Session 2009-021 with Poff Elementary

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2009-04-01 16:00:00 from , PA, US

• 3:49pm
• Bugscope Team Hello!
• Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!

• Teacher hello, we are getting ready for the expo
• Teacher please wait one minute
• Bugscope Team no problemo, we are still setting up ourselves. session starts at 4PM central

• 3:55pm

• 4:01pm

• Bugscope Team we are ready to go when you are
• Teacher Hi - I'm totally new to this technology (I'm a taxonomist by trade) so bear with me as I learn the ropes - but this is looking cool here!

• Bugscope Team Good maybe you can help us with the identification of some of these.
• Bugscope Team no problem, let me give you some quick tips
• Bugscope Team when using navigation. you have two options: click to drive and click to center. click to center is easier
• Bugscope Team when using click to drive, make sure you click once to start moving, and click again to stop
• Bugscope Team i've unlocked the session, so you should see controls on the right
• Bugscope Team but sj is still creating some presets so don't try to control until he is done
• Bugscope Team hi mimi!
• Guest Hi Scott.

• 4:06pm
• Bugscope Team i'm actually alex, scott was sj, but we'll be right back
• Bugscope Team Yay Hi Mimi. Now I am Scott, for sure.

• Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope!
• Bugscope Team Erin do you want to drive?
• Bugscope Team Mimi! Do you want to drive?
• Student I'm Bob - sorry we lost you for a moment, but we're getting it together...
• Guest No Thanks. What are we looking at now?
• Bugscope Team ok, hi bob, let us know if you have any questions
• 4:12pm
• Student Thanks - I'm a bit techno-challenged so I'm muddlng through until I get the hang of things...
• Bugscope Team Dude I hardly know how to type.
• Student Is it okay for me to start experimenting with the focus and adjust controls?
• Bugscope Team This is a brochosome between eye facets on a horsefly.
• Bugscope Team yep!
• Bugscope Team You bet.
• Bugscope Team go for it
• Bugscope Team you can't destroy the scope, no worries... ;)
• Bugscope Team Like you could take the mag down for starters.
• Bugscope Team see where you are in the world
• Student How long should the wait time be between clicking to zoom in/out? I don't want to crash this thing!
• Bugscope Team a few seconds...

• Bugscope Team you clicked on a preset! that worked! this is a beetle claw
• Bugscope Team you can tell this guy could not climb any walls or walk on the ceiling or on glass
• Bugscope Team you can try clicking on the minus button, take the mag down, let us know if you have any trouble
• 4:18pm
• Bugscope Team a single click should do it
• Student Hmmm... paired tarsal claws, both cleft, am I looking at a scarab beetle - maybe Diplotaxis sp.? Actually that is a stall tactic while I learn to use this crazy laptop!

• Bugscope Team could be

• Bugscope Team it's working!
• Bugscope Team we usually put the head to the north, and click to center is a good safe way to drive
• Student Good, non-commital answer - I like your style!

• Bugscope Team awesome

• Bugscope Team fat little beetle
• Bugscope Team I didn't recognize anything, just plundered someone's collection
• Bugscope Team if you choose click to center, then put your cursor toward the top of the image and click, you can drive toward the head in increments
• Bugscope Team it's great to be working with an entomologist; Annie is not on today
• Student I zoomed out to the max, and can see it's a scarab, but that's about all I can tell. This is amazing - I have to rely on a Leica stereoscopic 'scope to do this at work
• Bugscope Team the min resolution is about 30-40x on this scope

• 4:23pm

• Bugscope Team nice job!!!!
• Bugscope Team yay
• Bugscope Team you are totally get this

• Bugscope Team getting this
• Bugscope Team lamellate antennae

• Bugscope Team pinhole
• Bugscope Team wing
• Bugscope Team elytra
• Student Hey, I just figured out how to "drive" and found the "rest of the beetle" Looks like a species of Serica.
• Bugscope Team Bob I want to know what the big fly is -- I thought it was a horsefly but it does not have slashing mouthparts

• Bugscope Team or we can't see them
• Student Let me see if I can get into that image and take a look

• Bugscope Team those were hypertrophied mechanoreceptors on the shaft of the haltere

• Bugscope Team antennae

• Bugscope Team this is likely a girl fly

• Bugscope Team but see it has spongy mouthparts
• 4:28pm
• Bugscope Team the long legs you see above are from two leafcutter ants
• Student I'm not a fly specialist, but the antennae are tabanoid, but you're right, the mouthparts don't look right - could it be a syrphid?

• Student Don't know - everything but the mouthparts say "horsefly" to me - maybe the stylus retracted when it dried?

• Bugscope Team yes, things often shrivel up when the insect dies

• Bugscope Team although sometimes we've had insects survive the scope vacuum, and they came out and were really upset!
• 4:33pm
• Student Kind of a Jeff Goldblume type of trick? "Hellllllp meeeee"
• Bugscope Team heh
• Bugscope Team totally

• Bugscope Team sorry can't see the eyes
• Bugscope Team Hi Maddy!
• Student I had never seen an owlfly larva - thing looks Jurassic!
• Guest Hi again
• Guest What are we looking at?

• Bugscope Team this is an owlfly larva inside an electron microscope

• Bugscope Team and erin is controlling the scope
• Bugscope Team related to antlions, predatory larvae and predatory adults

• Bugscope Team Erin is Bob, I think.

• Bugscope Team oh yeah, bob

• Bugscope Team these guys have little cactus-like setae

• Bugscope Team I imagine they are better a relaying vibration in sandy soil

• Bugscope Team you mean their setae can hold 100 times it's weight in water?

• Bugscope Team I love these guys

• Bugscope Team huge heads to hold their jaw muscles

• Bugscope Team and they have tiny pores in their heads too -- the other big one does

• 4:38pm

• Bugscope Team each bump here is called an ommatidia, it has a lens in it, so the bug brain is processing many images at once!

• Guest Can they see color?
• Student starting to get some traffic so I'm doing a lot of talking to folks about bugs in general...
• Bugscope Team I sort of doubt they can see color.
• Bugscope Team They have relatively primitive eyes.
• Bugscope Team lots of insects can see color but I am not sure about this ant
• Bugscope Team Bob you got to drive around a little too :)
• 4:44pm
• Bugscope Team gotta do it
• Student I believe the vision is mainly receptive to light levels, and detection of UV wavelengths, but not color as we perceive it
• Bugscope Team otherwise the folks will think they're just seeing images

• Bugscope Team depends on the critter

• Bugscope Team some can obviously see red, for example
• Student Here I go!
• Student Ooops - ran right past the critter!

• Bugscope Team here you see the pores

• Guest do antlions turn into lacewings? The good bug for the garden?
• Bugscope Team antlions turn into a predatory flying insect kind of like a dragonfly but not related
• Bugscope Team they have mondo bigboy eyes as adults
• Bugscope Team as larvae they have little eye stalks with few ommatidia on them

• Bugscope Team this is a critical point dried fruit fly
• 4:49pm
• Bugscope Team you can tell it was not airdried because its mouthparts are not shriveled up into unrecognizability
• Bugscope Team and its antennae look good as well
• Bugscope Team so lovely
• Student Nice how the CPD keeps the head and eyes from wrinkling up like a raisin!

• Bugscope Team silver paint in the background here

• Guest See you tomorrow with the class from Heights.

• Bugscope Team awesome, maddy, see you tomorrow!

• Bugscope Team Yay Thanks Maddy we look forward to it

• Bugscope Team Bob what are the two parts of the antenna called?

• 4:55pm
• Bugscope Team Fruit flies have tiny windsensing setae between the ommatidia.
• Student Duh - got me on that one - I've forgotten my fly morphology, but in beetles the first segment is the scape, and the rest are the flagellar segments. Something sounds right about "flagellum" for the second segment,, but then again since I'm guessing, anything could sound right ;-)

• Bugscope Team Yeah I am sorry I can't remember. Should be looking it up in between.

• Bugscope Team now we can see that it still shrank a bit
• Student Looks like it should brush more often, with all those cavities (comment from a kid visitor)

• Bugscope Team sponging mouthparts

• 5:00pm

• Student Amazing how complex the claw structure is on these guys!
• Bugscope Team Yeah it is pretty amazing.
• Bugscope Team No pulvillus, no tenent setae.
• Student The sensory hairs on the claws are neat - guess it's like feet and a tongue combined

• Bugscope Team unguitractor

• Bugscope Team This is cool and you have the hang of driving -- a $600,000 microscope.
• Student Are the corkscrew shaped setae chemoreceptors as well, or tactile hairs?
• Student Yeah, and I don't even have a license!

• Bugscope Team well, we wrote insurance into the bugscope interface, so no worries!

• 5:05pm

• Bugscope Team there is no way you can hurt the scope, or yourself, while driving. :)
• Bugscope Team I always think they are tactile, mechanosensory. Chemosensory setae often will have a tiny pore at the tip, and they are smooth and flexible, according to me :)
• Bugscope Team Bob I know I have the 'lacewing' misidentified. Can you check it out?
• Bugscope Team welcome back!
• Bugscope Team Just had to change your name.
• Student Sorry, we just got bumped offline for a moment, catching up...
• Bugscope Team ok
• Bugscope Team No problems, lot of traffic out there.

• 5:11pm
• Bugscope Team (deus ex machina)
• Bugscope Team we got a tracking error on the 'scope here, not your fault
• Bugscope Team this is a single wingscale
• Bugscope Team each hole in the scale looks to be about a micron, that's one millionth of a meter!
• Bugscope Team we cannot get super fine resolution now because we are at a long working distance -- the beam is more than an inch from the sample
• Bugscope Team so I tweaked it a little

• Bugscope Team if we were to move the sample close to the polepiece our resolution would be much better but we would not be able to get lowmag images
• 5:17pm
• Bugscope Team scales of different colors should have different substructure, I think
• Bugscope Team white scales have large open lattice
• Bugscope Team scales can have colors from pigment, which appears as tiny granules in the latticework, and they also produce structural colors that result from their periodicity
• Bugscope Team butterflies, moths, mosquitos, silverfish, and some odd weevils have scales

• Bugscope Team awesome serrated jaws
• Bugscope Team you see these only rarely
• 5:22pm
• Bugscope Team the other leafcutter ant is holding a smaller leafcutter ant in its jaws

• Bugscope Team chomp
• Student Getting caught up in conversation with visitors, but I'm still here!

• Bugscope Team we have been in the same position at the Insect Fear Film Festival

• Bugscope Team wow that was a head attached to a limb
• Bugscope Team it had bitten onto the limb
• Student Sorry, keep clicking to drive, and then forgetting to click to stop! I'm out of control!

• Bugscope Team Cate had put a leafcutter on a stub a week or so ago, but it had no head. We just found it.
• Bugscope Team Bob you are doing very well.

• Bugscope Team There look to the west and norht
• Bugscope Team nprth
• Bugscope Team North

• 5:27pm

• Bugscope Team Bob this preset moved a little since we made it

• Bugscope Team now you can see the pollen grain

• Bugscope Team Dude do you recognize this species?
• Bugscope Team that is not a limb but a palp

• Bugscope Team reminds me of Watchmen

• Bugscope Team the salt crystals are from a Wendy's restaurant.

• Student Ah-hah. I thought I was just lost
• Bugscope Team this is the syrphid fly
• Student The earlier beast I was flying all around looked to me to possibly be a caddisfly, Trichoptera. It's a bit tricky as I don't have a good feel for the real-life scale of the specimen

• Bugscope Team there it is

• 5:32pm
• Bugscope Team I dunno maybe 15 to 20 mm long

• Student I can't see funtional mouthparts, just the palps - typical for a lot of Trichoptera
• Bugscope Team they just taste things and breed, don't eat as adults
• Student I'm surprised at the size of the specimens - I had assumed that only very tiny specimens (
• Bugscope Team the stub is 1.75 inches in diameter
• Student VERY COOL!
• Bugscope Team the large eye toward the back is the syrphid fly
• Bugscope Team the polepiece is above, conical
• Bugscope Team we are using an infrared camera mounted in the back of the chamber, looking toward the door
• Student Is that the receptor "basket" to the upper left ?
• Bugscope Team the thing on the upper right is the cage -- yes! -- on the SED
• Bugscope Team 300 volt positive bias
• Bugscope Team we are working at 5 kV with a 2.1 nm spot
• Bugscope Team this 'scope has a field emission electron gun
• 5:37pm
• Student And that doesn't interfere with the camera, or do you stop scanning to take that image?
• Bugscope Team the beam is blanked when we go to the CCD camera

• Bugscope Team female mosquito

• Bugscope Team lucky we see both antennae

• Bugscope Team you can see we get a lot of charging on critters with scales

• Bugscope Team it may be the other mosquito on which you can see one of the stylets
• Teacher How does that affect the image?
• Bugscope Team you mean charging?

• 5:42pm
• Bugscope Team charging makes the image irreparably bright or dark

• Bugscope Team the samples are all coated with several nm of gold-palladium and stuck down to carbon doublestick tape with silver paint to help out
• Bugscope Team plain gold is not fine enough -- we would be able to see the grains of gold fairly soon, at fairly low mags for this 'scope

• Bugscope Team bee right back

• Bugscope Team alright
• 5:48pm

• Bugscope Team beetle head

• Bugscope Team sometimes you can see chemosensory structures inside the plates, the lamellae

• Bugscope Team but here there is a lot of juju

• Bugscope Team you may be able to discern the eye facets
• Bugscope Team at higher mag, moved in
• Teacher The specimen is really clean - these guys tend to "puke" up liquid when they die and that often obscurs the antennal and mandibular structures - the sculpture of the molar surfaces are often characterictic to a species
• 5:53pm
• Bugscope Team yeah this was from an entomology grad student's collection
• Teacher Lost you - are you still on the scarab head?
• Bugscope Team so some of these were trapped
• Bugscope Team oh yeah sorry
• Bugscope Team this is off to the 'collar' opposite the (featureless) eye

• Bugscope Team sometimes, especially with earwigs, we see mites

• Bugscope Team and sometimes we see mold, fungus; sometimes bacteria

• Bugscope Team we have been doing this for 10 years and 12 days

• Bugscope Team I think this was a butterfly

• Bugscope Team grey, red...
• Bugscope Team brown and black

• 5:59pm

• Bugscope Team if there were pigment granules we would see them hanging in these holes

• Bugscope Team I am doing some of the fine focusing 'cause it's quicker

• Bugscope Team the ridges are a little more than 2 micrometers across

• Bugscope Team the length of many bacilli
• Bugscope Team about 2 microns
• Bugscope Team now you see an optical illusion in an electron optical image
• Bugscope Team moire patterns

• Bugscope Team sometimes you will see this in complex eyes as well, like on a moth's compound eye
• Bugscope Team try clicking once on the micron bar, lower left
• Bugscope Team you should see a set of parameters
• 6:05pm

• Bugscope Team so pretty

• Bugscope Team what preset was this?

• Bugscope Team I see. Click once to stop

• Bugscope Team there back to the stylet, one of the stylets

• Bugscope Team when we make a preset at higher mag and it is something like this it often moves a little after while
• Bugscope Team after awhile
• 6:11pm
• Bugscope Team there may be four of these in one fascicle
• Bugscope Team I think they work like laciniae in a flea cutting side by side
• Teacher Very cool how the serrations on the stylet are alternating, as if to cut in, but then allow the stylet to cut out as the bug withdraws it. I've been looking at insects under a 'scope for years, but have barely seen anything so far!
• Bugscope Team flea, comma, cutting side by side
• Bugscope Team this is an uncommon view, also

• Bugscope Team it is at the perfect angle to allow us to see that

• Bugscope Team see the pollen grain, the scale, the plumose setae, the antennae

• Bugscope Team the edge of the world

• Bugscope Team there are also mold spores to the right
• Bugscope Team next to the pollen grain
• Teacher This view is highly reminiscent of a "South Park" episode I just saw about fleas!
• Bugscope Team ah and you can see placoid sensilla on the antenna

• Bugscope Team huh cool

• 6:16pm

• Bugscope Team this is not a fly is it
• Teacher No, looks like a small hymenopteran
• Bugscope Team someone else's scale
• Bugscope Team yeah it did look like an ant by eye, sort of
• Teacher I just noticed the tiny setae at the junctures of some of the eye facets

• Bugscope Team compare this to the fruit fly eye

• Teacher Not sure this is truly a seta, pretty stout!
• Bugscope Team what would you term it?

• Bugscope Team a bristle?

• Bugscope Team mutant one there
• 6:21pm
• Bugscope Team we seem to call bristles, microsetae, trichae, microtrichae all 'setae'
• Teacher Not sure what I'd call that - probably some specific name for that kind of character - entomologists are notorious for having all kinds of specific names for hairs that do different things
• Bugscope Team 'cause we don't know any better
• Bugscope Team it seems there is a lot of disagreement
• Teacher Job protection... keep the masses in the dark
• Bugscope Team ha yeah

• Bugscope Team too bad we don't have a bee, with super hairy eyes

• Bugscope Team also we do not have any ocelli yet tonight
• Bugscope Team or hamuli

• Teacher How often do you change out the specimens?
• Bugscope Team we never change them during a session but try never to use te same stub twice

• Bugscope Team if someone works right after someone else we will have to leave the same stub in since it takes awhile to make the presets
• Teacher Does the sputter-coating degrade with time during a session?

• 6:26pm

• Bugscope Team not during a session, usually.
• Teacher Ahhhh... can't catch this one
• Bugscope Team the insects get more dry over time and lose conductivity
• Teacher Can the stubs be retained and reused over and over?

• Bugscope Team we clean the stubs and reuse them, but we rarely try to save insect samples, which rot unless they are desiccated
• Teacher Some wicked jaws there

• Bugscope Team yeah man

• Bugscope Team I am sorry there is no dorsal view so you could see the eyes

• Bugscope Team well you can!
• Bugscope Team there is an eye to the SE

• Bugscope Team out of the image still
• Bugscope Team just south

• Bugscope Team yay

• Bugscope Team that was an eye stalk
• Bugscope Team lot of fungus on these
• Teacher Sorry - got distracted looking at what appears to be a palp laying along the base of the mandible

• Bugscope Team that with the cacti on it is an eye

• 6:31pm
• Bugscope Team that's it
• Teacher bizarre!

• Bugscope Team it's an eyestalk with perhaps simple eyes on it

• Bugscope Team these will have trigger hairs as well, on the other side
• Teacher The filamentous structures are fungi?

• Bugscope Team yes I think so

• Bugscope Team I wonder if the cactus-like setae are that shape because they are more sensory beneath sand or if they better retain the dirt and sand that antlions often coat themselves with
• Bugscope Team of course this is not an antlion
• Bugscope Team but it looks so much like one
• Teacher Do these trunk-like hairs act as triggers for the jaws? Looks like they could be little "trip-handles" for the jaws.
• Bugscope Team I was thinking the trigger hairs would be longer, and there would be only two, like with trapjaw ants
• 6:37pm
• Bugscope Team but if you are in sand they have to be less sensitive in a way
• Bugscope Team to pressure
• Teacher Probably so - I guess by the time a prey insect contacted these, the antlion would already be aware of it
• Bugscope Team your jaw would be snapping shut all of the time
• Bugscope Team (if it was too sensitive)
• Bugscope Team we see analogous structures all over the exoskeleton
• Teacher Maybe the closer the better, since the antlion is somewhat buried as it waits on prey

• Bugscope Team yes I think you are right

• Bugscope Team bizarre-looking dudes

• Bugscope Team uhoh where were you going?
• Bugscope Team cool

• Bugscope Team we got a tracking error briefly, here on the 'scope
• 6:42pm
• Teacher Went looking for the Wendy's salt by request here and got lost!
• Bugscope Team oh okay I can take you there, sorry
• Teacher I see you have the beetle updated - cool!
• Bugscope Team yeah :)
• Teacher So that's how they stop your heart! Looks tasty!
• Teacher We're going to wander again...
• Bugscope Team this is interesting salt -- we think it has an anticaking agent that makes it have that Aztec-like pattern
• Bugscope Team most salt is a simple cube

• Bugscope Team this is another one of those intricate tarsi/claws
• Teacher Clear that flies are doing a lot more than just hanging on to things with their feet

• 6:47pm

• Bugscope Team another thing we do not have today, as a preset, is the pulvillus -- the sticky pad with the tenent setae on it that allow you to cling to glass, for example

• Bugscope Team try preset 6 when you get a chance so the brochosomes will be part of the database for your school
• Teacher Really - a lot of our visitors are asking "can I see the pulvillus" - they're bummed. Just kidding...
• Bugscope Team well we should be able to find one on a fly

• Bugscope Team the soccerballs are brochosomes

• Bugscope Team which only leafhoppers are said to produce
• Bugscope Team they are about 400 nm in diameter
• Teacher What are their function?
• Bugscope Team you are imaging at 82,000x
• Teacher What is the upper limit on this scope?
• Bugscope Team leafhoppers have an 'anointing' behavior in which they spread them on their cuticle
• Bugscope Team they may keep eggs from drying out
• 6:53pm
• Bugscope Team we can go to 800,000 but take meaningful potentially publishable images at no more than maybe 200,000x

• Bugscope Team as I had mentioned earlier to make those look really good we would be much closer to the polepiece
• Teacher WOW!
• Bugscope Team you are at 200,000x now
• Bugscope Team we are more than an inch from the polepiece and can get as close as about 3 mm
• Bugscope Team that gives us much better resolution
• Teacher I notice at this resolution that the image appears to be "shimmering" - is this typical at this high a magnification?

• Bugscope Team it is because we are so far from the sample

• Bugscope Team and the AC kicked on

• Teacher the AC? Are you getting vibration from it?

• Bugscope Team yeah sometimes we shut it off to get super high res images

• Bugscope Team no talking, either, of course
• Bugscope Team we are 23 feet underground
• 6:58pm
• Bugscope Team and far enough from the elevators to avoid vibration from them
• Teacher Your voice actually can affect the scan? I guess Barry White playing in the lab would be out then?

• Bugscope Team there

• Bugscope Team few insects have such complex ommatidia
• Bugscope Team mostly we see this with moths, butterflies
• Teacher Looks as if there is a whole second level of facets on each ommatidia
• Bugscope Team yes
• Bugscope Team I let myself think it helps with UV imaging but have no idea what the structure does
• Teacher Wonder why something as relatively passive as a lacewing would have such complex eyes?
• Bugscope Team those look to be less than 200 nm diameter
• Bugscope Team yeah if this is a lacewing
• Teacher This may be what causes that interesting golden reflection when you hit a lacewing with light in the dark

• 7:03pm

• Bugscope Team maybe it aids with night vision since we see it in moths

• Bugscope Team you said this might be a trichoptera?

• Bugscope Team trichopteran?
• Bugscope Team there is so much to know about insects
• Teacher I'm looking again at it - the wings are missing the intricate venation that is present in Neuroptera

• Bugscope Team ha cool

• Bugscope Team it might've had an alternately colored abdomen
• Bugscope Team ringed
• Teacher Additionally, the wings have a lot of setae, typical of Trichoptera
• Bugscope Team okay
• Bugscope Team Bob is there still a crowd? I would like to help the guy on the TEM shut down, peel out for home sometime soon.
• 7:08pm
• Teacher I got the word to go home! This has really been interesting and thank you bunches!
• Bugscope Team Hey Man I really appreciate getting to work with you.
• Bugscope Team This was an uncommon session, extra fun.
• Bugscope Team Thank you.
• Teacher I'm at the carnegie Museum of Natural History, btw, looking forward to working with you again some day!
• Teacher Good night!
• Bugscope Team Hey Cool. You bet. Thanks Bob.
• Bugscope Team Good night!