Connected on 2021-04-19 09:45:00
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- 9:09 am
- Bugscope Teamall presets are done. I drove to the weevil just now
- Bugscope TeamLooks good!
- 9:38 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to go
- 9:45 am
- Bugscope TeamHi Haworth
- TeacherGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamGood morning! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamthe little star next to your name indicates that you can control the microscope
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any questions
- Bugscope Teamthis is really cool -- being able to see the weevil's mandibles, at the tip of its proboscis, and also its compound eye...
- TeacherIs that an antenna in front of the compound eye?
Bugscope TeamYes it is!
- Bugscope TeamYou can see the base of the antennae next to the eye, and you cannot see where its 'elbow' is, but you can of course also see the tip of the antenna
- 9:50 am
- TeacherWhat type of appendage is in front of the antenna?
Bugscope TeamThat is the end of the antenna
- TeacherWhat are the functions of the different mouthparts shown?
Bugscope Teamwe can see tiny mandibles, and what looks like the business end of a hammer; not really sure how it eats
- Bugscope Teamthis is something we don't really know about -- exactly how the mouthparts operate
- Bugscope Teamthere is the whole antenna. it has an elbow joint
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see the mandibles, and what are likely taste sensory palps
- Bugscope Teamit must kind of nibble its food.
- TeacherThat is amazingly strange!
- 9:56 am
- Bugscope Teamthere are a bunch of presets available on the lefthand screen as well
- Bugscope TeamThis is a sensory palp, likely with taste receptors on it.
- Bugscope Teamwe moved this manually, as the software controls were dragging
- Bugscope Teammost insects have four palps around/near the mouth; they're used to both taste and manipulate food, or potential food.
- TeacherWhat are we focused on here?
Bugscope Teamthis is one of the four sensory palps
- Bugscope Teamkind of like tastebuds on your tongue
- Bugscope TeamNot sure but there may be a kind of tongue as well.
- 10:01 am
- TeacherI think our internet is slow. I am trying to look at the head of the tick.
- Bugscope Teamseems to be a little slow here, just a sec
- Bugscope TeamHere are the tick mouth parts
- Bugscope Teamit's ok. our bugscope can be slow
- Bugscope Teamso the thing in the center, in front, is the hypostome; it sticks into your skin.
- Bugscope Teamin order for the hypostome to stick deep into your skin, the palps, on either side, fold down
- Bugscope Teamit is
- TeacherMy students said that is terrifying.
Bugscope TeamIt is!
- Bugscope Teamthe hypostome has the part we see in front with recurved spines that hold it into your skin; behind that is the mouth opening, and behind that, on the other side, are raspers that cut into your skin to help bring the blood out
- Bugscope Teamthe head, with all of the parts we see, is called the capitulum
- 10:07 am
- TeacherHow do ticks detect an animal?
Bugscope Teamthe Haller's organ, which is on each forearm, helps the tick sense CO2 that people and animals breathe out
- Bugscope Teamwe cannot see the actual Haller's organ in this sample, with this view; it is inside the slit we can see in that preset
- TeacherIs that similar to mosquitos?
- Bugscope Teamyes it's similar, but mosquitos use some other sensors to detect CO2
- Bugscope Teamthat slit is often open a bit more than this one; inside is an element that sticks up in the middle of the opening
- TeacherWhat is the function of the hairs we see?
Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called setae, and sometimes microsetae; the setae are sensory -- often touch sensory, but they may have the ability to sense water or scents
- 10:12 am
- Bugscope TeamSetae are what insects (or comparable arthropods) use to help sense their environment. They have an exoskeleton, which is kind of like a coat of armor; the setae stick through that coat of armor.
- TeacherDoes blood type matter? Do they have a preference?
Bugscope TeamI don't think they have a preference.
- TeacherWhat does the element inside the Haller's organ look like?
- Bugscope TeamArthropods also have microsetae or trichae or microtrichae that do not project through the exoskeleton; they're just components of the exoskeleton.
- Bugscope TeamInsects breathe through spiracles, which are openings that they can close when necessary.
- 10:17 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is a thoracic spiracle (it's on the fly's thorax); around it we can see microsetae.
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we can see that the spiracle has a kind of filter in it that prevents dust from getting in.
- TeacherCan we look at the ambush bug? I clicked it but our internet must be lagging behing alot.
- Teacherbehind :)
- Bugscope Teamthe ambush bug is a 'true bug' -- a hemipteran.
- Bugscope Teamthe pointy mouthpart is called the rostrum
- Bugscope Teambedbugs are also hemipterans, and they have similar pointy mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamthose are piercing/sucking mouthparts; sometimes they spit liquid into the prey that helps dissolve the inner organs -- the way a spider works.
- 10:23 am
- TeacherDo the bumps we see on the exoskeleton have a function?
Bugscope TeamWe think it is armor, it strengthens the exoskeleton.
- Bugscope Teamwe can see, as well, the ridges in the forelimb, which is in the center now
- Bugscope Teamthose toothlike elements, on either side of the inner part of the forearm, help the ambush bug hold onto its prey
- TeacherWhat is the primary food source for them?
Bugscope Teamother insects
Bugscope Teamthey can really hurt if they bite you
- 10:28 am
- Bugscope Teamladybugs eat other insects, like aphids
- Bugscope Teamit was found in our building's stairwell, so it is a little dirty
- Bugscope Teamin the larval form they are kind of scary looking
- TeacherWhat are the projections in front of the eyes?
- TeacherCan we see the ladybug now?
- Bugscope Teamwe can see two palps that resemble vacuum cleaner nozzles, and two palps that have sensort organs at the tips
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eyes are on either side of the head
- Bugscope Teamthere's a lot of juju there as well -- perhaps spider web as well as bits of debris
- Bugscope Teamto the right is one of the claws
- TeacherAre those the mandibles under the palps?
- Bugscope Teamnow, at a slightly higher mag, we can see, above the fringe in the upper center of the image, the mandibles
- 10:34 am
- Bugscope Teamthe mandibles are small, and their tips are like two-pronged forks
- TeacherCan we look at the ant head next?
Bugscope TeamYes for sure!
- TeacherThis looks more like what you expect. The ladybug looks very different magnified.
- Bugscope Teamyou can see one of its compound eyes, and its mandibles are more obvious than those of the ladybug
- Bugscope Teamin the righthand corner of the image we see now is one of the forelimbs, which has a small antenna comb built into it
- 10:39 am
- Bugscope Teamyes it is
- Bugscope TeamI should say that what we see currently are live images
- TeacherIs the exoskeleton ridged?
Bugscope TeamYes it is!
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the texture will make ants appear shiny. In this case, it looks more for durability maybe
- Bugscope Teamnot all ants have cool ridges like that
- Bugscope Teamthe individual facets of the compound eyes are called ommatidia
- TeacherIs there a reason why their exoskeleton is ridged?
- Bugscope Teamrelated flying insects, like wasps, and bees as well, often have three ocelli (simple eyes) in a triangle on the top of the head. The ocelli help them orient themselves so they do not get lost.
- 10:44 am
- Bugscope Teamyes
- TeacherDo we have time to look at the comb?
Bugscope TeamYes!
- Bugscope Teamoops we got lost, just a sec
- Bugscope Teamhere it is
- Bugscope Teamthe image we were seeing is the carbon doublestick tape the critters are on
- Bugscope Teamthis is how ants clean their antennae
- TeacherIt resembles a bird wing.
Bugscope Teamit does!
- Bugscope Teamwe can see what look like bacteria on a few of the comb's teeth
- TeacherDo they break and regrow?
- Bugscope Teamthey can break, but they won't regrow. if an insect lives long enough, they may have another molt (sometimes spiders do this) and they can regrow lost limbs
- Bugscope Teamif we went to a little lower mag you could see that the comb sticks out like a kind of spur from one of the tarsi (the joints of the arm, or leg)
- 10:50 am
- TeacherAre the combs made of chitin like the exoskeleton?
Bugscope Teamyes
- Bugscope TeamEverything we see today is black and white because we're using electrons, which are constantly rastering across the sample the way a TV works, and we cannot see color, although if there were color it would be silver from the gold-palladium we put on the samples.
Bugscope Teamthe gold-palladium looks like silver, and it makes the surfaces of our samples conductive.
- Bugscope Teamthe samples are inside a vacuum chamber so the electrons do not bump into air molecules and mess up our imaging.
- TeacherDo you know what type of ant this is?
- Bugscope Teamnot all ants can produce formic acid, but yes most can
- TeacherDo all ant produce formic acid?
Bugscope TeamNot sure that all of them do.
- Bugscope Teamsome will spray it and some will sting with it
- Bugscope Teama few pollen grains for you.
- 10:56 am
- Bugscope Teambacteria are usually about 2 microns long (two micrometers, or two one-thousandths of a millimeter).
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure what type of ant that was. Sorry.
- Bugscope Teamit's on the main body, around the thorax. There does look to be a couple on the leg nearby
- TeacherIs the pollen on the abdomen or the leg in this view?
Bugscope TeamThis is on the thorax of a bee
Bugscope Teamthe pollen is on the thorax, next to one of the forelimbs
Bugscope TeamSorry not a bee
Bugscope Teamthat was another small true bug
- 11:01 am
- Bugscope TeamFemale fly.
- TeacherThe mouth parts are unusual? What are the features at the top?
- Bugscope Teamat the top we see one broken antenna and the two parts of an antenna that is intact
- Bugscope Teamflies have a two part antenna. one part is a pad and the other is a branching part. the one on the right is a fully intact antenna
- Bugscope Teamnow we seem some palps; we don't see the spongy mouthparts anymore, and at the top of the head we see a lobe that is the base of the left antenna (on the right) and the branched part of the left antenna.
- 11:07 am
- Bugscope Teamsome of the setae we see are used for proprioception -- they allow the insect to sense when its arm joints are touching each other, etc.
- TeacherThank you so much! I appreciate you giving us some extra time! This is an amazing experience!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for joining us
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- Bugscope Teamso if we were to look at an insect's arm, with its various segments, we would also see setae that stick out and are clearly affected when the arm moves.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a cool view of the spongy mouthparts
