Session 2011-038 with Discovery Center or Springfield

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2011-08-04 11:00:00 from Greene, Missouri, United States

• 9:34am
• Bugscope Team setting up for today's session...
• 9:59am
• Bugscope Team sample is pumping down -- you can see it in the chamber now
• 10:15am
• Bugscope Team now Cate is adjusting the settings on the microscope, and soon we will be making presets

• Bugscope Team good morning, Ryan!
• Bugscope Team these are brochosomes

• Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!

• Bugscope Team Ryan we are setting up, so we're turning off your ability to drive 'til we're done.

• 10:21am
• Teacher Good morning! i'm with the discovery center and was scheduled for an 11:00am session...i'm just checking in early and making sure my connection is good.

• Bugscope Team looks good!
• Bugscope Team totally cool

• Bugscope Team we'll make a few more presets, and then you can practice driving, if you want
• Bugscope Team will you have other computers logged into this session?

• Teacher ok. no this will be the only computer.
• 10:26am

• Teacher i'm having trouble with my projector. am i able to save these images to the site so i can find them later?

• Bugscope Team Ryan take your time -- all of the images are saved for you and available on your member page.

• 10:31am
• Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-038

• Bugscope Team the text is saved as well...
• Teacher ok, awesome

• 10:38am
• Bugscope Team looks like the other ants got away
• Bugscope Team okay Ryan you now have control of the microscope

• Bugscope Team you can use the arrow to the left to view the presets and also click on any of them to have the 'scope move to that place on the stub
• Bugscope Team you can also click on the screen itself to get the image to center, meaning that if you go to low mag you can use that feature to drive
• Bugscope Team of course there is some lag between you clicking and the 'scope responding and sending you an image of what you've done

• Bugscope Team usually a second or two...
• Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions, or of course when the students have questions

• Teacher okc great! i think fixed the projector so we're good to go.
• Bugscope Team sweet!
• 10:43am

• Bugscope Team note that you can change the mag, focus (up or down -- worse or better), adjust the contrast/brightness, drive the 'scope, and also choose from among the presets on the lefthand screen
• Bugscope Team moths often charge up with electrons because they are covered with scales that are not very conductive

• Bugscope Team so the excess brightness we see is often due to charging

• Bugscope Team you can see the compound eyes, and perhaps a few thousand ommatidia -- the individual eye facets

• Bugscope Team scales are modified setae

• 10:48am
• Bugscope Team I am sitting next to the microscope, so I hope you don't mind that I just brought the mag up and adjusted the brightness/contrast and focus
• Bugscope Team we do not see these fine features on all flying insect eyes -- usually just butterflies and moths
• Teacher sure, no thats great!
• Bugscope Team this is about 10 times the limit of a light microscope
• Bugscope Team and of course we can go higher
• Teacher so what are the smaller dots on each individual ommatidia?
• Teacher and my students say "Hello"
• Bugscope Team we don't know -- they do increase the surface area and we assume they help collect light. moths and many other insects, of course, can see light in ultraviolet wavelengths, so these receptors may aid with that
• Bugscope Team Hello! Welcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope Team Be sure and cruise to other presets -- it is especially cool that we have an earwig today, with motes
• Bugscope Team oops -- with *mites*
• Bugscope Team clicking on the arrow to the left shows you what presets are available
• 10:53am
• Bugscope Team and clicking on one of the presets will move the 'scope to that place on the stub

• Bugscope Team you're driving a $600,000 microscope
• Bugscope Team yay! you can see three mites here, on the earwig
• Bugscope Team 's thorax
• Bugscope Team close to the head, which is just a bit north

• Bugscope Team this kind of mite does not have eyes

• Bugscope Team what we think is the head is right in the center with the two antenna-like bristles pointing downward
• Bugscope Team good job driving!
• Bugscope Team isn't it wild that we can find mites like this?

• Bugscope Team we're not sure how they eat -- whether they pick up scraps of food or actually penetrate the cuticle of the insect and feed off some of its hemolymph
• Bugscope Team so this is what we think is the head, just left of center

• Bugscope Team it's like a stegasaurus, with a tiny head compared to the size of its body

• 10:59am

• Bugscope Team the little bristle-like things are probably mechano- and chemoreceptors
• Bugscope Team they can sense touch and smell
• Bugscope Team also hot/cold, and wind

• Bugscope Team this is one of the spider's spinnerettes

• Bugscope Team they have these cool 'plumose' setae all over their bodies

• Bugscope Team spiders are very sensitive to vibration, of course, and we think these hairs, like little pine trees, help them pick up information from vibration around the spider or on its web

• Bugscope Team many insect setae are more like hairs

• Bugscope Team this is the wasp's stinger, slanting from the right to the left

• Bugscope Team it has some kind of goo on it
• Bugscope Team you can see the tip is to the left and very sharp

• Teacher how did you get the stinger to stay out of the abdomen?

• Bugscope Team It just happened that way -- we don't always have such luck
• 11:04am
• Teacher oh, ok.

• Bugscope Team the stinger has a lot of juju on it so it is hard to see the serrations along the shaft that stingers usually have
• Bugscope Team on a honeybee the serrations are more apparent, and when they sting mammals, as we know they get stuck
• Teacher oh,ok. so its serrated like a shark's tooth?
  Bugscope Team yes it is and I am sorry we cannot see that right now
• Bugscope Team mosquitoes have four serrated blades that cut into your skin
• Bugscope Team no mosquitoes today, and it is rare again that we are able to see those stingers
• Bugscope Team actually they're called stylets or lancets

• Bugscope Team whoa it's a stinkbug!
• Bugscope Team you can see the very round compound eyes to the left and right

• Bugscope Team in the center, where we are now, is the proboscis
• Bugscope Team stinkbugs are 'true bugs' that have piercing/sucking mouthparts like this
• 11:09am
• Bugscope Team this is the upper portion, where there is a kind of suction apparatus that helps the stinkbug drink plant fluids

• Teacher So do they spray their "stink" as a defense against predators?
  Bugscope Team yes -- the glands are between the 1st and 2nd set of legs on the underside of the thorax; we saved that area as a preset

• Bugscope Team stinkbugs are said to hate their 'stink' as much as their potential predators do
• Bugscope Team so we think the network of bumps on the lower surface is part of a stink absorption system that keeps the stink from enveloping the bug
• Teacher wild.
• Bugscope Team it is so cool-looking, and you can see that it has many involutions -- lots of folds and thus a lot of surface area
• Bugscope Team this is where the stink comes out of the glands on the inside of the body -- through these branched filter-like bars
• 11:16am

• Teacher cool

• Bugscope Team sorry I just had someone come and ask me some questions

• 11:21am
• Bugscope Team these tiny whiffle-ball like things are brochosomes

• Bugscope Team they are said to be produced only by leafhoppers, but we find them on other insects that have been around leafhoppers
• Bugscope Team they are nanoparticles, usually about 450 nanometers in diameter

• Bugscope Team and this is a silverfish
• Bugscope Team silverfish have scales, as do moths, butterflies, mosquitoes, and very few other insects
• Bugscope Team scales are helpful to insects in several ways
• Bugscope Team one is that they come off easily -- they're the fine powder you feel when you rub the wing of a butterfly
• Bugscope Team if the butterfly flies into a spiderweb, there is a good chance it can get back out by leaving its scales stuck to the web and thus slipping away
• Bugscope Team same with the silverfish
• Bugscope Team or moth or mosquito
• 11:26am
• Bugscope Team scales on the silverfish reflect silver light, of course
• Bugscope Team but those on a moth or butterfly can create those neat color patterns we see

• Bugscope Team the face of the silverfish is hard to make out
• Bugscope Team this is about where the mouth is, up a bit
• Bugscope Team insects often have four accessory mouthparts called palps that help them push their food into their mouths and also smell the food so they can tell if it is appropriate to eat
• Bugscope Team if you look at the ant head you can see the palps much more easily
• Teacher Well, i think we're gonna have to cut our session a little short. But thank you guys so much for this opportunity! This is my second session with bugscope this summer and we've really enjoyed it. It's been a unique and educational experience. Thanks! Ryan Hawkins, Discovery Center of Springfield
• Bugscope Team hey Thank You!
• Bugscope Team thank you for doing bugscope with us this morning
• Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-038
• 11:32am
• Bugscope Team just below is your member page
• Bugscope Team see you next time!