Connected on 2010-09-23 11:00:00 from Bainbridge Island, WA, US
- 9:43am
- Bugscope Team pumping down..
- 9:55am
- Bugscope Team 2.7 x 10-4 mBar
- Bugscope Team 2.1
- 10:01am
- Bugscope Team 2.0
- Bugscope Team 1.8
- 10:08am
- Bugscope Team waivering... 1.7
- 10:13am
- Bugscope Team 1.6
- 10:20am
- Bugscope Team hi we are still waiting for the vacuum to finish pumping down. then we will do the presets
- Bugscope Team and after that you can have control
- Teacher I am so excited. I will start setting up the kids. They are at art. I am doing this in our lab.
- 10:29am
- Bugscope Team Teacher we are going to take the big bee out because we think it may be too juicy, still, to let the vacuum pump down enough to use the 'scope.
- Bugscope Team So you will see me in a second...
- Bugscope Team taking the bee out of the chamber
- Bugscope Team now we are pumping down again. we *think* that was the culprit...
- 10:44am
- Teacher How is it going?
- Bugscope Team apparently the bee wasnt the problem.
- Bugscope Team once we find out what is the problem we'll be able to make some quick presets and get you going
- 10:56am
- Teacher We are all in the lab. Ready when you are.
- Bugscope Team ugh we are very sorry -- something we had collected for your session today was too juicy to let the vacuum pump down. so we have put another Bugscope sample in the 'scope. There is a bee among the insects, plus a ladybug, a centipede, a few flies, a mosquito...
- Bugscope Team now we are pumping that sample down; it should go much more quickly
- Bugscope Team once it is pumped down we will turn on the electron beam and start imaging
- Bugscope Team you will be able to see how we set things up -- the things you would normally not see
- Bugscope Team but we will work as quickly as possible
- Teacher That's okay. We know trying new things is full of the unexpected.
- Bugscope Team so what we are looking at right now is the vacuum chamber, and the little platter in the middle bottom portion of the screen is a bunch of bugs
- Bugscope Team they've been coated with gold-palladium to make them conductive, and before that they were air-dried
- 11:01am
- Bugscope Team when the vacuum gets to be good enough we will switch to the secondary electron detector and start beaming electrons at the sample
- Bugscope Team they come from the conical thing at the top center of the image we see now
- Bugscope Team the electrons will raster across the sample -- wherever we point them
- Student how long does it take to air dry a bee
Bugscope Team it takes at least a few days
- Bugscope Team and they will excite electrons from the conductive coating -- the gold-palladium allow -- that we put on the samples
- Bugscope Team that was a very big bee, but it may not have been the bee that was the problem
- Bugscope Team also depends on the bee
- Bugscope Team they can be very big- like solitary bees or bumble bees
- Student how juicy
Bugscope Team the 'juiciness' is from the hemolymph -- the 'blood' of the insects
- Bugscope Team it may also be because we put plant material in for today's session, and plants, because the cells have thick walls and waxy coatings, can remain moist longer
- 11:07am
- Student do bees have hearts
Bugscope Team yes but they are a bit different from our own hearts
- Student what is the hemolymph
Bugscope Team that is the bug blood, it can sometimes be green when you see it
- Bugscope Team insects and other arthropods like them have 'open' circulatory systems
- Student what climate do bees like best
Bugscope Team they like warm temperatures. Most insects do. That's why in the south there is such a huge variety of insects
- Student how old can bees live to
- Student how long is a bees life
Bugscope Team the queen can live the longest- 2-5 years. The drones live for a little over a month and the workers live up to 4 months
- Student do bees have teeth
Bugscope Team no but they do have jaws that sometimes are forked or serrated. They open out like a gate
- Bugscope Team we are so sorry--
- Bugscope Team the drones are the males and the workers (the bees you see most often) are the females
- Student how many times does a bees haert beat a second
- 11:13am
- Student why are bees fuzzy
Bugscope Team they are fuzzy in part because they have many sensory setae on the surface of their exoskeleton
- Student are queen bees allways the same color
Bugscope Team queen bees look similar to the rest of the bees, only her abdomen is longer. Most beekeepers dab a little paint on her abdomen to distinguish her form others
- Student why are bees juicey
Bugscope Team all insects are juicy, on the inside
- Student how long can a bee fly for
- Bugscope Team the setae are mechanosensory, meaning they can help the bee sense touch, and some of them are chemosensory, meaning that they can help the bee smell scents, like of flowers, in the air
- Student do bees fight
Bugscope Team bees are not aggressive about their territory, unlike wasps
- Bugscope Team bees from different hives or different species may fight
- Student how many speshes of bees do we know about
- Student do bees have a sence of humer
- Student what is a exoskeloton
- Student do bees have ears
Bugscope Team they dont have ears but they use their antennae smell and sense other things
- Bugscope Team Africanized honeybees are aggressive. But as Cate says most bees are not.
- Student are queen bees allway the same color
Bugscope Team yes they even look very similar to the rest of the bees
- Student what is it
- Student is that its leg
- Bugscope Team this is a fly's claw
- Bugscope Team the end of the leg
- Student how many baby bees dose a qween have
Bugscope Team The queen lays about 1200 eggs per day, about 200000 per spring
- 11:19am
- Student is that a eye
- Student what are we looking at
- Student is it an eye
- Bugscope Team yes this is a fly-s compound eye
- Bugscope Team it has a small pollen grain on it
- Student what is on the eye
- Student does a fly look frew all those eyes or just one
Bugscope Team the fly has two compound eyes and three simple eyes called ocelli
- Student how many dots does a fly have in iy
- Student what do flys eat
Bugscope Team that depends on the fly. The normal housefly eats from garbage or our food
- Student what is this
- Student what are we seing now
- Student what are we looking at
Bugscope Team We are on a honeybee now
- Student why are there hairs on it
Bugscope Team insects are very hairy. Those hairs called setae (see-tee) when found on insects are used to help the insect feel what's going on around it in its environment. They help to taste/smell, feel vibrations, touch, sense air movement
- Student are we looking at a bee
Bugscope Team yes we are look at the base of the antenna
- 11:24am
- Bugscope Team fruit flies will eat enzymes from rotting fruit
- Student is that a ant
Bugscope Team this is a fly, but that was a good guess. we thought it was a wasp at first, and they are related to ants
- Student is that a ear
- Bugscope Team a mite!
- Bugscope Team this is one of two mites we just found on the fly-s wing
- 11:30am
- Student do mites have ears
Bugscope Team these do not have eyes, and they likely do not have ears
- Student what does a mite eat
Bugscope Team dust mites eat dander and human skin flakes, some mites are parasites like we see today, and they are like ticks
- Student how long do flys live
Bugscope Team from a week or so to maybe 6 weeks or longer, it varies
- Bugscope Team mites are kind of a mystery, and we don't always know what they eat
- Student What is that thing
Bugscope Team can you guess, now?
- Student is that a maskeeto
Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team this is a mosquito
- Bugscope Team for sure
- Student is that his eye
Bugscope Team yes that bumpy region we just saw was the compound eye
- Student where does it suck blood from
Bugscope Team right where we are now
- Bugscope Team this is the proboscis
- Student are those the leg
- Student do they have hands
Bugscope Team let's go look for the hands
- Bugscope Team the biting part has lots of sharp blades, and it is inside this, which is a kind of sheath
- Student how much blood dose a mosquito
Bugscope Team they take in at least several microliters -- a few big drops, to us
- 11:35am
- Student am i looking at the hand
Bugscope Team yes this is a mosquito claw which is the same as a hand
- Student how many pieces of compound eyes are there
Bugscope Team that depends on what we are looking at -- with a wasp there may be 5000 ommatidia -- the individual facets of the eye
- Student how dos it make a mosquito bite
Bugscope Team it has multiple mouthparts in its sheath where some are serrated like knives and cut into the skin, then there is a tube that goes in injects an anticoagulant to make the blood flow freely without clotting, and then a tube sucks out the blood
- Bugscope Team this is the centipede
- Bugscope Team as creepy in the microscope as in real life
- Student What's inside the centipede?
Bugscope Team guts, a trachea (which is the equivalent of our lungs and throat), the heart, brain...
- Bugscope Team Teacher you can go ahead and control the microscope if you want, or we can confer control to another student
- Student how many legs does it have
Bugscope Team this has 17 pairs of legs
- Student cool
- Student how much blud does a centipede have
Bugscope Team it has hemolymph kind of like an insect does, and of course it is related to its size, but probably less than half a milliliter
- Bugscope Team this is one of those 'moustache bugs'
- 11:40am
- Teacher Can Student Pairs H have the controls, please?
Bugscope Team H has control
- Bugscope Team see the compound eye?
- Bugscope Team this is a fierce insect eater
- Student ya
- Bugscope Team it has chelicerae, and fangs like a spider
- Bugscope Team sorry you all didnt get to see the little collection of flower pollen I collected
- Student what is the most poisenes bug?
- Student what kind of insects does it eat
Bugscope Team whatever it finds in the house -- this is a house centipede, and it can eat anything smaller and maybe a few things larger
- Student this is cool
- Student what is this
Bugscope Team we are looking at the underside of the centipede -- the ventral side, where we can clearly see the feet, and the joints of the legs
- Bugscope Team but it does not really eat -- it sucks the juice out of the insect
- Teacher How about Pair C?
Bugscope Team C has control
- Bugscope Team You can switch to a different insect by clicking on a preset in the lower right if you want
- Student what is this
Bugscope Team some dirt on the leg of the centipede
- Student is this a fly
Bugscope Team this is a centipede, but whoever is driving can click on one of the other presets that go to a fly
- Bugscope Team we are on the leg
- Student is that a pollen gran
- Bugscope Team the bumpy stuff in the background is the carbon tape we stick the insects on
- Bugscope Team speaking of bumpy
- 11:45am
- Bugscope Team very round
- Student what is that
Bugscope Team we are on the centipede head
- Teacher Student Pair G would like to try.
Bugscope Team G has control
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes you would have very good peripheral vision
- Student its cool
- Student what is the strongest bog
Bugscope Team The strongest insect is reported to be the dung beetle, which can pull 1,141 times its own weight
- Bugscope Team The bumpy part was the eye
- Student can we look inside the eye
Bugscope Team we can't look inside it unless it is cracked open
- Bugscope Team also, if you had compound eyes it would be hard to buy sunglasses, but you would be able to register motion very quickly
- Student what are we lookinr at
- Bugscope Team this microscope does not allow us to see through things
- Bugscope Team please choose one of the other presets to go to another insect
- Teacher Student pair E
- Student what is the bigest bug
Bugscope Team lobster
- Bugscope Team and technically there is a mite (which is an arachnid) that can carry a bit more for its weight
- Bugscope Team I was just kidding about the lobster, because you know it is a crustacean
- Bugscope Team the biggest insect may be the Goliath beetle, which is as big as your fist
- 11:50am
- Student a lobsters a bug
Bugscope Team not really; they have two sets of antennae, for example, and insects have only one set
- Bugscope Team there are also walking sticks that may be 12 or 15 inches long
- Student are we still looking at a centiped
Bugscope Team and yes we are on the centipede still
- Bugscope Team that hole is the poison pore
- Bugscope Team the poison pore!
- Student are we still looking at the lobster
- Student is that a claw?
Bugscope Team those are the fangs
- Teacher Student Pair B
Bugscope Team b has control
- Student what is the most poisenous bug
Bugscope Team not sure.
Bugscope Team the most venomous is reported to be a harvester ant.
- Student cool
- Student is that a pincher
- Student why are bugs so tiny
Bugscope Team they cannot be much bigger because the way they breathe cannot support a larger body size
- Student how do bugs mate
Bugscope Team oops I answered the hobby questio... they mate much like other animals, and they usually have eggs
- Student What is its hobby?
Bugscope Team they mate kind of like animals
- Student what colers do Centipede come in
- Student bugs arent always small right
- Student what is the bumpy stuff in the back round
- Teacher Student Pair K
- 11:55am
- Student how many eags can a Centipede lay
Bugscope Team They can lay up to 151 eggs each spring
- Bugscope Team the harvester ant can kill a rat or rabbit with 12 stings
- Student how long dose it live
Bugscope Team centipede lifespan is 5-7 years
- Student it looks like like a ant
- Student can we look at a diferent bug
Bugscope Team how about a mosquito?
Bugscope Team whoever is driving can change to another preset to get to another insect or bug
- Student what is that
- Teacher Student pair I
- Teacher Student M
- Bugscope Team this is kind of sad -- the base of the antenna, where it is missing
- Student what is the most vicous bug?
Bugscope Team I think it is a horsefly
Bugscope Team there is an asian giant hornet that can spray venom and dissolve human skin- that's pretty viscous
- Teacher Student Pair D
- 12:01pm
- Student awesome
Bugscope Team yay!
- Student do you have a squirpion
Bugscope Team not today
- Bugscope Team this is the wing of the mosquito
- Teacher Student Pair A
- Student Why don't you feel a misquito bite
Bugscope Team they are sneaky, and some insects, like bedbugs, have anesthetic saliva that you cannot feel
- Student if you have a scorpion can we see it
Bugscope Team we don't have one today, but they are often not that interesting to look at, so please do not feel bad about it
- Bugscope Team there are many species of mosquito, and I imagine some of them have anesthetic saliva
- Teacher Student Pair J and that is everyone.
Bugscope Team J has control
- 12:06pm
- Student how long do mosquito live?
Bugscope Team a few days to a few weeks
- Bugscope Team there is a walking stick with a body that is 14.2 inches long
- Student thank you
- Student thank you
- Student Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student thanks so much bye
- Bugscope Team sorry we didnt get to see much pollen or pollenators
- Bugscope Team we enjoyed working with you and hope to see you next year
- Student thank you it was verey cool
- Student thank you it was cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$
- Student thank you so much for your time by
- Student it was so cool
- Student awsome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student that was cool and alsom and pease
- Student wiked
- Teacher This far exceeded my expectations. Thank you for all the info.
- Bugscope Team peace you all
- Student thanks a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- 12:11pm
- Bugscope Team Thank you and you can see your images and chat from today by going to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-070/
