Connected on 2009-01-16 09:00:00 from , LA, US
- 8:49am
- Bugscope Team the session is ready to go!
- Bugscope Team Good morning!
- Teacher What bug is that
Bugscope Team this is a conifer seed bug
- Bugscope Team this is a blister beetle
- Bugscope Team the conifer seed bug is a type of true bug
- Student what is that
Bugscope Team this is a claw on the blister beetle and part of its leg. It has a different looking claw than most beetles
- Bugscope Team so so cute!
- Bugscope Team This is the head of a water boatman.
- 8:54am
- Bugscope Team It's saluting.
- Bugscope Team moth eye
- Bugscope Team if you want to see more of anything you can change the mag, drive...
- Bugscope Team moth mouth
- Bugscope Team maybe not
- Student gross
- Bugscope Team what we are seeing now are only jumping-off points for further exploration
- Bugscope Team this is one of the antennae of the moth -- it is curved like the tongue often is
- Bugscope Team gnarly
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions about what you're seeing
- Teacher hello lainee
- Bugscope Team you are controlling a scanning electron microscope from your school
- Student what is this bug
Bugscope Team this is a paper wasp
- Bugscope Team Technically we should only use the word "bug" to describe insects in the family Hemiptera. Those are the only "true" bugs. Everything else is just an insect
- Bugscope Team all bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs
- Student hi riley
- Teacher what is that
Bugscope Team This is the head of a robber fly
- Bugscope Team if you want you can drive down to see the rest of the body of this robberfly
- Bugscope Team see the compound eyes?
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Bugscope Team annie is our "bug" expert :)
- 8:59am
- Bugscope Team :)
- Student awesome
- Bugscope Team the 'fur' we see on the forehead is called the 'vestiture'
- Bugscope Team you can see the individual facets of the eye as well, to the left
- Bugscope Team often the vestiture of the insect is what gives it its color
- Bugscope Team these 'hairs' are called microsetae
- Bugscope Team note that you can focus when you get up close
- Student what bug is that
- Bugscope Team see the little antennae on top of the head?
- Student big eyes
Bugscope Team the better to see it's surroundings with! These eyes give the fly an almost 360 degree view of the world around it
- Bugscope Team Olivia this is a robberfly
- Student what is this bug
Bugscope Team This is a robber fly
- Teacher can we switch bugs now?
- Bugscope Team the spines that stick out of the front of the head help the insect feel what it is touching
- Bugscope Team the robber fly uses its short, strong proboscis to stab and inject victims with saliva containing neurotoxic and proteolytic enzymes which paralyze and digest the insides; the fly then sucks the liquefied meal through the proboscis.
- 9:04am
- Teacher ewwwwww
- Student EWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team yes exactly eww is right
- Bugscope Team you can see its proboscis at the lower left
- Bugscope Team part of it is broken
- Bugscope Team this is a tough old roach
- Bugscope Team Robber flies are called robber flies because they are known to steal prey from other predatory insects or from spider webs.
- Student ewwww
- Student how old it is
- Teacher are those hairs
- Student how old is it?
- Bugscope Team Roaches are generalist insects when it comes to their food. They eat pretty much anything.
- Bugscope Team roaches are usually very streamlined and don't have a lot of specialized structures --- the are able to live almost anywhere
- Student cool!
- Bugscope Team they are adapted for running very very fast
- Student is that hairs
- Bugscope Team well, most of them are anyway
- Bugscope Team it may not be super old because it was relatively small, but we think it must have had a full life
- Teacher how long has it beedn dead?
- Bugscope Team Yes Lainee those are tiny hairs called setae.
- Bugscope Team The roach was probably only a few weeks old. Roaches have a very short life span, generally
- Student really
- Student what color is it
- Bugscope Team Well, the pest species have short dangerous lives
- Teacher do you guys have any roly polies or fireflies or lovebugs or ladybugs?
- Bugscope Team not today
- 9:09am
- Bugscope Team The slower, larger roaches can live longer
- Bugscope Team we have a leafhopper, a blister bug, a water boatman, a moth, a wasp, an ant...
- Teacher what do you suggest we look at? which one is the most interesting in your opinions?
- Bugscope Team check out the leafhopper
- Student ok
- Bugscope Team see its pointy head, and the way its eye is streamlined into the shape of the head?
- Student EWWWWWWW
- Teacher is that an eye on the left?
Bugscope Team yes, exactly
Bugscope Team yes they have 2 compound eyes and you can see one on the left
- Bugscope Team and there is the base of an antenna there
- Bugscope Team oh dont confuse the eye with the broken antenna. the eye is big and round
- Student coooool
- Bugscope Team it's a little conehead
- Student how old is it
- Bugscope Team leafhoppers have tiny waxy particles on them called brochosomes
- Bugscope Team The cone is full of muscles that the leafhopper uses to create suction so it can suck the juices out of plants
- Bugscope Team they have an 'anointing' behavior that spreads the brochosomes over the surface of the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team you often find them in bushes, around here
- Student really
- Bugscope Team if you go to a higher mag you should be able to see some of the brochosomes, and there is also a preset showing them
- Student really!
- 9:14am
- Student what is that
- Bugscope Team this is the proboscis, and you can see that it is able to pierce plant stems
- Teacher ewwwwwwwwww\
- Student is that a leg
- Bugscope Team it's serrated like a tiny steak knife
- Student what are those scales
Bugscope Team No there are no scales on this insect--unless the scales came from another insect
- Student do they bite humens
Bugscope Team Nope, leafhopper stick to plants
- Student do they bite humans
- Student EWWWWWWWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team Those are probably just little setae
- Bugscope Team the surface of the exoskeleton looks kind of scaley
- Teacher please explain setae again
Bugscope Team insects have a tough exoskeleton (imagine wearing a suit of armor) and in order for them to be able to feel what's around them, they have little hairs (setae) that poke through their armor and are connected to nerves below the armor
- Bugscope Team insects with scales are butterflies, moths, skippers, mosquitos, and silverfish
- 9:20am
- Teacher thanks
- Student cooooool
- Teacher what is your favorite bug?
Bugscope Team my favorite insects are longhorned beetles--I research their behavior
- Teacher what do the brochosomes do for the bug?
Bugscope Team Brochosomes are produced by the "kidneys' of the leafhoppers. The leafhoppers spread them over their bodies and dust their egg masses with them. It is thought that the brochosomes protect the insect/eggs from drying out, getting too wet, etc.
- Bugscope Team some setae are mechanosensory -- they help the insect/arthropod sense when something is touching them; some setae are chemosensory, and the insect can sense odors with them; some setae can sense temperature
- Bugscope Team OOF
- Bugscope Team cool here we go
- Bugscope Team good job driving
- Bugscope Team the brochosomes are very small
- Bugscope Team see the micron bar on the lower left of the screen?
- Teacher we have a shadowbox with about 20 really cool bugs in our classroom. the longhorned beetle is one.
Bugscope Team Excellent choice!
- Bugscope Team you can see that one brochosome is less than one micron in diameter
- Bugscope Team we like small bugs, for bugscope, and we often like ones that are specialized, or that have other creatures on them, like mites
- Student this is so cool watching
- Bugscope Team rod-shaped bacteria are often about 2 microns long
- Bugscope Team your longhorned beetle might have mites on it
- Bugscope Team depending on how big it is
- Bugscope Team you can see 1 um on the screen now
- 9:26am
- Bugscope Team yes That's right! Longhorned beetles often have mites, and you can see them, barely, with your eyes.
- Teacher what can you tell us about velvet ants. we have few around here
Bugscope Team Velvet ants are not ants at all! They are female mutilid wasps, that do not have wings and don't fly. Male velvet ants have wings and do fly and don't look like ants at all. The females can inflict a painful sting...which they also use to paralyze their prey.
- Bugscope Team if there were bacteria here we would be able to see them
- Bugscope Team now we can see the scalebar reads in nanometers -- in billionths of a meter
- Bugscope Team the brochs are around 500 nm in diameter
- Bugscope Team Velvet ants are really beautiful insects
- Bugscope Team ants and wasps are related, and that is one reason they look so similar
- Student EWWWWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team see how the jaw on this ant opens sideways?
- Teacher is that what it bites us with?
- Bugscope Team yes if it would bite you this would be how. some ants have stingers, but this does not
- 9:31am
- Student ewwwwwww
- Student EWWWWWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team i think anything with a stinger is cool to look at
- Student what is that
- Bugscope Team we are very close up on the jaw
- Bugscope Team this ant has very good eyes -- lots of ommatidia compared to many ants
- 9:36am
- Bugscope Team great job driving and focusing
- Teacher there is a very large grasshopper/cricket thing that has surfaced in our area just recently. it is black, brown, red and about 3 inches long and 1 inch tall. what is it called and where did it come from?
- Bugscope Team but most of the information is gets is chemical, and goes to the antennae
- Bugscope Team does it have wings?
- Teacher yes - wings
- Bugscope Team it could be a grasshopper or a katydid
- Bugscope Team are the wings yellow and surprise you when it flies, suddenly?
- Student EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
- Teacher ok - just never saw them around here and just lately they are everywhere. no - they are only black, brown and red. wondering if they bite or sting.
- Student growsssssssss
- Bugscope Team they probably dont bite or sting, especially sting
- Teacher riley wants to go work with you guys because you have cool bugs
- Bugscope Team tell Riley this is a fun job
- 9:41am
- Bugscope Team my brother is named Riley, and my nephew as well. The little Riley loves animals
- Teacher riley says "good name"
- Bugscope Team I think so too
- Bugscope Team this is the face of the blister beetle
- Bugscope Team they're called blister beetles because they secrete a chemical called cantharidin, which is said to be used to treat warts
- Teacher oooh cool
- Bugscope Team 'Spanish Fly' is related to blister beetles
- Teacher lol
- Bugscope Team cantharidin typically causes a chemical burn--the skin blisters right up and it can be very painful
- Teacher ouch - gross
- Bugscope Team must make the warts fall off after it heals
- Bugscope Team one of the few kinds of bugs Annie doesn't eat ; )
- 9:46am
- Student ewi is that true
- Bugscope Team see the ball and socket joints where the antennae fit into the head?
- Bugscope Team you have to ask Annie
- Student annie is that true
- Bugscope Team she must be ignoring us
- Bugscope Team she doesn't eat only bugs, though
- Teacher i have lost controls and ability to switch pics. how do i fix?
- Teacher never mind. thanks
- Bugscope Team sorry I just gave it back to you
- Teacher np
- Bugscope Team sorry
- Teacher wb annie
- Teacher so do you really eat bugs
- Bugscope Team It is very dangerous to eat Spanish fly
- Bugscope Team it can cause death!
- Teacher tks for the tip
- Bugscope Team I have eaten many types of bugs
- 9:52am
- Teacher you should be on survivor
- Student really
- Bugscope Team Fried crickets, giant waterbugs, meal worms, scorpions, ants
- Bugscope Team I don't really think they taste that good
- Bugscope Team they sort of taste like dirt
- Teacher ew
- Student cooool
- Bugscope Team i will stick to less exotic protein sources
- Teacher the 4th graders tasted bbq flavored mealworms
- Bugscope Team the white lines we see are because part of the sample is charging up with electrons
- Teacher wow - that's neat
- Student what are those bumps
- Bugscope Team when we prepare samples like this -- Cate made this for us -- we coat them with gold-palladium to make them conductive. But in very small areas the coating does not always work.
- Teacher what is that hole
- 9:57am
- Student what is that sharp point
- Student is that a nostril
- Bugscope Team looks like some sort of pore in the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team the exoskeleton, as Cate said earlier, is hard, like armor.
- Bugscope Team and it doesn't have nerves in it like our skin
- Student where is chaos
- Student what are those lines
- Teacher thats very weird
- Student what is that stuff
- Bugscope Team the things that are most like nostrils, in an insect, are the spiracles
- Bugscope Team it is hard to tell where we are right now
- Student cooooooooooool
- Teacher cooool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Bugscope Team see the scales on the antenna?
- Student sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet
- Bugscope Team and the eye is above
- Teacher fyi - riley is typing as teacher right now - not the actual teacher
- Bugscope Team Riley you are doing a good job.
- Student awesome
- Bugscope Team lots of tiny scales
- Teacher thanks scot
- Bugscope Team one thing scales do is come off easily, and if you were a moth and flew into a spider web they might help you get out
- 10:02am
- Student why is there so much hairs
- Bugscope Team scales are often also responsible for the colors we see
- Teacher neato mosquito
- Student that looks like a palm tree
- Teacher thats so weird
- Bugscope Team the antenna is often particularly 'hairy' because it picks up lots of scents from the air, and many of the setae -- the hairs we see -- are actually chemosensors
- Student what color are the hairs
- Student i am going to be a paleomtoligtaste whem i grow up
- Student paleontologist
- Student lol
- Student sorry
- Bugscope Team when I type I don't know what's going to come out, always have to check
- Bugscope Team this is the eye of the moth
- Bugscope Team we thought we'd lost the head, but it is here
- Student cooooooooooooooooolllllllllllllllllllllll
- Teacher very cooooooooooooooool!!!!!!!!!!1
- Bugscope Team Lainee the hairs are probably brown on this moth
- Student COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
- Bugscope Team the individual facets of the eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team yuri didenko is here for tem today :(
- Student are those eye lashes
- Student they are
- Bugscope Team sorry that was for scot :)
- 10:07am
- Teacher np cate - know how u feel sometimes
- Bugscope Team they ended up being eyelashes, didn't they?
- Teacher what happened to Annie? did she swallow a fly?
- Student EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team we see so many things doing this, and we don't always know the answers
- Teacher that's ok Scot. This is about the coolest thing we've done all year other than field trips!!!
- Student CCCCCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
- Bugscope Team i think annie had to go work on a paper
- Bugscope Team Annie is a grad student and needed to write. She has a paper she wants to give to her advisor.
- Teacher ok - farewell Annie
- Student grossssssssssssssssssssssss
- Student YUCKY
- Bugscope Team often this part of the eye has very fine round features, like rods/cones in a human eye
- Student eeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwww
- Bugscope Team but here for some reason it does not look so impressive
- Bugscope Team fruit flies and bees have lots of setae that stick right out of their eyes
- 10:12am
- Teacher this is so awsome
- Bugscope Team ahh this is one of the scales, up close
- Bugscope Team they are responsible for color in two ways
- Student awesome
- Bugscope Team the scales often have pigment granules in them, around the tiny holes we see now
- Bugscope Team so they produce color from pigment, as you would expect
- Student what is that
- Teacher thats cool!!
- Bugscope Team but they also produce color, sometimes, from the architecture of the scale -- from the closeness of the ribs we're looking at now
- Bugscope Team we are seeing part of a scale with another scale behind it. scales are what makes moth and butterfly wings feel velvety and looks like powder on your fingers
- Teacher thats weird
- Bugscope Team kind of like if you were looking at the grooves in a record, which is ordinarily black, but you see colors
- Teacher what are those holes
- Bugscope Team the architecture of the scales is such that when you turn the scale in the light it gives you different colors
- Student that loks like a painting
- Bugscope Team the holes make the scales lighter
- Bugscope Team in a way scales are kind of like tiny feathers -- they help catch air
- 10:18am
- Teacher what is that wave
- Student where did you guys get all thease bugs
- Bugscope Team scales also have a defensive purpose. when the moth or butterfly gets caught in a web, sometimes it can just shed some scales to get free
- Bugscope Team these came from a friend of annie's
- Bugscope Team we don't see color now because the electrons that are giving us the image come to us as signal, not in wavelengths of light
- Bugscope Team i think they were all collected in Illinois
- Student thease are some interesting bugs
- Student CCCCCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
- Student what color are the scales
- Bugscope Team yes this is from a collection of insects, and at some time dermestid beetles got into one of the boxes
- Student what those line
- Teacher scot - can i pls have control again? we keep gettin booted for some reason
- Bugscope Team oops sorry there you go
- Teacher thanks - do the lines help with aerodynamics?
- Student WHAT ARE THOSE LINES
- Bugscope Team the lines are the ribs that keep the scales rigid
- Student thats gross
- Bugscope Team they probably do help with aerodynamics as well
- Bugscope Team sometimes these really small moths are brown
- Bugscope Team we don't remember what color this one was
- Teacher would we have them down here in south louisiana?
- Student Scot why are the holes light
- Student how many bugs do you have?
- Bugscope Team they would be the smaller less colorful less obvious moths you might see
- 10:23am
- Bugscope Team Lainee I meant that the holes keep the scales lightweight
- Student AWESOME I WANT TO WORK FOR YOLL
- Bugscope Team sorry
- Bugscope Team the holes make it so the scale is lighter. Punch holes in anything and it should be lighter. The wings might be too weighed down without them as well
- Bugscope Team Hey this is fun for sure -- we are lucky to be able to do this
- Teacher yes - we would all like to thank you so much for this opportunity!!
- Bugscope Team here you can see where a beetle bit this tarsus (the tarsus is the 'forearm' of the insect)
- Student is this like super fun
- Bugscope Team it chewed a hole in it
- Bugscope Team Annie did not do this.
- Teacher looks just like a human bite
- Bugscope Team you are driving a $600,000 microscope
- Teacher ffels like we are on 'honey, i shrunk the kids'
- Bugscope Team yes it does look just like a human bite
- Teacher for free even!! awesome!
- Bugscope Team it would be scary to be so small with some of the insects we see
- Bugscope Team we are lucky insects do not get bigger
- Bugscope Team bitemarks!
- Student is this job interesting
- Teacher how fascinating!
- Bugscope Team JeanneB it is challenging and often is interesting.
- 10:28am
- Bugscope Team Cate, earlier, was telling me about some people she is helping use the transmission electron microscope
- Student AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student look at the teeth marks
- Bugscope Team big bites
- Bugscope Team we work with people who are studying materials, and biomaterials, and biological samples
- Bugscope Team so we get to see everything
- Teacher Scot - trying to switch to paper wasp head and it's not working
- Student !
- Teacher thanks
- Student EWWWW
- Bugscope Team for some reason I couldn't do it either, not by using the preset
- Teacher reminds me of movies 'bugs' and 'antz'
- Student look how cute he is
- Bugscope Team yeah cute!
- Teacher what are the bumps on the right side of its mouth?
- Student thank you
- Bugscope Team do you want to try to drive there and see?
- Student WHAT ARE THOSE BUM
- Teacher alex warned me not to use drive because of our slow connection
- Teacher oh cool - thanks
- 10:33am
- Bugscope Team ooh I don't know -- looks like frass
- Teacher is it cancer?
- Teacher or food?
- Teacher frass is poop?
- Student `EWWWWWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team I am afraid it is something (yes) the beetles left behind
- Bugscope Team yup that is what the entomologists call poop -- a new word for us
- Student EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW AGAIN
- Bugscope Team Those are the names we used when we were sitting at the 'scope and at the control computer, respectively.
- Bugscope Team you are really doing a good job driving
- Teacher thanks scot
- Bugscope Team yeah you get to see it all
- Teacher this is cool
- 10:38am
- Bugscope Team the beetles must have thought the tarsi were particularly tasty
- Student is that gross for you guys
- Bugscope Team maybe they were spooked a little by the face
- Bugscope Team you get used to it after awhile
- Student if i come there would i be grossed out
- Bugscope Team see how the limbs of the water boatman are specialized for swimming?
- Teacher this is cool
- Student EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team you would be like us -- you would get used to it
- Teacher what are those marks
- Bugscope Team you mean on the front of the head above the mouth?
- Student has anything happend to you while you look for them
- Bugscope Team sometimes we get live bugs and get grossed out
- Teacher how big is the bugs head
- 10:43am
- Bugscope Team about a millimeter across
- Bugscope Team very small
- Student is that a big bug
- Bugscope Team these a very small, and for Bugscope we like small critters
- Bugscope Team these are scales, you can tell, and they're not from the water boatman
- Teacher what are the oval shaped scale looking things to right and left of center?
- Student HOW BIG IS ITS HEAD
- Teacher ahhhh - what kind of scales
- Student what is this pic
- Teacher are they moth scales?????
- Bugscope Team they could be moth or butterfly or skipper or mosquito scales
- Teacher eww
- Student oh my !
- 10:48am
- Student WHAT are the hairs for
- Teacher wow - is this the electron thing happening again?
- Bugscope Team it has some sort of gooey-stuff on it which is what the higher contrast is, and even on some of the setae you can see balls of droplets
- Student what is that
- Bugscope Team the gooey stuff does not conduct as well
- Bugscope Team the hairs are often sensory
- Bugscope Team like cat or rat whiskers in some cases
- Student what is that
- Bugscope Team umm it is hard to see just where we are
- Bugscope Team that was the face of the water boatman
- Bugscope Team and now the antenna of the moth
- Bugscope Team we see the same things you do and don'
- Bugscope Team t always recognize where we are
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Bugscope Team this is one of the antennae of the moth, and the eye is above
- Bugscope Team the proboscis is to the left, above, but out of the image now
- Student how do you get all thease bugs
- Bugscope Team after you have been doing this for awhile people bring you bugs for free! it's so cool!
- Bugscope Team my mom sends me bugs
- Bugscope Team or we catch them ourselves and freeze them
- Bugscope Team and we are always on the lookout for them
- 10:53am
- Teacher yummy - frozen bugs!
- Student now i dont want a wart
- Bugscope Team we think that is the most humane way to kill them'
- Bugscope Team if you collected blister beetles they might cure warts if you had them
- Bugscope Team sometimes the bugs we get have bacteria on them, and sometimes mold
- Student bug expert
- Bugscope Team usually those will come along only after the bug dies
- Bugscope Team the eye of the moth
- Bugscope Team and various types of scales all around
- Bugscope Team this is a compound eye, compared to a simple eye
- Teacher looks like epcot
- Student EWWWWWWWWWWWWW
- Student oh my
- Bugscope Team ha
- Bugscope Team like a geodesic dome
- Teacher yeah scot - what you said
- Bugscope Team the idea of the geodesic dome comes from Buckminster Fuller.
- 10:58am
- Teacher ok - guys. i guess it's about that time. we could do this all day
- Student EWWWWWW
- Bugscope Team and when they figured out that they could make carbon into spheres, they called the spheres "Buckyballs" after Buckminster Fuller.
- Teacher thank you millions for this
- Bugscope Team then, from those, they figured out how to make carbon nanotubes.
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Teacher cool Scot - you are so full of inf
- Teacher info
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your great questions and you did great with driving
- Bugscope Team See you next year?
- Teacher come teach my class
- Bugscope Team we had fun working with you
- Teacher we would love to come back next year!!
- Student scot you are cool
- Bugscope Team hey thanks
- Teacher bye everyone
- Student ANNIES COOL
- Student bye
- Bugscope Team Cate is cool as well -- she had to go help someone while we were working.
- Student BYE!!!!!!
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Bugscope Team Thank you again!
- Bugscope Team If you remember your session number -- all of these images and the chat are archived on the bugscope web page.
