Connected on 2008-09-26 10:00:00 from Bozeman, Mt, US
- 7:51am
- Bugscope Team 1.9
- Bugscope Team 1.4
- 8:01am
- 8:09am
- 8:15am
- 8:25am
- 8:30am
- 8:36am
- 8:43am
- 8:49am
- 8:55am
- Bugscope Team Alex!
- 9:17am
- 9:23am
- Bugscope Team hello bugzy
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope. if you want to try out the controls you can
- Bugscope Team Good morning!
- Bugscope Team Welcome to bugscope!
- 9:29am
- Bugscope Team and of course, let us know if you have any questions
- Teacher Hello... just getting my room set up.. everything looks good so far
- 9:51am
- Teacher Hi - the students should be arriving shortly
- Bugscope Team Good deal.
- Bugscope Team ok :)
- Bugscope Team these are the terminal segments of a large millipede
- Bugscope Team what was cool about the millipede was that it had lots of mites
- 10:08am
- Teacher Hi Scott! We are here! This is LeAnne and students.
- Bugscope Team Alright!
- Bugscope Team all right you have control. you can start by driving around or by clicking on a preset of your choice
- Bugscope Team You have control of the microscopes. If you would like you can have your students log on and ask questions.
- Bugscope Team microscope, that is
- Bugscope Team if you have any trouble let us know
- Teacher We will have a few laptops for questions here shortly. I'ill start with the insects. Where are my controls/
- Bugscope Team you should see, to the right of the image, a set of controls
- Bugscope Team and to the right of the chat, a number of presets we made this morning
- Bugscope Team if you click to drive the trick is to remember to click to stop
- Bugscope Team sometimes click to center is easier
- Bugscope Team if you go to a higher mag on the millipede legs you may find mites that we did not discover already
- Teacher What are we looking at/
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the abdomen of the millipede
- Bugscope Team like, its tail
- 10:13am
- Bugscope Team the millipede was pretty big, like a cigar
- Bugscope Team we received this millipede from a school around a month ago. It was huge! We discovered through a session that it had mites all over it, so we've been using small segments ever since
- Bugscope Team every time I touch it, it makes me itch
- Bugscope Team ha this is cool
- Bugscope Team this is one of the mites living on the millipede
- Bugscope Team it is only a couple hundred microns long, and blind
- Bugscope Team mites go down with the ship -- when their host dies they seem to go with it
- Bugscope Team now you can see its limbs
- Bugscope Team we think they feed off of scraps of food that they find on the body of the millipede
- Guest How big is a micron?
Bugscope Team or a millionth of a meter
- Bugscope Team a micron is a micrometer, which is a thousandth of a millimeter
- Guest Why are the images black and white?
- 10:18am
- Guest What is an ant comb?
Bugscope Team it is something found on ants and a few other insects. they use it to groom themselves
- Bugscope Team we are using electrons rather than light and do not see color. but the samples are coated with gold-palladium, so if we did see color they would be silver
- Bugscope Team that is an aphid
- Bugscope Team we were not sure it stayed in place
- Bugscope Team this is a beetle that you can see is very dirty
- Bugscope Team and it lost some of its limbs
- Bugscope Team when they dry they are very brittle
- Guest Is his eye compound?
- Guest What are the insects laying on?
Bugscope Team we put double stick carbon tape on an aluminum disk. on top of the carbon tape we also put a dab of silver paint which we lay the insects on
- Bugscope Team this is really cool -- the ant's antenna rests in a groove that sweeps back along the head
- Bugscope Team this ant does have a compound eye
- 10:23am
- Bugscope Team some ants do not bother to have eyes
- Bugscope Team the eye is to the NE
- Bugscope Team there it is
- Bugscope Team under the antenna
- Guest Why don't some ant don't have eyes?
- Guest Why does an aphid have a beak?
- Bugscope Team some ants live underground and do not need eyes, and many of the ants that do have eyes rely on their antennae far more than their eyes
- Bugscope Team the image is constantly updating -- the electron beam is scanning across the sample constantly
- Guest What is a cornicle?
- Guest what do aphids use their beak for?
- Bugscope Team a cornicle is a small nozzle or turret on the back 'corners' of the aphid's body
- Bugscope Team you are asking a lot of great questions!
- Bugscope Team some of them ooze wax when they are bothered, and the wax soldifies very quickly
- Bugscope Team the wax can thus entrap an ant that is pestering an aphid
- Bugscope Team this is that same beetle
- 10:29am
- Guest How big is the beak of an aphid compared to the rest of its body?
- Bugscope Team if you go back to it you can take the mag down and see it in context
- Teacher ha ha ha
- Bugscope Team it is small, really, compared to the rest of the body
- Guest What type of beetle is this?
- Bugscope Team this is the mouth, and we are not sure what kind of beetle we are looking at
- Guest What is the tube thing?
- Bugscope Team those tubes are palps
- Guest What are the palps used for?
- Bugscope Team palps -- mandibular and maxillary -- help the beetle manipulate its food as well as taste it
- Bugscope Team when you see an insect eating there is a flurry of motion
- Teacher what are we looking at here - inside the mouth
- Bugscope Team and all of the palps and other mouthparts are working furiously
- Guest how much to one of these microscopes cost?
Bugscope Team this one cost $600,000 when we bought it some years ago. Nowadays they would be a bit more expensive
- Bugscope Team yes we are looking at setae at the entrance to the mouth
- Guest What does a beetle eat?
- Bugscope Team i think most beetles are predatory- they eat other insects
- Guest how did you get the money?
- Bugscope Team like ladybugs eat aphids
- Bugscope Team some of them collect dung
- Bugscope Team oh yeah dung beetles
- Bugscope Team the 'scope was funded by an NSF grant, and it was bought with the intent, in part, of using it for bugscope
- 10:34am
- Bugscope Team this is a claw with the pulvillus -- the sticky pad -- shown to good advantage
- Bugscope Team the pulvillus is lined with 'tenent setae' that help the fly stick to vertical surfaces
- Guest do you have any dragonfly pictures?
- Bugscope Team you can see the claws now
- Bugscope Team in the database there will be dragonfly images
- Guest What is the fly claw for?
- Guest do you use the microscope for other purposes than looking at bugs?
- Bugscope Team the fly can grasp things with its claws -- six of them
- Guest why do flies have claws?
- Guest What is the most unique insect you have looked at?
- Bugscope Team definitely -- it is used for research by many groups
- Guest do you have any pictures of butterflies?
- Teacher so cool! it looks alien!
- Bugscope Team hard to say about the most unique
- Bugscope Team the flies also have the tenent setae pads on them which is important for it to walk on walls
- Guest What are the dots for?
- Bugscope Team we have looked at one of six known therevid flies collected in Israel
- Bugscope Team of one species
- Bugscope Team the dots are where the ommatidia are on this true bug
- Bugscope Team ommatidia are the eye facets
- Teacher e
- Teacher tell us more - ommatidia?
- Bugscope Team this bug did not look so good today -- it appeared to have been toasted
- Bugscope Team there can be hundreds to thousands of ommatidia on a compound eye
- 10:39am
- Guest What are the hair-like things on the bottom?
- Bugscope Team we think that insects with compound eyes see a single image that is made of many components, like a mosaic
- Bugscope Team we think each can see some sort of energy like sources of heat or visible light image and sends it back to the brain to be collected
- Guest What is that?
- Bugscope Team the thing that looks like a claw is one of the jaws of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Team this is part of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Team and some of those hairs are trigger hairs -- the ones inside the jaw
- Bugscope Team the eyes are kind of primitive and on short stalks
- Bugscope Team they have few ommatidia
- Guest Why is it so hairy?
Bugscope Team it might be a defense mechanism like why caterpillars are so hairy- keeps the predators away
- Bugscope Team this is just a larva, though
- Teacher looks like a forest full of burned trees
- Bugscope Team the adult is also a predator, and I have not see one but they have large eyes that make them resemble owls
- 10:44am
- Bugscope Team owlflies are related to antlions
- Bugscope Team this is really cool looking
- Guest What are the pokey things used for?
- Bugscope Team a very mechanical-looking rhinoceros beetle
- Teacher salt? from wendy's?
- Bugscope Team some of the bristles on the tarsi -- the forelimbs -- are for protection'
- Bugscope Team yes from Wendy's
- Guest Why is the salt cracked?
- Bugscope Team the salt is still forming cubic crystals, as we expect
- Bugscope Team but it seems to be interrupted by what we think may be an anticaking agent
- Guest How big is a rhinoceros beetle?
- Bugscope Team It is a couple of cm long
- Bugscope Team this is one of its compound eyes
- 10:49am
- Bugscope Team it looks like it can tip its head and put the 'horn' out in front of the body
- Bugscope Team and if its head is tipped forward, there is a portion of the eye that is directed that way
- Bugscope Team because it has piercing mouthparts
- Bugscope Team otherwise, sadly, the sample is not in very good shape
- Bugscope Team for higher mag imaging
- Guest What kink of true bug is this?
- Bugscope Team that thing in the middle we think is a kind of pump for sucking up liquids in plants that the beetle is piercing
- Bugscope Team but it may be piercing other bugs -- we don't know just what it is
- Bugscope Team we put it on the stub yesterday thinking it was a ladybug, or at least I thought it was
- Bugscope Team yay Annie!
- Bugscope Team I am here to save the day!!!
- Bugscope Team Annie is our entomologist
- Bugscope Team ;)
- Bugscope Team What is the question?
- 10:54am
- Bugscope Team I did not go into my lobster thing, Annie
- Guest what is an entimologist?
- Teacher these mouthparts look sharp?
- Bugscope Team they would like to know what kind of bug this is, but it is kind of hard to see, I am afraid
- Bugscope Team can we decrease the magnification a bit?
- Bugscope Team the tip of the proboscis would be very hard and sharp for piercing
- Bugscope Team can we take the mag down for Annie?
- Teacher half of our kids are heading out - the others will be with us shortly.
- Teacher the kids that just left said, "Thank you"!!!!!
- Teacher The others will be arriving in seconds.
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your great questions so far
- Bugscope Team This looks like maybe a harlequin bug
- Teacher The rest of the kids will be with us for the rest of the session
- Bugscope Team Excellent
- 10:59am
- Bugscope Team This is definitely a true bug, which you can tell from its long sucking mouthparts
- Bugscope Team A true bug is an insect in the order hemipera with sucking mouthparts and forewings that are half sclerotized, and half membranous
- Teacher ok - we are ready to roll. the other half of our kids are here. yay
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team True bugs can be pests or they can be beneficial. They are considered pests when they eat something that we also want to eat, but they are beneficial when they control other insect pests.
- Bugscope Team see the compound eyes on either side of the head
- Bugscope Team and the antennae?
- Bugscope Team this is a very dirty beetle
- 11:04am
- Guest what is the tube-like thing
- Teacher are these dirt clumps?
- Guest What are the tubes in the bottom white corner?
- Bugscope Team yes a lot of dirt
- Bugscope Team the tubes are broken palps
- Guest what are palps?
Bugscope Team they help the insect manipulate its food as well as taste.smell the food
- Guest What are ;palps?
- Guest How many layers are the palps?
Bugscope Team The palps are a tube of chitin (the exoskeleton). Inside the tubes are muscles, nerves, and some hemolymph (bug blood)
- Bugscope Team palps are termed 'maxillary' and 'mandibular' depending on where they originate
- Teacher what are the little hairs called
- Bugscope Team setae
- 11:09am
- Guest What color is 'bug blood"?
Bugscope Team It is kind of clear. In some really brightly colored insects, like ladybugs and green caterpillars the blood can take on the color of the insect. In ladybugs it is sort of yellow and in the caterpillars it is sort of green.
- Teacher is some of this plaque inthe beetle mouth
- Bugscope Team there are setae, microsetae, bristles, trichae, microtrichae....
- Bugscope Team it is hard to tell just where the mouth opening is, exactly
- Bugscope Team usually we can't see into it very well
- Bugscope Team see the curve of the compound eye here?
- Bugscope Team the ommatidia are hexagonal, and that helps them form the dome shape we see
- Teacher yes, are we also lookikng at the santennae
- Guest How many sections are there to the compound eye?
Bugscope Team that depends on the insect, there could be anywhere from 20-thousands of facets
- Bugscope Team one of the guys we have started working with is interested in how the eye gets its shape, and whether some of the ommatidia are *not* hexagonal
- Guest Can bugs detect color?
- Bugscope Team and there are some ants that have no eyes
Bugscope Team There are also some insects that live in caves that have no eyes.
- Guest Why are there hairs on the eye of the beetle?
- 11:14am
- Bugscope Team on a fruit fly eye the tiny hairs help the fly determine wind direction
- Bugscope Team maybe that is also true with the beetle
- Bugscope Team the mechanical engineer we were working with calls those setae bristles
- Bugscope Team this is a mite, only a couple hundred microns long, on the underside of the millipede
- Bugscope Team you can see that the mite is very small
- Bugscope Team *a section of millipede
- Guest How long is a micron?
Bugscope Team a millionth of a meter or thousandth of a millimeter
- Guest How long is a micron?
- Bugscope Team it was pretty big when we first got it around a month or so ago, and we have been using sections ever since we learned it had mites all over it
- Teacher is this the abdomen?
- Bugscope Team yes as Cate says this is only part of the millipede
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the abdomen
- Bugscope Team rod-shaped bacteria -- the bacilli -- like anthrax -- are generally about 2 microns long
- Bugscope Team so we can see bacteria when they are around
- 11:20am
- Guest What is an ant comb?
- Bugscope Team the comb is a built-in component of the forelimbs that help the ant keep its antennae cleaned off
- Bugscope Team that helps, that is
- Bugscope Team there seems to be one on each side on the forelegs
- Bugscope Team this beetle had a hard life
- Bugscope Team now we see the aphid
- Bugscope Team oops and now the ant
- Bugscope Team the aphid is to the west of the ant
- Bugscope Team this is the ant jaw
- Bugscope Team with a hinge
- Bugscope Team well not now...
- Bugscope Team the aphid!
- Bugscope Team this aphid was critical point dried or it would have been deflated and looked like a bagpipe lying on a bed
- 11:25am
- Guest how does an electron microscope work?
- Teacher how big is an aphid
Bugscope Team aphids are pretty small...some are about the size of a capital O, and they can be as large as a pencil eraser---not that big around though
- Bugscope Team sometimes the insects/arthropods we look at have soft bodies and need to be specially dried
- Guest Can you put your finger under the electron microscope to look at it?
- Bugscope Team you could if you detached it from yourself and dried it a bit, but i dont think anyone wants to do that
- Bugscope Team the samples are in a vacuum chamber so we cannot show you our fingers
- Bugscope Team here I will switch, in a sec, and show you the chamber view
- Teacher very cool
- Guest Thanks!
- Bugscope Team inside of the 'scope
- Bugscope Team the electrons come from above
- Bugscope Team and they hit the critters on the stage, producing secondary electrons
- Guest Is it possible to get pictures from the electron microscope in color?
- Bugscope Team which are attracted by a 300-Volt bias to the cage we see in the upper right
- Guest What is the table in the center?
Bugscope Team that is where the stub with the bugs sits
- Bugscope Team some people will artificially color images that have already been taken
- Bugscope Team no color because we our images come from the intensity of the signal from the 2ndary electrons at specific points on the sample
- 11:31am
- Bugscope Team the upside down cone on top is where the beam comes out
- Bugscope Team or 1 3/4 inches in diameter
- Bugscope Team back to the cornicle?
- Bugscope Team the part in the upper right corner of the screen is the secondary electron detector which we have been using today to look at the insects
- Guest How do you place the bugs inside of the microscope?
- Teacher what is a cornicle
Bugscope Team A cornicle is one of two little tubes that stick out the hind end of an aphid. Cornicles secret honeydew, a sweet liquid that ants like to eat.
- Bugscope Team there is a door like a safe door that we can open when the chamber is vented
- Bugscope Team then we have to pump it down again
- Bugscope Team whenver we change samples we do that
- Bugscope Team it takes 4 or 5 minutes to pump down
- Bugscope Team Some ants protect aphids
- Guest How long have you had these bugs and how are they preserved?
- Bugscope Team sometimes the cornicles secrete wax that hardens and immobilizes pesky ants
- Teacher is this where ants "milk" aphids
- Bugscope Team most of the bugs are dry, and we only keep them covered up
- Bugscope Team but some of the bugs are in ethanol, and we dry them using a critical point dryer
- Guest What is a fly claw and what is it used for?
- Bugscope Team they use their claws to grasp, like little hands
- 11:36am
- Bugscope Team and they have six of them
- Bugscope Team the flies use their claw to grab onto things. they also have pulvillus pads full of tenent setae they use to walk on walls
- Guest It is true that flies lay eggs every time they land?
- Bugscope Team between the claws and sometimes down the forearm are the pads Cate mentioned
- Guest Are the fly claws sticky?
- Bugscope Team i don't think they are sticky, but their pulvillus pads sometimes look like they will act like suction cups or velcro
- Bugscope Team the claws themselves are not sticky
- Bugscope Team if you watch some insects walk you will see that they put their weight on the 'forearm' rather than the tip of the tarsi where the claws are
- Guest What are the white dots on the eye?
- Bugscope Team the white dots are something that got on the ommatidia
- Bugscope Team ommatidia are the eye facets -- maybe we said that already?
- Bugscope Team Cate has to go to class and you are now stuck with me : )
- Teacher thanks cate!!
- 11:41am
- Bugscope Team She trains grad students and postdocs, mostly, to operate the electron microscopes
- Bugscope Team this is one of the eyes of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Team now you can see its jaws
- Bugscope Team it is an insect predator, both as a larva and as an adult
- Guest Are those eyelashes?
- Bugscope Team owlflies are related to antions
- Bugscope Team they look like eyelashes, don't they
- Bugscope Team some of them are likely trigger hairs
- Guest What are antions?
- Bugscope Team that make the jaws snap shut on prey
- Bugscope Team oops I am sorry -- antlions
- Teacher what is this
- Bugscope Team we think those things that resemble pumpkins are spiracles
- Bugscope Team but we are not sure
- Bugscope Team larvae are often quite strange
- Bugscope Team they might not even have six legs
- Bugscope Team this is a grain of salt
- Bugscope Team from Wendy's
- 11:46am
- Bugscope Team ordinary salt just looks like a cube
- Bugscope Team and this is the tip of the leg of the rhinoceros beetle
- Bugscope Team the whole beetle is a few cm long, to the upper right
- Teacher how did the salt get there
- Bugscope Team we got a few packets of it and sprinkled it on the stub for today
- Bugscope Team for awhile all the Wendy's in town had closed, and we had to ask people to pick up salt for us
- Guest How many sections are in the eye?
- Bugscope Team this is the lower half of the eye of the rhino beetle
- Bugscope Team I think there are hundreds of ommatidia on each compound eye
- Bugscope Team the eye continues on the other side of the shield-like piece in the middle left
- Bugscope Team the horn is to the left
- 11:51am
- Teacher thank you!!! Our groups has to go....thank you thank you this was great!!!!!!!!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team See you next year?
- Bugscope Team this is always fun for us
- Bugscope Team that is the horn, tipped back against the scutellum
- Bugscope Team the hard shell on the back, on the dorsum
