Connected on 2009-06-08 07:30:00 from Aberdeen, Aberdeen City, GB
- 6:43am
- Bugscope Team waiting for the vacuum, won't be long and we'll be making presets
- 6:50am
- 6:55am
- 7:01am
- Bugscope Team Now we're making presets. It's 7:02 a.m. here.
- 7:08am
- 7:13am
- Teacher Hello. Sorry if I kept you waiting as I had stair duty.
- Bugscope Team Good Morning, We are fine! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Teacher I sent some insects but I'm not sure if you have received them yet.
- Bugscope Team this weevil is the only one in this sample from what you sent us
- Bugscope Team the other insects are ones we put in for you :)
- 7:18am
- Teacher Aha so it's a weevil. Anything else we should know about it?
- Teacher Thank you so much!
- Bugscope Team well, there's a lot of detail on the weevil we can talk about when we start the session
- Bugscope Team a weevil is from the beetle family
- Bugscope Team presets are done
- Bugscope Team i've just unlocked the session
- Bugscope Team you can start controlling the scope now, you should see the controls on the right side of your browser window
- Bugscope Team at any time, you can click on one of the preset images, and the scope will move to that location
- Bugscope Team and if you have any questions or problems, please let us know
- 7:24am
- Teacher Hmm slight technical difficulty. The window is wider than my screen and I can't see any buttons to the right. Nor is there a scroll bar to move the window to the right
- Bugscope Team bugscope requires a minimum resolution of 1024x768. is your screen resolution at 800x600?
- Bugscope Team or, you might want expand your browser to the maximum, by hitting F11
- Teacher sorry how would I check. I did run the test before and it seemed ok
- Bugscope Team We can get it to work.
- Bugscope Team are you running windows?
- Teacher yes
- Bugscope Team ok, right click anywhere on the desktop
- Bugscope Team then click on properties
- Bugscope Team this is windows xp?
- Teacher yes
- Bugscope Team ok, right click on the desktop, then select properties
- Bugscope Team that brings up the display properties window, then click on the settings tab
- Bugscope Team in the settings tab, you should see a slide bar, to change the resolution, go ahead and make it at least 1024x768? what what is it set to now?
- Bugscope Team if your screen resolution is already at 1024x768 or more, then all you should have to do is maximize your browser window (F11 in Internet Explorer)
- 7:29am
- Bugscope Team ok, you don't have admin access, we'll try to work around it
- Bugscope Team is your browser window at the maximum size of the screen?
- Teacher great. Sorry we didn't pick up on that before
- Bugscope Team i just looked at your test results, and see that from one of the computers, it is running 800x600, yet the test passed. that is a mistake on our part
- Bugscope Team sorry, we will fix that. although the first test did fail because of 800x600. and i see that you also ran the test from other computers that had a higher (better) resolution
- Bugscope Team can you see the controls and the presets now?
- Bugscope Team the controls should have: magnify, navigation, focus and adjust
- Teacher no
- Bugscope Team you don't see the controls at all?
- Teacher no, sorry
- Bugscope Team i'd like to try and call you, easier to talk than to chat
- Bugscope Team is there a number i can call you at?
- Bugscope Team is there a person there who is authorized to make temporary changes to your computer settings?
- 7:34am
- Teacher just checking
- Bugscope Team if you can find an IT (computer) person, they may be able to change the screen resolution to 1024x768
- Bugscope Team if we cannot get help from a systems persons, we can drive the microscope for you, and if you can see the chat you can ask questions, help us direct the imaging for you
- Bugscope Team huh sorry can't type a sentence correctly
- Teacher so what are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the proboscis of a leafhopper
- Teacher what is a probuscis>
- Bugscope Team leafhoppers have piercing mouthparts so they can suck the juices out of plants/leaves
- Bugscope Team a proboscis is a piercing mouthpart that many organisms have. the largest proboscis in the world is the elephant trunk
- Bugscope Team a proboscis is an extension of the mouth, or sometimes the nose, as in an elephant's trunk, also called a proboscis
- 7:39am
- Bugscope Team Alex beat me to it, of course
- Bugscope Team the large hole to the left is where this leafhopper had been affixed to a pin in someone's collection
- Bugscope Team here is the head, with the eyes on either side, and tiny antennae
- Bugscope Team insects are very very hairy when you look at them in a microscope. those hairs are called setae (see-tee), and they help the insect sense their environment. some setae can feel, some can sense smells, temperature, wind, etc.
- Bugscope Team in the middle of the head you can barely make out ridges that are part of the internal pumping apparatus that helps the leafhopper feed -- suck sap up through its proboscis
- Bugscope Team ah, cool, this is the weevil that you sent to us!
- Bugscope Team they are so cool-looking, sometimes called snout beetles
- Bugscope Team see its eyes?
- Bugscope Team it has compound eyes on either side of the base of its snout
- Bugscope Team yep, that's the compound eye right there
- Bugscope Team each one of those bumps is a ommatidia, and has an individual lens in it
- 7:45am
- Bugscope Team you can see some debris on the eye. it's relatively simple compared to the eyes of a wasp, moth, fly...
- Bugscope Team the lens is stationary, unlike human eyes that can move around in the socket. but compound eyes make up for the stationary lens by having hundreds of ommatidia pointed in 180 degrees, usually
- Bugscope Team go ahead and ask any questions if you have any
- Bugscope Team now I'm taking us to another part of the stub, where we see a stilt-legged fly
- Bugscope Team at least its head...
- Bugscope Team this is a fly's head
- Teacher hold on a sec. We missed part of that looking for a laptop that isn't networked. Could you tell us again what we are looking at
- Bugscope Team this is a fly head, a stilt legged fly
- Bugscope Team this is the head of a stilt legged fly
- Bugscope Team you can see the huge compound eyes on either side of the head
- Bugscope Team and now we are zooming in on the sponging mouthparts
- Bugscope Team we will wait here until you let us know it is okay to move on
- Bugscope Team hi mrs. C, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Team Good afternoon, Mrs C!
- Teacher we have a laptop with driving capabilities
- Bugscope Team You caught us looking at a fly tongue!
- Bugscope Team yeah!
- Bugscope Team awesome
- Bugscope Team that was resourceful -- good deal!
- Bugscope Team i just gave control over to mrs. c, so she should be able to see the controls on the right side of the browser
- Teacher we have cheers
- Bugscope Team :)
- Bugscope Team Cheers from here!
- Teacher its a happy convention
- Bugscope Team please feel free to drive, and let us know when you have any questions
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Student 55o we are up and running
- Teacher One kid says the bits of the tongue look like a race car shell advert
Bugscope Team totally. insects have really cool looking parts to them when you look at them under a microscope
- Bugscope Team you can change the mag, click to drive (kind of scary -- you need to click to stop as well), click to center, focus, etc...
- 7:50am
- Bugscope Team maybe like some of the cooling louvers?
- Bugscope Team you may also select from among the presets
- Teacher what are we looking at now+
- Bugscope Team in fact, some parts of the leafhopper (preset #9) are so small that they were not discovered until someone put the leafhopper into an electron microscope. those small things are called brochosomes
- Bugscope Team this is part of the face of the fly, up close
- Bugscope Team these are microsetae
- Bugscope Team those click again to stop
- Bugscope Team if you get to an unfamiliar place, you can focus, change to a lower mag, choose from among the presets...
- Bugscope Team mrs. C, if you get lost driving the scope, you can always click on a preset to find your way back to a coool location
- Bugscope Team cool!
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the stilt legged fly
- Bugscope Team cool, this is a fly head, with HUGE compound eyes on either side
- Teacher Why do the eyes have little dots all around it?
Bugscope Team those dots are called ommatidia, they are individual facets of the compound eye, and each one has a lens in it
- Bugscope Team on top of its head we see the antennae, which are fairly compact
- 7:55am
- Bugscope Team phew almost off the edge of the world
- Bugscope Team click again to stop moving
- Teacher WHY DO THEY HAVE COMPOUND EYES IN THE FIRST PLACE?
- Bugscope Team sometimes it is easier to use "click to center" than "click to drive"
- Teacher Is it true that some flies see in slow motion?
- Bugscope Team there are advantages to having compound eyes: 1) you have better peripheral vision
- Bugscope Team 2) yeah you have a much better ability to register changes in what you are seeing very quickly
- Bugscope Team I just clicked on a preset...
- Bugscope Team flying insects usually have great vision, helps them to fly well
- Bugscope Team but it came back to the stilt legged fly
- Teacher Are those its ears at the top
- Bugscope Team those were its antennae
- Bugscope Team now do you see the wasp? I wanted to ensure that we weren't stuck in a loop..
- Teacher does a fly have ears
- Bugscope Team they don't have ears, but they have setae that can sense vibration
- 8:00am
- Bugscope Team some insects do have ears, but they might be found on the thorax, as with a praying mantis, or on the legs!
- Teacher why do flies rub their legs together
Bugscope Team I think it's because they are obsessively clean. Beyond that I am not sure.
- Bugscope Team the jaws!
- Teacher what are the spot bits on the wasps mouth
- Bugscope Team well we see more setae, of course, and dirt, sometimes pollen or mold if we look up close
- Bugscope Team insect mouths are often confusing to us -- they have accessory mouthparts called palps, for example, that help them taste/manipulate their food
- Student what are the wings made of?
- Bugscope Team insect mouths also open sideways, compared to ours
- Student Why are there craters on the body? What are we looking at here?
- Bugscope Team the wings are made of chitin, like the rest of the exoskeleton
- 8:06am
- Bugscope Team the craters affect the coloration and make the wasp more easily identified by other wasps. you could also see that if you had tiny indentations in a smooth surface like that it would strengthen that surface overal
- Bugscope Team overall
- Bugscope Team ants often have very sculpted cuticle
- Bugscope Team cuticle = chitin, and it is a material comparable to our fingernails. like the shell of a shrimp!
- Student how do we change to a different preset?
Bugscope Team do you see the presets below the controls, just click on the image of one of them
- Bugscope Team click on it!
- Bugscope Team let us know if you have any trouble
- Bugscope Team you should be able to scroll through them
- Student I try that and get a warning
- Bugscope Team we have played a trick on ourselves, and sometimes one of the presets does not work the first time we set it
- Bugscope Team oh!
- Bugscope Team hey this is the weevil! that worked nicely!
- Bugscope Team he/she is a little worse for wear
- Teacher how is the mouth shaped like this
- Bugscope Team one of the antennae is missing, and the one on the right that looks like a pipe, is missing pieces
- Bugscope Team there is the mouth!
- Teacher what do they eat
Bugscope Team they eat lots of grains, are often found in stored grains or nuts or seeds...
- 8:11am
- Bugscope Team its adapted to probe
- Bugscope Team they're plant pests
- Student Are the hairs around the mouth hairs or spikes?
- Student Are they like little hoovers?
- Bugscope Team those hairs are probably mechanosensory -- they help the weevil feel where it is sticking its snout
- Bugscope Team ha yeah like little hoovers, but I think they need to prepare their food a bit first
- Bugscope Team they can cut into it with the jaws we see here
- Teacher whAT IS THE BUMP THAT LOOKS LIKE A CORNFLAKE
- Bugscope Team it is probably some dirt, or perhaps part of a seed
- Teacher ODYWHAT ARE ALL THE LITTLE BUMPS AROUND THE B
- Teacher BODY - MISSING WORD
- Bugscope Team in the background, we see the craters in the carbon tape we used to stick the insects down to the stub
- 8:16am
- Bugscope Team cool, this is a wasp stinger
- Teacher why is it this shape and how does it work
- Bugscope Team stingers are modified ovipositors, and sometimes they are used as either a stinger or an ovipositor
- Teacher what is an ovipositor
Bugscope Team an ovipositor is an organ used for the laying of eggs
- Bugscope Team when the wasp was alive the two halves were closely pressed together
- Student Why are there ttwo parts to the stinger?
- Student When it stings do those two parts go togethe?
- Bugscope Team they may have slid, side by side, to cut into whatever the wasp was stinging or laying eggs in
- Bugscope Team yes those two parts would have looked like one
- Teacher do wasps give off venom when they sting
- Bugscope Team yes they do, and they can sting repeatedly
- Bugscope Team they may paralyze their prey and then lay eggs inside them
- Bugscope Team probably not this wasp though; I don
- Bugscope Team 't think this is a parasitic wasp
- Bugscope Team if you decrease the magnification here you can see where we are
- 8:21am
- Teacher how do wasps communicate
Bugscope Team well, the wasp antennae are very complex, and they use it to communicate. preset #3 is a close-up of a wasp antenna
- Bugscope Team all of the places you drive to and all of the changes you make are stored in your school's database
- Bugscope Team probably most of the communication is via chemical signals, as with ants
- Bugscope Team they are closely related to ants
- Bugscope Team and here we see how some of that signal is collected
- Student wow that's interesting. How do they use chemicals to communicate?
Bugscope Team well, like ants for instance, use chemicals to communicate location of trails. that's how they all move along the same path in a one-by-one file
- Bugscope Team these are sensilla on the shaft of the antenna, which is really quite complex
- Teacher what is the hive made of
- Bugscope Team if you alter those chemical trails, then the ants will start walking willy-nilly all over the place
- 8:27am
- Bugscope Team it depends on the kind of wasp; a paper wasp makes its hive out of cellulose that it has chewed up
- Bugscope Team some wasps make their hives of mud -- dried mud
- Student what are these dimples?
- Student Is our session just about over?
- Bugscope Team the long ones are called placoid sensilla, and the shorter ones have setae in them that are also likely chemosensory
- Bugscope Team we are scheduled to run 'til 8:30 a.m. Two minutes away. But if you would like to run longer please let us know
- Bugscope Team this is the antenna, and you can see how small those features were
- Student that's amazing. Everything looks so alien up close.
- Bugscope Team wasps have four wings, but when they fly they attach the fore and hindwings together so that they effectively have only two wings
- Bugscope Team everything is in black&white because the images we see are coming to us as signal, from electrons
- 8:32am
- Bugscope Team this is a kind of punk-looking dragonfly
- Student may we look at one more preset? We'd like to see the dragonfly head
Bugscope Team cool, go for it!
- Bugscope Team you bet! and we are there!
- Student Why are his hairs so different from other insects?
- Bugscope Team dragonflies have four wings as well but don
- Bugscope Team 't hook them together to fly
- Student why not?
- Bugscope Team he has longer hairs, for some reason
- Student Oh, we need to go now, as the spare laptop has other work to do. Thanks for everything!
- Bugscope Team dragonflies are ancient species and have not changed much; flies are more modern, as are wasps
- Bugscope Team Thank You for connecting with us today, and please consider working with us in the future.
- Bugscope Team ok, remember your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-055, it has all the chat and images from today's session
- Bugscope Team you did a great job!
- Bugscope Team and cheers!
- Teacher You guys offer an aawesome service AND WE REALLy appreciated the help and understanding over the technical difficulties
Bugscope Team we are glad the session turned out ok. we don't often see 800x600 resoltuion, so it's usually not an issue. but we'll make sure the test fails at that res agin in the future
- Teacher So, a quick question, the bugs I sent, are weevils right? Do they eat wood?
- Bugscope Team I don't think they eat wood, but there are many species of them...
- 8:37am
- Teacher Thanks so much. We'll be in touch again. Have a good rest of the morning and thanks again
- Bugscope Team good bye! thank you!
- Bugscope Team it looks like they *could* eat wood, at least to get to softer more tastier things...
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team ok, good bye mrs. b, don't forget all the chat and images are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-055
