Connected on 2007-03-07 18:30:00 from Richland, Washington, USA
- 6:53pm
- Bugscope Team OK, we cleared the chat out to start fresh
- Student Hi
- Bugscope Team hi leah!
- Bugscope Team hey guys
- Student Hey
- Bugscope Team yo fig
- Bugscope Team Hi guys! Please feel free to ask us anything about the images you're seeing, bugs, the microscope, etc
- Student I am missing the control panel to the right
- Bugscope Team Lisa: Please go back to the Firefox window you opened, instead of using this one in Internet Explorer
- Bugscope Team the controls are granted to WSU right now
- Student Thanks!
- Bugscope Team that one has been given control, and will show the controls on the right
- Bugscope Team you can close the IE7 window that you have open, you don't need it
- Student What type of mite is this or what type of bug is this?
- 6:58pm
- Student What is going on?
- Bugscope Team You'll need to click again to stop driving!
- Bugscope Team click again to stop the movement
- Bugscope Team OK, now we've travelled to a different bug on the sample stage
- Student Ok,
- Bugscope Team the movement control you just used starts moving in the direction you click until you click again to stop it
- Bugscope Team once you get near something you're interested in, you'll want to use the "Click to Center" instead. Then, whatever you click on in the image will be moved to the center of hte image so that you can zoom in on it
- Student Can we select another preset?
- Bugscope Team yes, please!
- Bugscope Team Lisa: It would be best if you just close the window where you're logged in as "Teacher" and use the firefox window where you're logged in as "WSU" for chat and control
- Student What type of beetle?
- Bugscope Team I don't think we know exactly what it is. Came from a big collection of unidientified stuff
- Bugscope Team Often times people bring us jars of bugs
- Bugscope Team you can try to decrease the magnification so you can see more parts of this bug
- Bugscope Team but I think this one was the really long one?
- 7:03pm
- Student I can't tell which this one is...
- Bugscope Team Try zooming out and we'll try to identify
- Student My son has collected a couple of preying mantis' that we have placed in jars. They had laid eggs before they died, I wonder if they will hatch during summer or die. Do you know?
Bugscope Team praying mantis eggs hatch anywhere from 3 weeks to 6 months, so they are probably dead already
- Bugscope Team I think this is a small black beetle.
- Bugscope Team when did they lay the eggs?
- Bugscope Team You can see now that it has clubbed antennae.
- Student After summer during the fall
- Bugscope Team oh yeah, you can look at the scale bar to the lower left: it's only about 1.5 millimeters wide
- Bugscope Team very small
- Student what's the bug laying on? Is it taped, or floating in something?
- Bugscope Team that's carbon tape which is conductive, and has sort of a bubbly appearance
- Student that would make sense because of the bubbles
- Bugscope Team It's on double stick carbon tape and has silver paint to help make the conductive connection to ground.
- Student does it have hair on it eye
- Student Thanks Alex, he will be disappointed, but at least he will know.
- Student is that hair or sperm
Bugscope Team that is a hair
- Bugscope Team so there's a slight chance, perhaps. we have a wild story here of a butterfly chrysilis that actually went through a whole bugscope session and hatched over the weekend after we took it out
- Bugscope Team Look at one of the fruit flies -- they have tiny setae between most of the ommatidia.
- Student ooh I love butterflies!
- Student How often to walking sticks lay eggs and multiply
Bugscope Team depends on the location, summer in temporate climates, year around in tropics.
- Bugscope Team that's a hair, or "setae" as they're called on bugs. you frequently see them between the individual ommatidia (facets) of the eye
- Bugscope Team those were quite sparse, but some insects have them between every part of the compound eye in a very regular fashion
- Bugscope Team A monarch butterfly chrysalis that I coated with gold-palladium and actually put in the ;scope, in the vacuum.
- 7:08pm
- Student so what does the hair do?
- Student why is it in the eyes?
- Student why do they have hair in their eyes?
- Bugscope Team one very cool thing about eyes: their appearance tells you a LOT about what the insect is like
- Bugscope Team Then it was sitting in my office on the shelf -- I hadn't thrown it away yet -- and it hatched.
- Student These things are covered in hair, they look like my oldest brother
- Bugscope Team The hairs (setae) help them gauge windspeed when they fly, we think.
- Student Do ants use combs to taste their food?
- Bugscope Team This is one of the built-in combs on an ant's legs.
- Bugscope Team They use them to clean their antennae.
- Bugscope Team that was an ant, which lives underground so it doesn't need it need eyes as much, and so its eye was much less complex
- Student We have had then through the fall, but they seem to be multipling. We have them under a heat lamp for warmth, then we spray them daily for moisture.
Bugscope Team cool.
- Student Do all ants live underground?
Bugscope Team some ants nest in trees
- Bugscope Team All that I know of like to have enclosed colonies, but some may build structures above ground
- Bugscope Team Some ants live inside trees, like acacia trees.
- Bugscope Team This we don't recognize either, sorry.
- 7:13pm
- Bugscope Team but most are in the ground in nests to protect their offspring
- Bugscope Team Another reason they live underground is that often their food is the mold that grows on other things as it decays
- Student does cinnamon really kill ants?
Bugscope Team well, it does seem that ants are adverse to cinnimon, but it doesn't really kill them in normal doses.
- Student Do ants keep the same home year after year?
Bugscope Team I think they typically stay there for quite a while. Although occasionally a new queen is bred and will leave the colony to go start a new one elsewhere
- Student What type of legs are mandibles
- Student where did you find this unknown bug
- Bugscope Team so they harvest plant matter and take it underground where the it's a constant 60-deg F and can get very humid
- Student do you know much about tarantulas?
- Bugscope Team The mandibles are not legs -- they're the loose part of the jaw. The fixed part of the jaw is the maxilla.
- Student Is this a tarantula - we have one
- Bugscope Team The palps are thus called mandibular or maxillary palps, and the palps are like modified limbs.
- Bugscope Team Tarantulas are generally larger than this whole stub.
- Bugscope Team The stub we are looking at with the bugs on it is 1.75 inches across.
- Bugscope Team Fruit fly. Now check out its eyes.
- Bugscope Team if it helps scott, that big bug was a weird shade of blue
- Student Our tarantula had molted and it actually looked like to taratulas in the tarrarium
- Student fig says that cinamon makes their legs disappear, so that's not true?
Bugscope Team well shoot, i don't know.
- Bugscope Team Maybe if fig has the cinnamon in his eyes.
- Student did you lose your train of thought on the last comment
- Bugscope Team i thought cinnamon just scared the ants away
- Bugscope Team but I don't know much about that method
- 7:19pm
- Bugscope Team This is cool -- you can see the antennae and how they are streamlined into the head.
- Bugscope Team yes!
- Bugscope Team And you can see the tiny setae between the ommatidia.
- Bugscope Team the eye is to the left of what we're seeing right now
- Student Using cinnamon helps keep poison away from young children that is why people use it on ants
- Bugscope Team there it is. Note the setae between every eye facet
- Bugscope Team Yeah the dome shape now in the center.
- Bugscope Team OOF.
- Bugscope Team If you recall what it looked like on the ant, this eye is much more "complex"
- Bugscope Team because this is a flying insect
- Student This is awesome
- Bugscope Team You can barely see one of the ocelli.
- Bugscope Team If you want to zoom in more, we could adjust focus and get an even clearer image
- Bugscope Team On top of the head.
- Student whats the ocelli?
- Bugscope Team by "we" I actually mean, "you" :-)
- Bugscope Team The ocelli are the three simple domelike eyes on top of the head.
- Bugscope Team ocellus, ocelli
- Student We changed the person at the front.
- Student so it has three eyes?
- Bugscope Team About the cinnamon and ants: I don't know why the cinnamon would harm the ants, especially their legs, but ants are VERY reliant on chemical signals and trails so it's possible that interferes with them or discourages them
- Bugscope Team They are used we think to help orient with the sun.
- Bugscope Team So they have five eyes.
- Bugscope Team This is part of the haltere, which Diptera have.
- Student in english please
- Bugscope Team The haltera is sort of like a gyroscope that balances the movement of the two wings.
- Bugscope Team An ocelli sense light like an eye does, but they can't determine by itself the direction from which the light came, as in it doesn't form an "image"
- Student That makes sense as to why they would be distracted from their trail
- Bugscope Team Diptera means 'two wings.'
- Bugscope Team haltere, not haltera as I had typed.
- Bugscope Team if you see video of a fly in action, you see the haltere looking like a little sack bouncing back and forth agains it's body
- 7:24pm
- Student we so would have believed you if you had left it at haltera
- Bugscope Team and it senses the movement of that sack, the haltere, to understand it's direction of movement
- Bugscope Team What we see now are the mechanosensors that the fly uses to sense the motion of the haltere. What we saw, that is.
- Bugscope Team This I think is an amphibious beetle.
- Bugscope Team If you were to drive up higher on its body -- to the north -- you would see flipperlike limbs.
- Bugscope Team Yes. Some of it's legs looked usual, as if they were modified for swimming
- Bugscope Team This is where the pulvillus is -- right in between the claws.
- Bugscope Team The pulvillis is a pad composed of many many tiny hairs that usually sits just below the claws at the end of the leg
- Bugscope Team this one is sort of folded up onto itself
- Bugscope Team with all the lines
- Bugscope Team In some insects, like houseflies, the pulvillus has tenent setae that help it stick to the ceiling, or to glass.
- Bugscope Team it looks like it's got some dirt stuck in between those long tubular things
- Bugscope Team tenent like in Spanish tener
- Bugscope Team Geckos have a similar system but the setae are much smaller and are said to utilize vanderwaals forces.
- Bugscope Team This has spines rather than sticky setae.
- Bugscope Team Because the setae in these pulvilli are too large to use vanderwaals force, they sometimes sucrete a sticky substance
- Bugscope Team a 'weak' force
- Bugscope Team like married people
- 7:29pm
- Bugscope Team I can't type that fast
- Bugscope Team or none married people too i guess
- Bugscope Team Good Alex.
- Bugscope Team in fact, if you get much closer, the nuclei of the atoms are TOO close and they start to repel each other
- Student what are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team but it's also a very small force... so geckos have billions of these tiny setae in order to get a useful amount of adhesion to surfaces
- Bugscope Team try focus here
- Bugscope Team hard to tell but it's OOF
- Bugscope Team yeah try focus
- Bugscope Team OOF = "out of focus", btw
- Bugscope Team one way or the other...
- Bugscope Team great! getting better
- Student ok , thanks
- Student lol
- Student what are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team ah, as we can clearly see this is a self portrait of scott
- Bugscope Team where were we last? I'm not sure I can tell if I do'nt know the context.
- Student lol=laugh out loud
- Bugscope Team alex.. lol
- Bugscope Team Uh..
- Bugscope Team ok...... this looks like the inner folds of a joint in the leg
- Bugscope Team Okay that was a fine membrane -- part of the claw assembly.
- Bugscope Team wow, great zoom out on that one WSU!
- Student wow, that's quite a magnification
Bugscope Team that's why the scanning electron microscope is so cool!
- Bugscope Team I've actually seen that pattern before a number of times on the inner surfaces near joints. it might play a role in allowing them to move freely, or keep them clean
- Bugscope Team yeah it is a familiar pattern
- Bugscope Team like shingles
- Bugscope Team and so expensive: $500,000 at least, right scott?
- Bugscope Team Another claw you found yourself.
- Bugscope Team i thought it was a little more
- Bugscope Team yeah, it has a distinctly layered look like scales... although I'm not sure if they are actually loose like scales
- Bugscope Team $582,000
- Bugscope Team plus it is getting a nice upgrade next week
- Bugscope Team yeah man
- 7:35pm
- Bugscope Team You can see fungus here.
- Student eeew
- Bugscope Team The thing that looks like umbrellas attached one after the other in a line.
- Student the things that look like dry flaky skin is fungus?
- Bugscope Team It looks like a string of beads now.
- Bugscope Team very small right now, going horizontally across the center of the image
- Bugscope Team zoom in!
- Student ohhh, I see it
- Bugscope Team Take the mag up a little and focus.
- Bugscope Team Who is driving?
- Bugscope Team ok, we're on the ant jaw now I guess
- Bugscope Team WSU is driving.
- Student every so often one of us goes up there to mess with the controls
Bugscope Team well you guys are doing great so far. very active, we like that!
- Bugscope Team hey, I saw a moth/butterfly scale on his mandibles there!
- Bugscope Team ah cool
- Bugscope Team go for it
- Bugscope Team Flying ant.
- Bugscope Team i agree, WSU is a fiesty group of bug lovers!
- Student bug lovers?
- Bugscope Team awwwe, poor bugs
- Bugscope Team those are the "clips" that hook their two sets of wings together
- 7:40pm
- Bugscope Team you should adjust the focus now
- Bugscope Team so we can see them clearly
- Bugscope Team Hamuli.
- Bugscope Team looking good! keep going
- Student is this hair again
- Student alright, thanks!
- Student it's been real
- Student thanks for your help!
- Bugscope Team This is what four-winged insects have to connect the fore- and hindwings on each side.
- Student Bye have a great one.
- Student This was fun!
- Bugscope Team Microsetae.
- Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Bugscope Team Thanks! Cya
- Bugscope Team Ciao!!!
- Bugscope Team Where's Lisa?
- Bugscope Team bye guys
- Student Thanks for everything! We will get back to you with the survey for Umesh- If he still wants it. Remind me of the website that we can use to find the chat dialog?
- Bugscope Team Chas?
- Bugscope Team I'll have to get back to you on the chat transcript: we don't have it yet for this interface but I can make it for you in the next day
- Bugscope Team That's it? No more?
- Bugscope Team List, great job on getting firefox working, sorry it was trouble. But in the end it worked great for you.
- Bugscope Team Lisa, ah, my a's are t's today.
- Bugscope Team Are you like totally done?
- Bugscope Team Brenda are you still here?
- Guest Yes. Thanks for letting me watch. That was incredible!
- Bugscope Team Did you get to control before at all?
- Bugscope Team Kind of wild today.
- Bugscope Team yeah you can drive if you'd like.
- Bugscope Team I was too busy doing chat to notice
- Guest Yeh - it was moving pretty fast to try to read and watch. But amazing.
- Bugscope Team we thought they were running 'til 9:30 our time.
- Guest So that was their bugs?
- Bugscope Team These are hamuli -- little wing hooks.
- 7:45pm
- Guest Or yours?
- Bugscope Team We provided these. We often do.
- Bugscope Team no, we had them in our own bug collection
- Bugscope Team we need to get some fresh ones
- Guest I was laughing to myself - because we have lots of bugs here in Florida. : )
- Bugscope Team we get them from my house. they are my pets, nice little buggies
- Bugscope Team But we didn't know what everything was, and our entomologist had a meeting this evening.
- Bugscope Team where in florida? i have a brother at FSU
- Guest Ha Ha
- Bugscope Team Send us some small ones, Brenda -- they need to be small for this.
- Guest Oh - no Palmetto Bugs?
- Bugscope Team and send them in something that wont let them get squished
- Bugscope Team You don't need a microscope for those.
- Bugscope Team preferrably smaller than a centimeter or two
- Bugscope Team florida has some big bugs...
- Guest I'm thinking of trying cinnimon on my little baby ants that keep coming in when it rains out. : )
- Bugscope Team Like a cicada -- do you need a microscope to see one of those dudes?
- Bugscope Team They might like it.
- Bugscope Team chas, interface is working freeking awesome now dude. great job.
- Guest Yeh - our roaches are too bug for your microscopes. Ha HA
- Bugscope Team yuck have fun with those
- Bugscope Team They'd try to carry it off.
- Bugscope Team That's why I like to live in a place where it freezes hard in the winter.
- Guest Fortunately - I don't see many of them. But they can be pretty big. : o
- Bugscope Team Kills the fleas and stuff.
- Bugscope Team Oh cool.
- Guest Okay - what is this? An eye ... and ... ?
- Bugscope Team Yeah we don't have lizards up here either.
- Bugscope Team This is a fruit fly.
- Bugscope Team We had been centered on one of the spiracle.
- Guest Oh my gosh - you are missing out on 'lots'. Ha Ha
- Bugscope Team spiracles
- Bugscope Team no anoles, no geckos
- Student Thanks again. We are done here. I never know how long they are going to take so I apologize for scheduling our session for so long and then signing off early! I aslo apologize for being a computer dummy earlier. Thanks for walking me through everything. :) Have a great night.
- 7:50pm
- Bugscope Team lisa, it was our pleasure, you did great!
- Bugscope Team Thank you Lisa.
- Bugscope Team Thanks for letting us know. We'll shut down now. Glad we got things working, it looked like a great active session
- Bugscope Team it was no problem, and we hope you enjoyed the time you had
- Bugscope Team Yeah you did great. That is not so easy -- I had to stay back and get Alex and Chas to help.
- Guest Thanks again!
- Bugscope Team Brenda Thank You.
- Bugscope Team We do this sometimes, and you know how to get here.
- Guest Sounds good. Thanks much. Bye now.
- Bugscope Team The bugscope page usually has listed what's coming up.
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Bugscope Team ok well I guess I'll be logging now
- Bugscope Team it was fun guys
- Bugscope Team cya cathy, thanks for joining in!
- Bugscope Team later cathy, it was a blast
- Bugscope Team bzzzt
- Bugscope Team and it all goes black...
