Connected on 2010-08-23 08:30:00 from Nebo, KY, US
- 7:42am
- Bugscope Team good morning!
- Bugscope Team I am still sputter coating the sample.
- 7:49am
- Bugscope Team okay sample is in the 'scope and pumping down...
- 7:56am
- Bugscope Team Good morning!
- Teacher Good morning!
- Bugscope Team The samples are almost pumped down.
- Bugscope Team Once the vacuum is good I will start making presets for your session. We start at 8:30, correct?
- Teacher Correct!
- Bugscope Team cool
- Bugscope Team I should have everything ready by/before then.
- Teacher Thank you!
- Teacher We were not able to load Firefox. It would say "Page Not Found".
- 8:01am
- Bugscope Team you mean you were using firefox and bugscope would not come up?
- Bugscope Team really I think IE7 is fine if you can see the whole screen -- the controls and chat, etc.
- Teacher We were trying for the portable Firefox. We are using IE7 and can see everything though.
- Bugscope Team got it. not sure why it won't work, though
- Bugscope Team but I hope it is not a problem for you today
- 8:08am
- 8:14am
- 8:20am
- Bugscope Team hello Mom!
- Guest hi
- 8:25am
- 8:30am
- Bugscope Team We are ready to roll.
- Bugscope Team Ms Ray you now have control of the microscope...
- Bugscope Team this is a tiny mold spore on the thorax of a smashed housefly
- Teacher Mold spore on housefly?
Bugscope Team yes anything that dies and lies out for even a short amount of time will start to decay, and mold spores started to gather on that fly
- Bugscope Team insects have a head, thorax, and abdomen as major body parts
- Bugscope Team this is pretty cool
- Bugscope Team this is one of the claws of another fly
- Bugscope Team you can see the tiny hairs -- the tenent setae -- that help it stick to walls and ceilings
- Bugscope Team you can also see two claws
- Bugscope Team the furry things are the tenent setae, which stick like tiny suction cups. sometimes they have a sticky fluid on them
- Bugscope Team below the claw/leg, we see the abdomen
- Bugscope Team and also, the wings to either side
- 8:36am
- Bugscope Team mold spores look much like pollen but usually have smaller little bumps on their surfaces, and they are softer
- Bugscope Team this is about where the wings connect to the thorax
- Bugscope Team the thorax is the trunk region -- the main part of the body, like the chest
- Bugscope Team you will always see lots of tiny hairs, called setae
- Bugscope Team the hairs are sensory: some are for touch, some can sense hot/cold, and some can pick up smells/scents from the air
- Bugscope Team this is a fruit fly
- Bugscope Team very small
- Bugscope Team they live on the mold that grows on the surfaces of fruit
- Bugscope Team the background is silver paint and doublestick carbon tape
- Bugscope Team this is the eye of that same fly
- Teacher What is sticking out of the eye?
- Bugscope Team the little spikes are rigid setae that help the fruit fly sense wind speed and direction
- Bugscope Team sometimes you will see that they are broken off, but there are lots of them
- Teacher That's cool!
- Bugscope Team the eye facets are called 'ommatidia.'
- Bugscope Team each is an individual lens
- Teacher Do all insects that fly have those?
Bugscope Team they all have compound eyes, to some extent, but they do not all have little setae like that
- 8:41am
- Bugscope Team a huge portion of the fruit fly brain is dedicated to processing the images from the eye facets
- Bugscope Team many flies, wasps, and bees have five eyes: two compound eyes like this and three simple eyes, on top of the head, called ocelli
- Bugscope Team now we are looking at the ladybug's mouthparts
- Bugscope Team the pointy things are palps
- Bugscope Team palps are like extra limbs that the insect uses to manipulate and also taste its food
- Bugscope Team ladybugs eat other bugs; they are said to be partial to aphids
- Bugscope Team this is one of the palps
- Bugscope Team on the end you see little dots that are the sensory -- smell in this case -- features
- Bugscope Team the eyes are streamlined into the head, and you can see them on either side
- Bugscope Team dome-like compound eyes
- Bugscope Team see how the head is protected? it is like a littleturret
- Bugscope Team little turret
- Bugscope Team you can see one of the antennae
- Bugscope Team kind of draped down
- 8:46am
- Bugscope Team insects and other arthropods like them have an exoskeleton, like a shell
- Bugscope Team hi all!
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye of the ladybug
- Bugscope Team you can see that it is different from that of the fruit fly
- Bugscope Team Hi Cate!
- Bugscope Team this is a big green fly, kind of scary-looking
- Bugscope Team some of the ommatidia are square, but many are hexagonal
- Bugscope Team its eye was scratched there
- Bugscope Team and you can see setae, but very few compared to the fruit fly
- Bugscope Team it's like a tiny hair
- 8:51am
- Bugscope Team because they have an exoskeleton -- like wearing a suit of armor -- insects need to have sensors that stick through that armor and help them feel/taste their environment
- Bugscope Team these are wing scales from a butterfly
- Teacher How many scales in one wing?
Bugscope Team a lot. they can also stand to lose a few for defensive purposes (like getting out of a spider web) and still fly away
- Teacher Can they live if the scales fall off?
Bugscope Team yes, if they don't lose too many
- Bugscope Team they feel like powder, kind of silky, when you touch them
- Teacher Is there any other purposes other than defensive?
- Bugscope Team the scales are responsible for some of the colors we see in the wings
- Bugscope Team so they can be used for identification by other insects
- Bugscope Team also, if a bird can recognize a Monarch butterfly from its coloration, it will realize that it does not want to eat it. Monarchs do not taste good.
- Bugscope Team the magnification can sometimes be too high for us to see well.
- Teacher How long does a butterfly live?
Bugscope Team that depends on what kind of butterfly it is. Monarchs can live to almost a year long depending on if they are the migratory. Others live for maybe around a month
- 8:56am
- Bugscope Team Monarch butterflies eat milkweed, which is toxic to many other animals
- Bugscope Team now we can see that a whole butterfly would have been too big to put on the stub today -- it would have covered the whole 1.75-in. stub
- Teacher If you touch their wings, will they die?
Bugscope Team if you touch their wings they will lose scales but not necessarily die
- Bugscope Team you can see someone else's wing in the lower left
- Bugscope Team this is a tiny beetle
- Bugscope Team it has little club-like antennae
- Teacher Why are they hanging down?
- Bugscope Team they are protected that way, and they are also, perhaps, where they can be more useful in picking up odors from the air
- 9:02am
- Bugscope Team the antennae can be moved around, of course
- Bugscope Team in the foreground here we see one of the claws
- Teacher Is that mold on his mouthparts?
Bugscope Team I think there is mold there, yes.
- Bugscope Team sometimes insects spit up when they die
- Bugscope Team you can see its jaws, as well
- Bugscope Team with insects, unlike people, the jaws open and close from the sides, more like a gate
- Bugscope Team this is the thorax, which is what all six legs of an insect are attached to
- Bugscope Team this is very dirty!
- Teacher What are the grooves?
Bugscope Team that's where it can flex
- Bugscope Team but it is not the beetle's fault
- 9:07am
- Bugscope Team you can see that this spider claw shifted a little since we made the preset this morning
- Bugscope Team spider claws often have little combs like that
- Bugscope Team some of the spider silk -- the web -- is not sticky
- Bugscope Team but even if a spider got stuck, it could eat the web to get out
- Teacher What kind of spider is this?
Bugscope Team the most common ones we get are household spiders like wolf spiders. We aren't very good at identifying what kind they were though
- Bugscope Team spiders are good recyclers, and they often eat their web
- Bugscope Team you can see several more legs
- Bugscope Team spiders have the ability to make a leg fall off instantly if they sense it has poison -- venom -- entering it
- Bugscope Team the head is to the top
- Bugscope Team I am sorry but it is difficult to make out all of the parts
- Bugscope Team spiders have palps like insects, but they are longer, and there are only two
- 9:13am
- Bugscope Team in the center here is the head, and the two curved things, like short legs, are the palps
- Bugscope Team this is probably a female, because males have larger, wider palps
- Bugscope Team the fangs, which run horizontally, are in about the center of where we are now
- Bugscope Team the smoother things under the palps are called chelicers, or chelicerae
- Bugscope Team the fangs are at the bottom of the chelicers
- Bugscope Team there you are!
- Teacher .Sorry, our computer kicked us offline.
- Bugscope Team sorry it looks like that happened twice at least. we are glad to see you back!
- Bugscope Team I would like to drive for a sec and see if I can find a mosquito
- Teacher okay
- 9:18am
- Bugscope Team oh I am so sorry -- it's head fell off@!
- Bugscope Team this is part of its wing
- Bugscope Team very sad
- Bugscope Team you can drive again if you'd like
- Teacher Are we able to see the head? They would like to see the part that bites us.
- Bugscope Team I am sorry -- it is gone. But you can find one on the Bugscope website if you search, later.
- Bugscope Team this is part of a fly's claw -- part of the pulvillus, which is a sticky pad
- 9:23am
- Bugscope Team you can see that the setae are sensitive to the electron beam, which is very powerful when it is focused in a small area
- Bugscope Team the electron beam kind of blows the sample around at high mag like this
- Bugscope Team this is so cool looking
- Bugscope Team this is just a tiny part of the claw of a housefly
- Bugscope Team the actual claws you can see now
- Bugscope Team they open and close like pincers
- Bugscope Team and those long thin hairs help them feel what they are touching
- Bugscope Team the compound eye is to the left
- Bugscope Team these are salt granules from a Wendy's restaurant
- 9:29am
- Teacher Cool!
- Bugscope Team they look incised
- Teacher I think that's the end of our time. Thank you so much. This was incredible!
Bugscope Team thanks for trying out bugscope this morning!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
