Connected on 2011-01-10 13:30:00 from Austin, TX, US
- 1:10pm
- Bugscope Team we are making today's presets
- 1:15pm
- 1:20pm
- Teacher Do we need sound or will we be communicating through chat session only?
- Bugscope Team Chat only. Not sure how sound would work for us, in different rooms, etc.
- Teacher Great. Thank you.
- Bugscope Team few more critters to make presets of
- Bugscope Team this is all from your group in TX except the mosquito and the fruit fly
- Teacher Awesome!
- Bugscope Team very small spider
- Bugscope Team spiders are often not so easy to figure out
- 1:26pm
- Bugscope Team Mr Morgan we are ready to roll!
- Bugscope Team Please try the presets, make sure you have control.
- Teacher We are ready to for you to razel dazzle us.
- Teacher Focus and contrast working
- Bugscope Team these are plumose (shaped like a Christmas tree, sort of) setae on the spider's body.
- Bugscope Team spiders are softbodied, and when they die their bodies shrivel up. which makes them hard to image, sometimes. especially when they're so small.
- Bugscope Team some spiders have what are called 'urticating hairs,' which irritate your nasal passages if you breathe them in. tarantulas have them, for example
- Bugscope Team this is the abdomen, and the flattened thing is one of the legs
- 1:31pm
- Bugscope Team if you click on the blue arrow to the left you can see the other presets we made for your session
- Bugscope Team and if you click on any one of them, the 'scope will drive to that place
- Bugscope Team at the tip of the spider's abdomen are the spinnerettes, but they were indistinct
- Bugscope Team this is the moth head
- Bugscope Team oops, sorry I mean the wasp head
- Bugscope Team see its compound eyes? and its antennae, and its mandibles?
- Bugscope Team wasps and bees and many other flying insects also have simple eyes, on the top of the head, called ocelli. there are always three of those, and they help the insect keep its orientation with the sun
- Bugscope Team there!
- Bugscope Team nice!
- Bugscope Team the moth eye may be even better for closeup imaging
- Bugscope Team please feel free to ask us questions about the samples, or anything else
- 1:37pm
- Guest is the eye cracked here?
Bugscope Team it looks more like there was something wet on it, and this is it dried up
- Bugscope Team cracks wouldn't looks so round- more jagged
- Bugscope Team yeah the crack may be in a film that dried onto the surface of the eye
- Bugscope Team this is another compound eye, up close, and you can see that it does not have a film on it
- Bugscope Team there is a little seta -- a little bristle, or hair -- sticking out
- Bugscope Team that's a pattern we see from the small parts of the eye that you won't see at higher mag
- Teacher what are the swirly things you see on the eyes?
Bugscope Team when we see those swirly patterns we are seeing an optical illusion caused by these tiny round features we see now
- Guest whats the hair like item?
Bugscope Team that is actually what you think-- a bug hair, which we call a seta.
- 1:43pm
- Guest what are the dots?
Bugscope Team we are not sure what the dots are -- we think of them as rods or cones but they are likely neither. we see them only in insects like moths and butterflies that probably have very good vision, including (with moths, especially) the ability to see ultraviolet light. which people cannot see ...
- Bugscope Team when we go to super high mag like this the image sometimes gets distorted -- all of the electrons hitting one small place at one time
- Guest what's that whole
Bugscope Team that is the pore for the seta. The seta goes through the pore and is connected to a nerve underneath
- Bugscope Team often when we find setae like that on the surface of an eye, they are there to help the insect sense windspeed/wind direction
- Guest what
- Bugscope Team this is a super cute beetle we do not recognize
- Bugscope Team this is from your cool ladybug
- Bugscope Team its head is tucked into a turret, and because its mouthparts are as well, we think it must be able to move its head out a bit, for example to eat
- 1:48pm
- Teacher So this beetle was on the ladybug?
Bugscope Team this is the beetle we thought at first was a ladybug
- Bugscope Team you can see the edge of one of its mandibles -- that ridged mandible (jaw) toward the bottom of where we are looking now
- Guest cool
- Bugscope Team the little conical things around it are palps -- what insects use to manipulate and taste their food -- they're like accessory legs, in a way
- Bugscope Team now we see the front of the head/face, and to the right we see, once again, the facets of a compound eye
- Bugscope Team plus of course more setae
- Guest What are the dots
Bugscope Team the dots to the right are ommatidia -- the eye facets. and the dots to the left are little bumps in the film on the surface of the face there
- Bugscope Team the facet-like things we see now are pieces of the exoskeleton -- the chitinous shell on the outside of the body
- Bugscope Team there are no bones -- the 'skeleton' is on the outside, more like a coat of armor
- 1:53pm
- Bugscope Team this is interesting
- Guest what are those strings?
Bugscope Team most of the strings appear to be fungal hyphae -- the 'branches' of fungus
- Teacher Do roaches normally have these mites?
Bugscope Team we have never ever seen mites on a roach. that is a surprise
- Guest is a mite sticky
Bugscope Team they have six (I think there are six) legs that come out from under this carapace, and they seem to have sticky pads at their tips
- Guest is it upside down?
Bugscope Team oh yes it is!
- Teacher are these hairs seta to?
Bugscope Team yes all hairs seen on bugs are setae (plural of seta)
- Bugscope Team this is the edge of the shell, kind of like a turtle shell, of the mite
- 1:58pm
- Bugscope Team and it is upside down, like a bowl
- Bugscope Team you know what this is...
- Bugscope Team it has a lot of some kind of film on it, possibly venom
- Teacher The kids what to know why it looks curved?
Bugscope Team it may look curved but it is very sharp. You can see the caption at the bottom right of the scales bar. it is smaller than the width of a human hair
- Guest does it have lots of parts
Bugscope Team no- it has a little tube to inject the venom of the eggs, but the rest is used for stabbing
- 2:03pm
- Teacher what is this?
Bugscope Team this is a haltere. It has a gyroscopic effect on the fly by beating opposite the wings
- Bugscope Team some stingers have a dual purpose: they sting but they are also ovipositors. ovipositors are used to lay eggs. there are hundreds of species of parasitic moths, often small, that inject their eggs into prey. the eggs turn into larvae that feed on the insides of the prey (for example, a caterpillar)
- Bugscope Team halteres often look like little punching bags
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team stinkbugs are said to not like their own bad smell, so they have lots of little structures on the surface of their cuticle (exoskeleton) that absorb and deflect the smell
- Guest what's that thing in the middle
Bugscope Team the thing in the middle is kind of like a hydraulic hose; it is the suction portion of the mouthparts
- Teacher Interesting
- Guest what are the bumps?
Bugscope Team some of the bumps are just dirt or grime. Some are pits where setae are
- 2:09pm
- Bugscope Team stinkbugs/shieldbugs are 'true bugs,' called Hemiptera, and one of the features that true bugs have is piercing/sucking mouthparts
- Teacher Is the hydraulic hose like the nose of a butterfly?
Bugscope Team in a way, yes
- Guest what are the black lines?
Bugscope Team the horizontal lines would have been like the ridges of the hose
- Guest what are the holes?
Bugscope Team those are thought to make the scales lighter, so the wings won't be weighed down. They also can bend the light to make the wings appear to have color
- 2:15pm
- Bugscope Team sometimes you can see pigment granules in the holes
- Guest how many scales on a bug
Bugscope Team that depends on how big the insect is. But the scales are usually all over the insect- like if you touch a butterfly, you get that powder all over your fingers. That powder are all scales
- Teacher Kids are asking what the vertical lines are?
Bugscope Team Probably to give the scales structure so that they won't rip very easily
- Bugscope Team ant head!
- Teacher what is the triangle?
Bugscope Team well, we don't know -- it's part of the inside of the mouth. we rarely get such a good view of the inside of the mouth
- 2:20pm
- Bugscope Team the little oval things we see now are mold spores
- Teacher what is all the bumping material?
Bugscope Team those are mold spores
- Bugscope Team mold spores often resemble pollen, but they have smaller spikes on their surfaces, and they also shrivel, like this, more often
- Teacher So this ant was probably not alive when we collected?
Bugscope Team it could have been but then kept in a moist place
- Guest what is the black line?
Bugscope Team the horizontal black lines, perhaps like the ones you referred to before, are from charging -- when the electrons that raster across the sample build up within the sample rather than running off, to ground
- 2:25pm
- Guest what does that mean?
Bugscope Team when we get a sample like an insect that is non-conductive -- that is not made of metal that will conduct electricity -- we try to make it conductive by putting a thin coat of gold-palladium (an alloy of two conductive metals) onto it, using a sputter coater. But when we look at a very small area, and/or an area that did not get coated very well, the electrons we are using to image the sample build up in the sample, in those places, rather than running off. And it gives us poor images like that.
- Teacher Is this his mouth?
Bugscope Team I think it is the mouth -- it is hard to tell.
- Teacher yummy...
- Teacher Do they only eat Dust?
Bugscope Team they eat small flakes of skin, for example in someone's bedsheets, and on the surface of a pillow. they are so small we cannot see them, but some people are allergic to them or their waste.
- Bugscope Team just so you know, you can access the images and chat from today on your member pager at https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-097
- Teacher Cool stuff. Better than looking at Semiconductor chips all day.
- Bugscope Team yes, they chips can be fun, but aren't always as diverse as insects
- 2:31pm
- Guest thankyou very much!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team sj was worried they were lice (which scared me), but I'm sticking with dust mites
- Bugscope Team This is fun for us. We enjoyed having you. Please come visit again next year!
- Teacher Thank you very much. We enjoyed the session thoroughly. It was wonderful.
- Guest by
- Guest We will
- Bugscope Team this may not be a dustmite; it may be another kind of mite. dustmites are softbodied like spiders, and when they die they usually shrivel up -- like aphids -- and are almost unrecognizable.
- Bugscope Team we are glad you all had a great time!
- Bugscope Team Bye! And Thank You again!
- Guest by
- Bugscope Team Good Bye!
- 2:38pm
- Teacher When will the images be available online?
