cm (about a quarter inch). They are often bright green and have a wierd wedge shape. They jump when you poke them and are entirely harmless to people.
- Bugscope Teamthey are usually 250 to 400 nanometers in diameter, meaning that some of them are thinner than the wavelengths of visible light.
- 9:48 am
- Bugscope Teama brochosome is 250 to 400 billionths of a meter in diameter, or 250 to 400 millionths of a millimeter!
- Bugscope Teamwe just gavre
- Teacherlet me switch browsers
Bugscope TeamFirefox (latest) works.
Bugscope TeamWe'll pass control to Mustangs2
Bugscope TeamMustangs2 should work right now.
- Bugscope TeamAre the buttons there now?
- Bugscope Teamwe just gave you control as mustangs2
- Bugscope Team(Please say yes! please please please please please.)
- Bugscope Teamcan you see the brochosomes now?
- Teacheryes
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teambe sure to select from the other presets
- Teachersorry, no firefox and internet explorer was not connecting either
Bugscope Teambrave new world. we're working on the next version of our software
- Bugscope Teamwe are happy to change mag, etc. for you
- Bugscope TeamI'm sitting at the microscope.
- Teacherthanks!
- Bugscope Teamfruit fly!
- 9:53 am
- TeacherCool!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes and the cover to its sponging mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamon either side of the mouth are the palps, which are kind of furry-looking
- Teachernow we are looking at the eye?
- TeacherWe have to stay with Chrome, sorry
Bugscope TeamOk. We'll handle mag changes for you then. Just tell us when you want to zoom in or out.
Bugscope TeamSorry for the trouble. Chrome issues silent updates all the time, far more frequently than Firefox. When they break something, we usually don't find out about it until during a session. :(
- Bugscope Teamhere are some of the eye facets, called ommatidia, on the fruit fly's head
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that it has been hanging around with leafhoppers
- Teacherwow!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a wasp!
Bugscope Teamthe wasp has forked mandibles
- Bugscope Teaminsect mandibles (jaws) open sideways, like a gate
- Teacherso the jaw opens sideways?
Bugscope Teamyes
- 9:59 am
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are covered with chemorececptors that help the wasp smell and taste its environment
- Bugscope Teamsome of the receptors are touch receptors, for chemicals, and some are for chemicals that are in the air
- Teacherdo wasps ever "sting" with their jaw or is it just for eating?
Bugscope Teamno they sting with their abdomen - also only females sting
- Teacherwow, that is cool!
- Bugscope Teamthey could bite with their jaws to hold on and sting better maybe
- Teacheris that the same with bees?
Bugscope Teamyes it is!
Bugscope Teamand ants as well
- Bugscope Teamsome ants have stingers as well, and some have little volcano-like openings at the tips of their abdomens that release formic acid
- Teacherdo male wasps and females wasps look different besides the stinger?
Bugscope Teamyes, males tend to have bigger eyes
- Bugscope TeamT.J. is an entomologist; she studies insects and comparable arthropods, like ticks.
- Teachervery cool
- 10:04 am
- Bugscope Teamdo you recognize this?
- Bugscope Teamits antennae are broken off, so sad
- Bugscope Teamit has a little hood
- Bugscope Team(it's a roach!)
- Teachera roach?
- Teacheror a beetle?
- Bugscope Teamthey are very streamlined; they can live anywhere
- Bugscope TeamAnd eat just about anything.
- Bugscope Teamthey do not have specialized features like many other insects
- Teacherwe would like to see the bee stinger
Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that the stinger has sharp parts that slide, side by side
- Teacherwhat is the part that looks like a web?
Bugscope Teamthe tip of the abdomen is kind of dirty, and besides hairs, called setae, that are there, we can see some fungus
- 10:12 am
- Teacherclass says "ew" to the fungus!
Bugscope TeamHahaha!
- Bugscope TeamFun fact: the reason only females have stingers is because it's a modified ovipositor - or device that aids in laying eggs. Some wasps use their stinger so that they can lay their eggs inside other insects like caterpillars
Bugscope TeamAnd a gross fact: when those eggs hatch, the wasp larva eat the caterpillar from the inside out! When they're ready, they burst through the side of the poor caterpillar, make little cocoons, and pupate.
- Teacherwhat are we looking at now?
Bugscope Teamthis is a fly
Bugscope Teama big fly
- Teachercan we zoom in under the eyes?
- Bugscope Teamrobber fly
- 10:17 am
- Teacherwhat types of things do flies eat?
Bugscope TeamThey eat other insects
Bugscope TeamThey're really sneaky flies...sometimes they grab their prey right off of a leaf or flower mid flight!
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamthis is a spiracle-like opening at the tip of the palp
- Bugscope Teamtotally gnarly
- Teacherwhat is the black part here?
Bugscope TeamIt is a chemoreceptor. It senses chemicals.
Bugscope TeamYou can think of it like a tastebud for the fly.
Bugscope TeamOr a nose :)
- Teachercould we move to the moth wing?
- TeacherI mean, moth scale on the wing
Bugscope TeamHere you go!
- Bugscope Teamso pretty!
- 10:22 am
- Teacherthanks!
- Bugscope Teamthe lines we see are so thin that they interfere with light and create what are called structural colors
- Teacherdo robber flies bite humans too?
Bugscope TeamNope, they aren't hematophagous (blood feeding) so they don't really have any reason to
Bugscope TeamThey they can bite people if you grab one and really bother it
- Teacherthanks!
- Teachercan we zoom out and then zoom back in?
Bugscope TeamThere's what the scale looks like.
Bugscope TeamIt is on the abdomen of the wasp. It was transferred there, probably by us.
Bugscope TeamIt is very small. Ranging about 50-100um long (about the size of a human hair).
- Teacherwow!
- 10:27 am
- Teacherwow!
- TeacherThank you so much!
- Bugscope Teamstructural cololrs are different from colors produced by pigment; some of the structural colors we cannot see because we cannot see ultraviolet light
Bugscope TeamFun Fact: If we were bees we could see these colors because bees can see UV light
Bugscope Teambees are lucky that way!
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2014-062
- Teacherwe are out of time here
Bugscope TeamOh no! So soon! We hope you participate again. Hopefully we'll get that annoying chrome bug fixed!
- Bugscope TeamThanks for joining us :)
- Bugscope Teambelow is a link to your member page, but it needs to be modified so it has a colon in it when it shows up on a web page
- Bugscope TeamThat URL that Scot posted works if you copy and paste it. Unfortunately, we found another bug in that the hyperlink is missing the colon. That should be an easy fix.
- Bugscope TeamThank you, Everyone!