Connected on 2008-10-29 12:30:00 from , PA, US
- 12:08pm
- Teacher The students will be here at 1:30 eastern time. Which insect is this?
- 12:13pm
- Bugscope Team hello sorry we were working on presets
- Bugscope Team we are on the praying mantis
- Bugscope Team if you want, you can practice driving around
- Bugscope Team Hello! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team Mrs Vignale you may drive if you like.
- Bugscope Team the controls are to the right of the image
- Bugscope Team and the presets, which will take you to the areas that are thumbnailed, are to the right of this chat box
- Bugscope Team this is one of the spikes on the praying mantis's arm
- Bugscope Team seen from the top
- 12:19pm
- Teacher neat! Where did the praying mantis come from?
- Bugscope Team it was a leftover insect from another school
- Bugscope Team from arizona
- Bugscope Team Mrs V be sure to try driving if you haven't had a chance. Have we worked with you before?
- Teacher When the students arrive, should I choose from the presets or wait for you to change the image. This is my first time. I am trying to figure out how to drive.
- 12:24pm
- Bugscope Team You can drive yourself -- you don't need us but we are here to help.
- Bugscope Team on the right you will see the controls. you can either choosse a preset to get to another insect and/or you can drive manually by either click to drive or click to center
- Bugscope Team one thing that is super easy is to change the mag, on the upper left of the screen.
- Bugscope Team and there is one of the presets with the pollen all over the place -- this is part of the abdomen of the bumblebee
- Bugscope Team when we get close the electrons may make the sample charge up and give us an overly bright image
- Bugscope Team lots of pollen looks pretty much like this -- like ragweed pollen
- Bugscope Team it's cool you are really driving a scanning electron microscope from your classroom
- Bugscope Team like a $600,000 vehicle
- Teacher awesome!
- Bugscope Team if you go to lower and lower magnifications you can see where you are on the bumblebee
- Bugscope Team sometimes we make presets so that you can see something up way close and when you go to a low mag you may have a surprise at where you find yourself
- 12:33pm
- Bugscope Team hello money and mini muffin
- Bugscope Team Hello Money, and Mini muffin!
- Teacher ok the students are here...
- Bugscope Team hi Bob and Fred
- Student hi
- Bugscope Team and Josh and Leela
- Bugscope Team Hello JR!
- Bugscope Team mrs vignale, the students can also have control of the microscope to drive around if you wanted
- Bugscope Team Mrs V feel free to drive, change presets, change mag, or as Cate says we can confer control to the students if you would like
- Bugscope Team hello yoyo em
- Bugscope Team if you have any trouble please let us know
- Teacher should we have just one driver at a time?
- Bugscope Team yes only one person can drive at a time
- Bugscope Team there is no way to have more than one driver, it is just a safety precaution
- Bugscope Team we can confer control to whomever you would like
- Bugscope Team so like Bob and Fred?
- Teacher the students don
- Teacher the students don't have a driver and neither do i now
- Bugscope Team Bob and Fred have a driver now
- Bugscope Team if they would like to try
- 12:38pm
- Bugscope Team this is part of the abdomen of the bumblebee, way high magnified
- Bugscope Team nice --
- Bugscope Team now you can see where we were
- Bugscope Team this is the belly of the bee
- Bugscope Team the head is to the north
- Bugscope Team to the top of where we are looking now
- Bugscope Team if you would like to see another insect you can choose from among the presets on the right side of this chat box
- Bugscope Team we may be at the lowest possible magnification for this sample
- Bugscope Team if you would like you can try click to center or click to drive
- Bugscope Team click to drive lets you go in a chosen direction when you click on the screen
- Bugscope Team this is the head
- Bugscope Team you can see the eyes on either side, and you can see the jaws
- Bugscope Team the antennae would be in that thicket of 'hair' in the middle of the head
- 12:43pm
- Bugscope Team but you can see that they are broken off
- Teacher can we add another driver?
- Bugscope Team sure!
- Bugscope Team let us know who
- Teacher josh and Leela
Bugscope Team they have control
- Bugscope Team you would like to drive
- Bugscope Team go it
- Bugscope Team got it
- Bugscope Team sometimes it takes a little while to figure it out
- Bugscope Team and sometimes it takes some time for a command to get to the 'scope and return the results to you
- Bugscope Team Josh and Leela try one of the presets if you would like
- Bugscope Team hey cool!
- Bugscope Team this is the butterfly proboscis
- Bugscope Team the little circles are sensory area for tasting
- Student what are the holes
Bugscope Team those are sensory areas for tasting things
- Guest why is it so bumpy
- Student what is this
- Bugscope Team it is bumpy so it will stick to the inside of the flower
- Guest who is on the air
- Bugscope Team this is the proboscis of a butterfly
- Student Why is it in a circle shape
- Bugscope Team Livvie you mean who are we working with today?
- Bugscope Team it is a circle shape because it is naturally coiled up when it is not being used
- Student HI
- Teacher why is it swirly?
- 12:48pm
- Student what are the lines for
- Bugscope Team it's like one of those new years party favors that you blow into and it unfurls and makes a sound.
- Bugscope Team when the butterfly wants to put its proboscis into a flower it makes it straighten out
- Guest what are the spots on the picture
- Bugscope Team yes like Cate says
- Student what is the big bump at the top
Bugscope Team that is some juju-- debris like dirt or dust
- Bugscope Team except this doesnt make a sound everything else is very similar.
- Bugscope Team there is some dirt on the proboscis
- Bugscope Team we think the little pores we see are chemosensory -- then butterfly can smell with them
- Bugscope Team the butterfly, that is
- Bugscope Team be sure to try another preset
- Guest what is that the long pointy thing in the upper right corner?
- Bugscope Team if you would like
- Bugscope Team that is a spine on the edge of the proboscis
- Teacher it looks like snakeskin
- Guest what are the notebook swerl things
- Bugscope Team if you go to a lower mag you may see more
- Teacher can mini muffin drive now?
- Bugscope Team Mini muffin has it
- Guest How long is the proboscis?
- Student what are the lines for on the eadge of the probscis
- Bugscope Team the notebook swirl things are almost what you would expect from something that needs to be able to coil up
- 12:53pm
- Bugscope Team it is kind of like a vacuum cleaner hose
- Guest why dose it look so smoth?
- Bugscope Team when you click to drive, you have to click again to stop
- Guest what is this
- Bugscope Team this is part of the microscope stage
- Bugscope Team now we are the praying mantis
- Guest what are those lines
- Guest cool
- Bugscope Team good driving
- Bugscope Team the eye!
- Student what's the hair
Bugscope Team those are scales from another insect like a moth or butterfly
- Guest why are the eyes so big?
- Student what are the circles that look like craters
- Bugscope Team so they can see very well when they capture other bugs
- Bugscope Team those are the ommatidia
- Guest what is the bump
- Bugscope Team the individual facets of the eye
- Bugscope Team there are also scales on the surface of the eye
- Bugscope Team you can see them now
- Student what are the "footprints"
- Bugscope Team those are the scales
- Student how do we make the new preset show
- 12:58pm
- Bugscope Team they are from a moth or butterfly
- Bugscope Team try to focus
- Bugscope Team Mrs V you have control now
- Teacher I have another class coming in now
- Bugscope Team cool!
- 1:04pm
- Bugscope Team this is another one of those 'footprints'
- Bugscope Team this is part of the butterfly wing
- Bugscope Team when you rub a butterfly or moth, gently, and powder comes off of it, the scales are the 'powder'
- Bugscope Team we could not put the whole butterfly in the microscope chamber
- Bugscope Team see the ribs?
- Bugscope Team and the pattern between them?
- Bugscope Team this is what makes the scale strong and light
- Student The scales are amazing
- Bugscope Team the micron bar, to the left on the screen, gives you an idea how high the magnification is
- Bugscope Team when it says 11 um, for example, that is about 5 bacteria long
- Teacher what are the ridges for on the scale
- Bugscope Team the ridges give the scale rigidity, like ruffles on potato chips
- Bugscope Team they also reflect light in interference colors
- Bugscope Team the scales have pigment in them that gives us true colors
- 1:09pm
- Bugscope Team but the scales may also show us other 'structural' colors
- Bugscope Team this is the claw, one of the claws, of the bumblebee
- Student What is the foamy stuff on the butterfly we saw?
- Bugscope Team it has lots of pollen on it
- Student what are the little hair things?
Bugscope Team they are just that-- hairs, but on insects we call them setae (pronounced see-tee)
- Bugscope Team the foamy stuff may have been the silver paint we put on the stub to get the wing to stick down
- Guest what are the balls?
- Bugscope Team see the little pollen grains?
- Bugscope Team that is what the spikey balls are
- Guest why are there hairs on the spikes
- Bugscope Team you mean on the pollen grains?
- Bugscope Team the setae are there so that the insect can sense what is around them using touch, taste/smell, etc
- Student yes
- Bugscope Team the spikes on the pollen grains ensure that they stick to things
- Guest cool
- Student aswome
- Bugscope Team they're like nettles
- Guest its cool
- Student yah
- Bugscope Team this is on the abdomen of the bee
- Teacher can dave norm drive now?
- Bugscope Team Mrs V you are doing a great job driving
- Guest what is in the backround
- Bugscope Team Davenorm dropped off for a sec, looks like
- Bugscope Team the background is the folds of the abdomen of the bee
- Bugscope Team the pollen are clinging to the bee setae, which looks like bare trees kind of
- Guest what are the big hairs?
- Bugscope Team that is the border between segments of the abdomen
- 1:14pm
- Student why does it look like its stuck in mud?
- Student whats that?
- Bugscope Team Mrs V can we give someone else control?
- Teacher are dave norm able to ddrive now?
- Bugscope Team There may be some dirt there,
- Student can nate and spencer drive
- Bugscope Team Davenorm are disconnected and may need to be helped back on
- Bugscope Team in the meantime nate and spencer have it
- Bugscope Team davenorm seems to be inactive or disconnected because they are grayed out
- Bugscope Team the grass like things are setae on the bee's abdomen
- Bugscope Team now you can see where we were
- Guest thats cool
- Bugscope Team see the segments of the abdomen?
- Bugscope Team the head is to the top
- Bugscope Team if you want to drive up there
- Bugscope Team or click on another preset
- Bugscope Team nate and spencer you have control
- Bugscope Team still
- Guest are the hairy things polin?
- Bugscope Team Ha Normdave you have control now
- Bugscope Team the hairy small round balls are pollen
- Bugscope Team there is a lot of it on this bee
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the rolypoly you sent
- Bugscope Team this is the underside of the jaw
- 1:19pm
- Student What are the hairs for
- Bugscope Team this is plate that moves when the rolypoly eats
- Bugscope Team the hairs help it sense when things are touching it
- Bugscope Team the cuticle is very thick, like armoer
- Bugscope Team armor
- Student what are the claws?
Bugscope Team claws are used to grasp onto food
- Bugscope Team or other things
- Bugscope Team those things that looked like submarine sandwiches are the antennae
- Bugscope Team the hairs let the rolypoly feel what it is touching
- Student are the hairs used for feeling?
Bugscope Team yes or smelling or tasting depending on where they are. some hairs can feel vibrations like spider hairs will look different
- Teacher what are the claws used for?
- Bugscope Team they don't have nerves in their skin -- because they don't have skin -- the cuticle, or chitin, is like a coat of armor
- Student what are the holes
- Teacher please let mrs v drive now
- Bugscope Team hey I was wrong! I am sorry -- this is a Japanese beetle
- Bugscope Team Mrs V you have it
- Bugscope Team this is the butterfly proboscis
- Bugscope Team all coiled up
- Student what does the antanae look like?
- Bugscope Team butterflies are very neat and put their tongues away when they are done with them
- Bugscope Team it is spiral so it does not get in the way when the butterfly flies
- Guest are those scales?
- Bugscope Team they are platey portions of the chitin
- 1:24pm
- Bugscope Team like scales, aren't they?
- Student Can we have the controls next? Pretty please!?
- Student why does it look like snake skin?
- Bugscope Team they allow the proboscis to coil and uncoil
- Student What is the chitin?
- Bugscope Team it looks like snake skin because it functions similarly
- Bugscope Team it needs to be able to coil and uncoil
- Teacher what are the eye spots for?
- Bugscope Team chitin is what the exoskeleton is made of
- Bugscope Team it is like what our fingernails are composed of
- Bugscope Team or shrimp shells, for example
- Bugscope Team the spots are where we see what we think are chemoreceptots
- Bugscope Team chemoreceptors
- Bugscope Team sorry
- Bugscope Team for tasting/smelling
- Student How does it make the spiral?
- Guest what are the
- Bugscope Team that is how the butterfly can smell chemicals in the air, or as Cate says -- tasting
- Student why does it look like it is bubles
- Student Butterflies have exoskelatons?
- Bugscope Team yes they have their skeleton on the outside like other insects
- Bugscope Team its like a new years party favor that you blow into and it unfurls and makes a sound
- Guest what are the scals
- Bugscope Team so like Cate says when the butterfly wants to use its proboscis it pushed hemolymph into it and makes it extend
- Bugscope Team pushes
- Student What are those line things?
- Guest what is the corn like thing
- Bugscope Team the things that look like little cobras are tenent setae
- 1:30pm
- Bugscope Team they are setae that help beetles and flies, for example, stick to vertical surfaces
- Student what are the hairs
- Student How does it do that?
- Teacher what is a tenent setae?
Bugscope Team they allow the insect to walk on walls
- Student why does it look like a flower?
- Bugscope Team those are tenent (like tener, in Spanish) setae
- Bugscope Team it means that the setae are able to hold onto things like walls
- Guest what is that corn like object
- Bugscope Team Oh the corn like object was a scale
- Bugscope Team is a scale
- Bugscope Team from another insect
- Guest what is the hair like thing
- Bugscope Team this is the praying mantis head
- Bugscope Team pop sorry I missed it
- Bugscope Team praying mantises kind of look like aliens under the microscope
- Bugscope Team this is the top of the head
- Bugscope Team you can focus it better
- Bugscope Team and this is the face
- Student the thing on the claws looks like corn on the cob and I just want to eat it. "YUMM"
- Student Do praying mantises have compound eyes?
Bugscope Team yes they do, 2 big ones at that
- Bugscope Team bubbles in the tape
- Student I see lots of hairs.
- Bugscope Team you can see the edge of the world now
- Bugscope Team this world is flat
- 1:35pm
- Bugscope Team try focusing
- Student What are those bubles?
- Bugscope Team ah this is part of the compound eye of the mosquito
- Bugscope Team the bubbles are the individual ommatidia
- Bugscope Team they are a little deflated so they look more like bean bags
- Guest Why do the eyes look big
- Student what are the blobs
Bugscope Team they are the individual facets of the mosquito compound eye
- Bugscope Team yes when they are alive the eyes are inflated
- Bugscope Team yes those are compound eyes
- Bugscope Team ah this is a true bug
- Bugscope Team hemiptera
- Student What is that?
- Bugscope Team you can see that it has a piercing proboscis
- Bugscope Team which we are looking at now
- Teacher what kind of bug
- Bugscope Team this is the mid portion of the proboscis
- Guest what kind of bug is this?
- Student Those look like carrots
- Bugscope Team some type of stinkbug i think
- Bugscope Team this is the same kind of bug as a stinkbug or shieldbug
- Bugscope Team Cate beat me to it as usual
- Bugscope Team when the bug wants to eat it pierces its food with this strawlike proboscis
- Teacher how much time do we have left?
- Student Thats is a dirty stink bug
- Bugscope Team we can run a little longer if you would like
- Bugscope Team we built some time onto the back of the session
- Student What are the tubes on it?
- 1:40pm
- Bugscope Team that sounds good
- Bugscope Team 2 our time, 3 your time
- Guest What are those stick like things?
- Teacher ok great
- Bugscope Team all of the images you get are saved to your school's database
- Bugscope Team the things that looks like little sticks I think are more setae
- Student what are those carrott things?
- Bugscope Team there may also be some wax among all of the juju we see that makes the stinkbug look dirty
- Bugscope Team the carrotllike things in the middle are parts of the proboscis
- Bugscope Team carrotlike
- Bugscope Team this is kind of cool
- Bugscope Team square ommatidia
- Student Is that part of the body?
- Bugscope Team on the bee head I think
- Guest what are the sqares
- Student What are the squares?
- Bugscope Team the individual facets of the eye
- Guest what are the bumps?
- Bugscope Team if you had a compound eye you would be able to register movement very quickly
- Student Is ommatidia compound eyes?
Bugscope Team ommatidia are the individual facets of a compound eye--the bumps
- Bugscope Team the dark spot was were the electron beam had sat for a long time
- Bugscope Team as you can see, it's just a head. it feel off en route to us
- 1:45pm
- Bugscope Team the simple eyes are the three smaller bumps
- Bugscope Team so this wasp has five eyes
- Bugscope Team near the top center
- Guest did the head fall off?
Bugscope Team yes, sorry. sometimes when insects are really dry, limbs just fall off
- Bugscope Team yeah sorry
- Bugscope Team sometimes that happens
- Bugscope Team this is cool
- Bugscope Team the eye is streamlined right into the shape of the head
- Bugscope Team makes it easy to fly quickly
- Guest why does it look like a bear tummy
- Bugscope Team oh
- Bugscope Team this is where the antennae were
- Bugscope Team hey there is a pollen grain
- Guest why is it fuzzy?
- Bugscope Team you can find stuff we did not see before
- Bugscope Team oh I know the fine setae on the surface of the hed
- Bugscope Team head
- Student why does the eye have bumps on it ?
- Teacher what is the cave thing we are going into?
- Student What is the cave
- Bugscope Team that is called the 'vestiture'
- Bugscope Team this is the inside of the antennal tube
- Guest why is it creepy
- Bugscope Team the fine hair on the head is called vestiture
- Bugscope Team it is creepy because we are looking into the head
- Bugscope Team like a little cavern
- Bugscope Team ah cool
- Bugscope Team now this is a mosquito stylet
- 1:50pm
- Bugscope Team they have more than one of these
- Bugscope Team that form the facsicle
- Guest fgihjrtipjrhigye4yt4we8rfe
- Bugscope Team the facsicle, as Cate says, is the part tht pierces your skin
- Bugscope Team when the moqsuito bites you
- Student Why does that have blades on it?
- Bugscope Team it is like a little saw
- Bugscope Team so it can cut its way into your skin
- Teacher does that sting ?
- Bugscope Team stingers are like this too
- Bugscope Team it is very small but you can feel it
- Bugscope Team you can see that it is tiny
- Bugscope Team 20 microns on the scale we see is 0.02 millimetes
- Bugscope Team they inject an anticoagulant into you so that your blood will keep flowing, and that is the stuff that makes you itch
- Bugscope Team millimeters
- Student how does it get in your skin
- Bugscope Team this is a view of jaws that look like blades
- Bugscope Team this is an insect that Annie, our entomologist, brought us
- Guest why does it have spikes
- Bugscope Team the facsicle gets into your skin by cutting its way in
- Bugscope Team the little spikes on the jaws are probably chemosensors
- Teacher can we learn about this
- Student what are the hairs for?
- Bugscope Team the fly can taste what it is biting into
- 1:55pm
- Bugscope Team the hairs, most of them, function to help the fly sense what it is touching
- Bugscope Team because they can't feel through their exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team which is thick
- Student What's inside the jaw?
- Guest -
- Bugscope Team some of the tiny setae are also chemosensory or thermosensory
- Bugscope Team inside is the way to the mouth
- Bugscope Team often mouths are confusing to us
- Student Is that a claw?
- Bugscope Team there are often palps around the mouth that are used to move food around or to taste/smell food
- Bugscope Team they work sideways compared to ours, and they have little helper limbs called palps that manipulate and taste their food
- Bugscope Team d'oh
- Student Are there hairs inside the jaw
- Bugscope Team that is a jaw
- Bugscope Team it kind of does look like a giant claw but they are mouthparts
- Bugscope Team these are hamuli found on a wasp
- Guest why is it so hairy
- Bugscope Team wasps and bees have four wings
- Student What are those hoops?
- Bugscope Team they act as hooks to keep together the 2 sets of wings the wasp has so it can act like 1 big pair of wings
- Student Why is it a spiral?
- Guest what are the spikes
- Teacher what is is a hamuli?
Bugscope Team they are curved hooks that are found on one set of wings (wasps have 2 sets for a total of 4 wings) and they hook onto the other set of wings to make it like 1 big pair of wings when they fly
- Bugscope Team it looks like it is spiral but it is a series of hooks
- Teacher what are the hooks used for?
- 2:00pm
- Bugscope Team they look spiral but they are individual curved hooks
- Teacher thank you and good bye!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your questions. all your chat and images from today can be found at your member page http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-073/
