Connected on 2011-03-07 09:30:00 from Grand Turk, Turks Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands
- 8:23am
- Bugscope Team venting the chamber
- Bugscope Team sample is now in 'scope and pumping down
- 8:31am
- Bugscope Team sample is apparently a bit juicy and taking a little while to pump down
- Bugscope Team But it is moving steadily toward a good vacuum
- 8:39am
- Bugscope Team 1.5 x 10-4
- Bugscope Team we are waiting for 1.3 x 10-4 Torr, so we are very close...
- Bugscope Team once we reach vacuum we will be able to quickly align the 'scope and then start making presets
- Bugscope Team good morning, Francisca!
- Bugscope Team welcome to Bugscope!
- Teacher good morning to u all too
- Teacher thankyou
- Teacher please give us a few more minutes to settle in
- Bugscope Team Fran we will not be ready for awhile anyway -- we have yet to make the presets
- 8:47am
- Teacher ok
- Teacher we are ready
- Teacher we like to look at the ant first please
- Teacher I would love if u assist in operating the magnification and science names
- Teacher thankyou
- Bugscope Team we didn't have any ants in our collections. We need to replenish this spring/summer. We do have some wasps, which are similar. some beetles, mosquito, salt, moth, fruit fly, lady bug
- 8:52am
- Bugscope Team we just need a few more minutes to set up presets. Thanks for waiting
- Teacher lady bug please
- Teacher ur welcome
- Bugscope Team Fran I am sorry we have not reached it yet.
- Teacher ok which do u ahve first
- Teacher have
- Bugscope Team Fran we are surveying the sample stub so we can find suitable specimens and areas that will be of interest.
- Teacher ok
- Bugscope Team we were scheduled to start in 35 minutes, so because you are here now we are hurrying. no problem of course; it just takes awhile
- Bugscope Team this is the head of a wasp, which is in the Hymenoptera -- the same family as ants and bees
- Teacher do u want us to come back at 10: 20
- Bugscope Team and now we are looking at salt from a Wendy's restaurant
- 8:57am
- Bugscope Team 20 minutes from now would give us a better chance to have this all ready, if it works for you
- Bugscope Team female mosquito!
- Bugscope Team we see two of the lancets, or stylets, that they use to pierce your skin
- Teacher ok we will come back in 20 minutes
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Teacher we love to look at the lady bug and mosquito first
- Teacher when we return'
- Teacher thankyou
- 9:03am
- 9:09am
- 9:14am
- 9:24am
- Bugscope Team we are ready when you are
- Bugscope Team Yes! We are ready, Fran!
- Teacher We are back and ready
- Teacher thanks guys
- Bugscope Team Cool!
- Teacher can u narrate and guide the slides for me please
- Bugscope Team This is the ladybug -- sometimes they just do not look good
- Bugscope Team these are not slides, you know -- these are live images from a scanning electron microscope
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the ladybug, and it is on a bed of carbon tape
- Teacher which part or angle?
Bugscope Team we are usually looking at them from the ventral side, or from underneath
- 9:29am
- Bugscope Team we will just give you a quick look at it since it is not well preserved
- Bugscope Team ladybugs are beetles- order coleoptera, from the family coccinellidae
- Bugscope Team sometimes a specimen will look good when we put it onto the stub, but when we look up close it is terrible-looking like this
- Teacher which part is that?
- Teacher are bugs and beetles the same?
- Bugscope Team you can see that it has a pinhole through its thorax -- the 'chest and trunk' part of an insect's body
- Bugscope Team true bugs are Hemiptera, and they have piercing mouthparts as well as a particular configuration of their wings and elytra -- the hard shell that protects the wings
- Bugscope Team beetles are Coleoptera
- Bugscope Team there are a type of insects that are called true bugs, which are not beetles, but look similar. Beetles are another type of insect.
- Teacher what is the pinhole used for?
Bugscope Team that is where it was stuck to a board for an entymology project
- Bugscope Team now we are looking at the compound eye of a fruit fly
- 9:34am
- Bugscope Team the Order fruit flies are in is Diptera
- Bugscope Team Diptera is di- meaning two, and -ptera meaning wings
- Bugscope Team the facets of the compound eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team and fruit flies have little bristles, or setae, in between the ommatidia, that help them sense windspeed and direction
- Teacher what is a fruit fly?
Bugscope Team fruit flies are those tiny annoying flies you might find around bananas or other fruit
- Bugscope Team fruit flies are said to feed on the mold, or fungus, that grows on the surface of fruit
- Teacher how many eyes does the fruit fly has?
Bugscope Team they have 2 compound eyes and 3 ocelli, which are simple eyes. That is a total of 5 eyes~
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of the fruit fly's sponging mouthparts, but it is a little shriveled
- Bugscope Team now we are looking at a Japanese beetle -- the head of the Japanese beetle
- Bugscope Team almost all of the specimens we put into the microscope this morning are mounted on their dorsal side -- on their 'back,' so that we can see their legs and their faces
- 9:39am
- Teacher where are teh eyes?
Bugscope Team the eyes are streamlined into the shape of the head
- Bugscope Team so here, next to part of the antenna and one of the palps, we see one of the eyes
- Bugscope Team the eye is to the left now
- Teacher what si the palps?
Bugscope Team palps are little feelers that function as accessory mouthparts
- Bugscope Team the palps look like tiny legs or arms, and there are usually two sets: mandibular and maxillary, corresponding the jaws, but not making sense in the way our own jaws operate
- 9:45am
- Bugscope Team the tips of the palps like where we are now, on one of the tips, have tiny chemosensors on them that help the insect taste its food
- Bugscope Team kind of like tastbuds
- Bugscope Team d'oh tastebuds
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of one of the palps
- Teacher are the eyes of the japanese beetle peripheral?
Bugscope Team they are on the periphery of the head, yes -- here they are
- Teacher which part is this?
- Bugscope Team here we can see into the antenna, where there are very sensitive chemoreceptors
- Bugscope Team insects rely much more on scent and smell than we do
- Bugscope Team now we moved to the head of a tiny parasitic wasp
- 9:50am
- Bugscope Team its mandibles are spread open -- you can see it mouthparts pretty well
- Bugscope Team this is a very hairy looking parasitic wasp
- Bugscope Team the palps are very long -- the things that look like little arms
- Bugscope Team we had an expert on parasitic wasps visit a few weeks ago
- Bugscope Team he told us there is a parasitic wasp for nearly every insect, and also for nearly every life stage of an insect
- Bugscope Team parasitic wasps function by stinging their prey to immobilize it while they lay their eggs inside its cuticle
- Teacher what do u mean by parasitic?
Bugscope Team they are considered parasitic because they lay their eggs in other insects' bodies, so they feed on them like a parasite
- Bugscope Team they are mostly parasitic to caterpillars
- Bugscope Team this is one of four super sharp stylets the female mosquito has that pierce your skin
- Bugscope Team it is like a tiny steak knife
- 9:55am
- Bugscope Team now we can see the proboscis, in which the stylets are sheathed
- Teacher what is probosis?
Bugscope Team that is the mouthpart of an insect that drinks fluids, like a mosquito or a true bug or butterfly
- Bugscope Team the proboscis does not stick into your skin, but inside it is a fascicle, which has the stylets, two of which we see, and a siphon tube that both sucks blood and injects a bit of saliva into your skin
- Bugscope Team now we see the female mosquito
- Bugscope Team the female mosquito's head
- Bugscope Team its antennae are plain and not nearly as interesting as those of the males
- Teacher which part is this?
- Bugscope Team this is the siphon tube; we were hoping to see blood on it
- Bugscope Team but it has only, perhaps, dried saliva
- Bugscope Team the very tip also has taste receptors on it for fine dining on someone's blood
- 10:00am
- Bugscope Team now we see a male mosquito, right next to the female
- Bugscope Team this is what the male mosquito's antennae look like up close
- Bugscope Team they have sensors that help them find the female
- Bugscope Team male mosquitos do not bite
- Teacher how many eyes does the mosquitoe has?
Bugscope Team just 2 compound eyes- their eyes take up most of the area of the head. They wrap all around
- Bugscope Team the compound eyes have hundreds of facets -- the ommatidia
- Bugscope Team this is one ommatidium, up close -- more than 20,000 times magnified
- Bugscope Team and these are some of the scales on the exoskeleton of the male mosquito
- 10:06am
- Teacher what does the ommatidia used for?
Bugscope Team they are the individual parts/facets of the compound eye. They are thought to each acquire some sort of image to send back to the brain
- Bugscope Team this is the tip of one of the mosquito's legs
- Bugscope Team you can see that the legs and even the proboscis are covered with scales
- Bugscope Team scales are very helpful to have if you are a butterfly or moth or mosquito, or even a silverfish
- Teacher why are scales important?
- Bugscope Team if you had scales, and you flew into a spider's web, you could perhaps slip out before being captured by leaving your scales stuck to the web
- Bugscope Team scales also give color to the wings
- Bugscope Team now we are looking at a haltere, which is modified hindwing on a fly
- Bugscope Team this is on the body of a fruit fly
- 10:11am
- Bugscope Team now this is so cool -- this is an Argus Tortoise beetle
- Bugscope Team when I first saw it I thought it was a ladybug
- Bugscope Team they are quite small and have a shell similar to a ladybug, but larger
- Teacher do you have any cockcroach?
Bugscope Team I am sorry -- sort of -- that we do not have any cockroaches today
- Teacher ok
- Bugscope Team last week we had a parasitic wasp whose specialty was laying eggs in cockroaches
- Teacher have
- Bugscope Team Fran at the end of winter like this we have fewer and fewer insects...
- Bugscope Team we need to stock up
- Teacher ok thanks
- Bugscope Team this is a grain of pollen stuck to the tenent setae of the Tortoise beetle
- Teacher do u have any butterfly?
Bugscope Team we have a couple moths, which should work
- Bugscope Team those little flower-like setae are what insects use to stick to surfaces -- what help them cling to the ceiling, for example
- 10:16am
- Teacher do you have any centipede?
Bugscope Team not today, I am so sorry...
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye of a moth
- Teacher ok
- Bugscope Team you can see the facets of the eye -- the ommatidia -- and you can also see fungal hyphae
- Bugscope Team fungus eventually gets on almost everything and makes it decompose
- Teacher do you have any spiders
Bugscope Team oh goodness, no -- not today
- Bugscope Team we are not doing very well with your requests today
- Teacher thats ok
- Bugscope Team it is partly that it is the end of winter, almost, and our stocks are low
- Teacher maybe another time
Bugscope Team certainly!
- Teacher Teachers and students say thanks and they found it very interesting and informative
- Teacher thank you all
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Teacher but we will stop here for today...thanks again
- Bugscope Team see you next time!
- Bugscope Team thanks and sorry we didn't have all the insects you wanted
