Connected on 2011-02-25 14:30:00 from Cook, Illinois, United States
- 1:29pm
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- 1:39pm
- 1:48pm
- 1:55pm
- 2:01pm
- 2:07pm
- Teacher Hello! Looking forward to today's session. I'd like to have 2 student computers. Should I log them in as "guest"?
- Bugscope Team you can log them in as students if you would like
- Bugscope Team if that is one of the available choices; sometimes it seems not to be there
- Teacher No, I didn't see it but thought there may be a special way to access it. I'll just use guest.
- Bugscope Team I don't know why but sometimes it does not show up.\
- 2:12pm
- Teacher Just figured it out.
- Guest Hi! I'm excited to participate in Mrs. Range's session today. We enjoyed our experience on Wednesday. The students are still talking about it.
- Bugscope Team hello! welcome back!
- Teacher Hi Mrs. N. I'm glad you're joining us!
- Student testing...
- Guest Thanks! I'm looking forward to seeing the interesting moth head.
- Student testing...
- 2:18pm
- Bugscope Team I think we are about done with the presets.
- Bugscope Team bee right back
- Teacher very punny!
- Bugscope Team you may drive if you'd like
- Bugscope Team sorry...
- 2:24pm
- Bugscope Team sometimes it is hard to get these to focus -- we're putting a lot of electrons in one place
- Bugscope Team and scales are loosely attached even when they are still attached to the wing'
- Student hi
- Bugscope Team hello! welcome to Bugscope!
- Student we are almost ready
Bugscope Team yay!
- Teacher Alright, we're ready to roll!
- Bugscope Team totally cool
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye of a fruitfly
- 2:29pm
- Student what are the little hair thingies
- Bugscope Team the little sticks are broken-off bristle-like setae that usually stick up between the eye facets
- Teacher What are the pokey looking things? Are they sharp?
- Bugscope Team the eye facets are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team they are so small you would not feel them
- Bugscope Team the fruitfly uses them to sense windspeed and direction when it is flying
- Bugscope Team they stick up and then the wind moves them
- Teacher Setae? Are these for detecting movement?
Bugscope Team yes they are mechanoreceptors
- Bugscope Team some setae are mechano- touch receptors
- Student what the thing on the top left of the screen?
Bugscope Team that is part of the head
- Bugscope Team it's the vestiture around the eye
- Bugscope Team some setae are chemo- scent or smell receptors
- Student Why does it have a heart shaped mouth
- Bugscope Team and some setae are thermoreceptors -- they sense hot/cold
- Student what is the heart thing
Bugscope Team those are the mouthparts, which are dried and shrunken; they are sponging mouthparts
- Student heart
- 2:34pm
- Student what are those things in between the top of the eyes?
Bugscope Team the antennae, which have a pad-like components and a small branched -- aristate -- component
- Student what are the little hairy things around the herat
Bugscope Team those are setae that likely help the fruitfly sense what it is touching
- Bugscope Team oops I see the bases of the antennae now
- Bugscope Team the antenna are both busted off and gone
- Student how many compound eye segments does the fly have?
Bugscope Team I think they have a few hundred
- Student what are the fuzzy things around the heart thing?
- Bugscope Team a wasp and some other insects can have 5000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Teacher Were the antennae near the 'tubes' next to the eyes
Bugscope Team those two roundish things on the right are the bases of the antennae
- Bugscope Team with some flies, like houseflies, if the eyes are close together you have a male and if they are far apart you have a female -- like Mikhail Baryshnikov vs Uma Thurman
- Bugscope Team here you can see the ant's compound eye
- Student what is that thing that looks like a scar
Bugscope Team that is a scale from a butterfly or moth
- Student what is the dot above the eye?
Bugscope Team not sure...
- 2:39pm
- Student is it dust
Bugscope Team yes I think it is
- Student what is the line that looks like a vein
Bugscope Team oh I am not sure
- Teacher We're commenting that it looks like there are bubbles. Are they part of the bug?
- Student what are the things that look like bubbles?
- Bugscope Team those are bubbles in the carbon tape we use to make the specimens stick onto the stub
- Student isthe an eye at the top?
Bugscope Team that is the inside of an antenna that is broken off
- Teacher Did it's leg get broken off?
Bugscope Team or it is a a leg. I can't tell from here
- Student is that a bug inside the bubble?
Bugscope Team no that's just the way the carbon tape looks. We use carbon tape to stick the bugs on. It helps ground the charge from the elctrons
- Teacher Is it hollow?
Bugscope Team yes it is hollow. when the insect is alive it has hemolymph, which is like blood to an insect, inside it
- Student oops
- Student is that a cone around the eye
Bugscope Team that was the center of the broken-off antenna
- Student ok
- 2:44pm
- Student what is it inside the pincers?
- Teacher We're wondering if that is mold?
- Guest Mrs. R...this is fascinating!
- Bugscope Team this was a large and for some reason dirt-eating beetle
- Bugscope Team it looks lie plant material and dirt to me
- Teacher Hello Mrs. A! Enjoy our session!
- Bugscope Team like not lie*
- Bugscope Team when we looked at this stuff earlier it appeared to be a bunch of dirt and super tiny rocks
- Bugscope Team as Cate says...
- Student is it a dung beetle?
Bugscope Team good question, but it looked more like a darkling beetle when I put it on
- Bugscope Team the things we see are the mandibles, which are large and curved, around the top of the head as we see it
- Bugscope Team oops nm
- Student what is the cylinder on the left side?
- Bugscope Team that is yet another busted off antenna
- 2:50pm
- Student why do milipedes and centepedes have so many legs?
Bugscope Team I think if you had a long flat or long round body shape it would be the best way to walk or run
- Student why is it all crinkly and it looks smushed?
Bugscope Team well for one -- it dries after the insect or in this case an arthropod, dies. and it may be smushed,
- Student how many species of bugs have you studid
Bugscope Team we have only really looked at a small amount of species, though it seems like we are experts. There are so many species of insects that it is amazing. Just the other week we looked at so many species of parasitic wasps that were from a small location in Costa Rica that it was amazing
- Guest How does a busted off antenna affect a bug's ability to live? Do they regenerate? (I'm a bug novice!)
Bugscope Team the antennae are important to insects and arthropods because they have many of the scent receptors
- Student where is its mouth
Bugscope Team it is to the left where you see the dimples
- Bugscope Team I don't think antennae will regenerate unless the insect is undergoing a molt, which some insects do
- Student wheres its mouth
- Student What is your favorite \
- Student do millipedes have tounges
Bugscope Team great question! I do not think so.
- Student that was someone else!
- Teacher We're thinking that it looks as though the antennae broke off this one too. Correct?
- Teacher Does it have ears or are the antennae used as sound receptors?
Bugscope Team often there are setae that are also used to sense vibration, which what sound is
- Student What is your favorite bug to study
- Guest do they have teeth
Bugscope Team insects and comparable arthropods do not have teeth, but sometimes they have hardened jaws with, for example, zinc in them to make them tougher
- 2:55pm
- Student are they arms?
Bugscope Team yes they look like it
- Student what are those things under the head
Bugscope Team those are some of the legs
- Teacher Why do millipedes have so many legs?
Bugscope Team I think it is a complement to the shape of the body
- Student wow thats cool
- Student why does it look like a fish
Bugscope Team I think that is a coincidence. Rolypolies, however, are crustaceans like lobsters and crabs, and they have gills
- Student Why are the legs pointy
Bugscope Team those are claws at the end of the legs. They have a single claw on each leg used to help hold onto things and grab things
- Student do those hairs on the legs detect movement or something
Bugscope Team often the hairs are indeed sensory. some of them are self-sensory, for example to let the insect or centipede know when it is touching something
- Student is
- Bugscope Team we often see large spines on leg joints, and the entomologists think that those spines help the insect sense when its leg is bending, for example
- Teacher The proboscis has more than 1 part? Is that what we're seeing?
- Student why id the moth head so hairy
Bugscope Team those are scales. Scales are all over the moth body. They give the moth color and also they work as a defense mechanism. If they get caught in a web, they can try to shake some scale loose and they are out!
- Bugscope Team here you can see the proboscis, which is like a tongue, and it is split apart
- 3:00pm
- Guest do moths have compound eyes
Bugscope Team yes they do. You can see the small bumps from here that are the facets of the eye
- Guest What are those long, tongue-like things you're zooming in on?
Bugscope Team those long fronds are scales
- Student do the hairs do anything or are they just there to be fashinable
Bugscope Team as Cate said, they are responsible for color, and they also get stuck to a spider's web and can be left in the web while the moth slips out
- Student so do they have scales on the wings
Bugscope Team yes they do, and also on the body
- Bugscope Team if you had compound eyes you would have better peripheral vision -- you would be able to see more of the area around you at one time
- Student how many compound eyes are there
Bugscope Team there are 2 compound eyes on the moth, but there are probably thousands of ommatidia, which are the facets of the compound eye
- Student are there 2 proboskics
Bugscope Team no it broke at some point
- Bugscope Team also, if you had compound eyes it would be very difficult to get glasses that fit
- Bugscope Team and compound eyes are very sensitive to changes in the visual field -- for example, movement
- Teacher haha!
- Student why are there so many holes on this
Bugscope Team they help make the scales lighter and also give the scales structural color by refracting the light differently
- Student why does it have swiss scales
- Guest Are the ommatidia the parts that have a pentagon/hexagon shape to them?
Bugscope Team yes they are!
- Teacher Why do the wings look spongy?
- Guest Holes...they're moths, right?!
- Bugscope Team the holes often have pigment in or near them
- Bugscope Team ha right!
- Bugscope Team and as Cate said, just the shape of the scales, especially the spaces between the ridges, will produce structural colors
- Student do the holes in the wings help it fly
Bugscope Team they are just holes in the scales, not the wings themselves. Having holes in scales makes the total weight lighter
- Student what are the ridges on the wings for
- 3:05pm
- Student do you think studying bugs is gross
Bugscope Team we are used to it and we think it is interesting and sometimes gross at the same time
- Student what would we see in real life if we looked at this
Bugscope Team the naked eye would just see a fine powder if you rubbed your fingers on the wings
- Teacher Is there a reason the ommatidia are shaped the way they are?
Bugscope Team the shape of the ommatidia is kind of like the answer to the problem of how you stack round objects, like at a fruitseller's stand
- Bugscope Team hexagonal shapes seem to be the best way to close pack things that are essentially round
- Student how did you get interested in bugs
Bugscope Team the more we pay attention to them the more fascinating they are -- they are an alien life form compared to us, but they have to solve many of the same problems we do, like gripping things, and communicating, and breeding, and eating
- Student is the mouth open
Bugscope Team it seems to be a bit open
- Student is that hole its mouth and the little spikes its teeth
Bugscope Team the hole in the opening. And there is a couple of mandibles that are hinged
- Guest Using the SEM, what is the smallest thing you viewed?
Bugscope Team we can see I think 5-nm gold nanoparticles
- Bugscope Team the SEM has 2 nm resolution, and with a test sample we can see that, but it is just a division between objects with a fine spacing
- Student are those pincers or antennae
Bugscope Team those were antennae, draped around the shape of the head
- 3:10pm
- Guest Neat! The images are beautiful works of art. I'd like to frame some of them.
- Student what is the biggest bug you have ever study
Bugscope Team we have looked at praying mantises and large grasshoppers, and also a quite large and scary centipede
Bugscope Team yes I'd have to agree. The centipede was the largest. It was like a small snake!
- Bugscope Team we do not often look at large insects or bugs because they are not so interesting, but the centipede was covered with mites, which made it pretty cool
- Teacher Is the pollen grain's surface bumpy?
Bugscope Team it looks bumpy, but to the naked eye it just looks like powder
- Guest are the pollen grains stuck together
- Guest Where did you find the scary centipede?
- Student why do they look like vanes
Bugscope Team that is a shape that probably helps keep them from collapsing
- Student is it light blue
Bugscope Team I think it was yellow
- Student it looks like a golf ball
Bugscope Team it does!
- Student how many bump things are on it
Bugscope Team I think 4 to 5000.
- Student it looks like a scar
- Teacher Does the eye stick out from its body the way it looks on screen?
Bugscope Team they do stick out a bit
- Bugscope Team the better to see you with!
- Student why are the compound eyes so big
Bugscope Team it helps the katydid see around its body, which is also fairly large
- 3:15pm
- Teacher Are their scratches on the eye or is that from the microscope?
Bugscope Team those are definitely scratches. I don;t know if it was dropped on the group a lot after it died or if it got into a lot of fights when it was alive
- Student it looks hairy he needs to shave
- Student can you go blind in just one of your compound eyes
Bugscope Team because there are so many facets, you can see out of a number of them even if some are covered over or broken
- Student are the small hairs detectores
Bugscope Team often they are detectors of some sort; insects have an exoskeleton which is like wearing armor, so they need to have lots of setae sticking through the armor to help sense their environment
- Teacher It looks like it would be soft. (& Cate, we knew he was being sarcastic!)
- Bugscope Team Cate scratched it all up. She is very careless.
Bugscope Team he lies!
Bugscope Team yes I was just joking -- the katydid seems to have a rough life
- Student who put the bug in
Bugscope Team Cate makes almost all of the samples, and she does a good job.
- Student but now i can
- Student i cant see anything
Bugscope Team the specimen moved a little since we made that preset
- 3:21pm
- Student it looks like a rose stem
- Guest what is that thing that looks like a flower
Bugscope Team we think it is a kind of fungus that grows like little unbrella after umbrella
- Student what is in the backgrouns
Bugscope Team that is a moth or butterfly scale
- Student bye bye ;(
- Student why do they look like flowers
Bugscope Team those buds can easily break off and spread to other places. It's so they can travel around and spread easier
- Student bye
- Student bye
- Bugscope Team bye, have a great weekend, and we hope you liked today's session!
- Student thanks for this it was cool
- Teacher Why does the wing scale have grooves?
Bugscope Team the grooves function like ridges do on a potato chip, giving the scale a rigidity as small and soft as it is
- Student thank you for the information
- Teacher Thank you for your time today! We appreciate your expertise!!
- Bugscope Team but yes mold is like a micro sized flower
- Bugscope Team the grooves also, as Cate said earlier, form structural colors
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team This was fun for us!
- Teacher Us too! Have a good weekend!
- Bugscope Team you too!
