Connected on 2012-11-14 08:30:00 from Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States
- 7:18am
- Bugscope Team sample is being sputter coated
- 7:29am
- Bugscope Team sample is pumping down
- Bugscope Team these insects may be very juicy
- 7:35am
- Bugscope Team so it could take a little while for the 'scope to pump down
- Bugscope Team we are indeed having a problem with the samples and may have to make a different set
- 7:46am
- Bugscope Team we have made a separate sample with a worker bee, a moth, some pollen, and a few other insects
- Bugscope Team we're going to coat that sample and at the same time watch the vacuum on the SEM to see if it might make it in time for this morning's session
- 7:53am
- Bugscope Team Coating backup sample.
- Bugscope Team 2.2, 2.1
- Bugscope Team 2.0
- Bugscope Team we are going for a stable 1.3
- Bugscope Team 1.3 x 10-4 mBar
- 7:58am
- Bugscope Team 2.2, 2.5. 2.4. 1.9
- Bugscope Team 2.7, 2.3, 1.8
- Bugscope Team we can see bursts of outgassing from the specimens
- Bugscope Team 1.7
- Bugscope Team because it is close, we will let it go another 10 to 12 minutes
- Bugscope Team 1.6
- Bugscope Team ...
- Bugscope Team ...
- Bugscope Team ...
- Bugscope Team ...
- Bugscope Team 1.5
- Bugscope Team ..
- Bugscope Team ..
- 8:04am
- Bugscope Team 1.4/1.5
- Bugscope Team 1.4
- Bugscope Team 1.3...
- Bugscope Team we will need the vacuum to stay at a 1.3 x 10-4 or better in order to keep running
- Bugscope Team it's very close
- 8:14am
- Teacher Hi
Bugscope Team Hello!
- Bugscope Team Mrs Happnie we are going to be working on the presets as quickly as possible.
- Bugscope Team we had a lot of trouble with juicy insects this morning
- Teacher I don't see a student choice for the login at the chat station. Should I just login then in as guests? Will they be able to type questions?
- Teacher The class is not here yet- Maddy
- Bugscope Team yes please log them in as Guests. they will be able to type questions and can use whatever names they choose
- Bugscope Team sometimes the Student option does not come up. It may come up on other machines...
- Teacher It did come up on the others and we are all logged in
Bugscope Team good deal!
- 8:19am
- Teacher Great presets!
Bugscope Team thank you,. so far so good. we had a long wait for the vacuum to stabilize
- 8:25am
- Teacher Chat is different- it's threaded now
Bugscope Team it's gone through a few changes in nearly 14 years
- 8:30am
- Teacher We are ready are you?
- Bugscope Team we are ready to roll
- Bugscope Team please let us know when you have questions
- 8:36am
- Teacher Trying to get the worker honey bee preset but having trouble
Bugscope Team I will drive there.
- Teacher thanks
- Bugscope Team sometimes the controls get bogged down
- Bugscope Team we rebooted microscope control
- Bugscope Team this is the compoound eye
- Bugscope Team interesting that it has few setae on it
- Bugscope Team the facets of the eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team this eye may have been brushed after the bee died
- Guest What are the little dots
Bugscope Team the roughly hexagonal things are the ommatidia; the small white dots are the bases of setae that are now gone
- Student what are the spiky things on the eye
Bugscope Team those are setae, or insect hairs. Sometimes they help tell flying insects the direction of the wind currents to help them fly better
- Bugscope Team now we can see a little better
- Bugscope Team most of the setae on this part of the eye are broken off
- 8:41am
- Bugscope Team some of those places between the facets are where setae used to be but they got sheared off, probably after it died
- Bugscope Team bees are the only insect known to have branched setae, but not on the eye
- Guest How long is a bees legs
Bugscope Team they are a little less than a centimeter, maybe 7 mm or so
Bugscope Team we can go look if you want to drive there
- Student how many lenses does the eye have
Bugscope Team thousands per eye
- Student How far can a bee see?
Bugscope Team I don't think they can see well-focussed images for very far, but I am not sure. They do not see all the colors we see the same way we do, either
- Bugscope Team a large wasp and some moths can have as many as 17,000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Bugscope Team bees are related to wasps and ants
- Student How well can a bee see
- Student what colors do they see
Bugscope Team they can't see reds, but they can see UV
- 8:46am
- Bugscope Team as Cate said, bees are said to be red-blind, and they see some colors, like yellow and green and orange as the same color; they also see blues as about the same color
- Student what sense does the bee use if it can't see red
Bugscope Team it apparently sees red the same as black, just like we cannot tell colors as well when it is dark
- Student Do bees have a nose to smell?
Bugscope Team they do not have noses like we do; they have spiracles to breathe, which are like noses; but to smell they use thousands of chemosensory setae, many of which are on the antennae
- Guest What are we looking at
Bugscope Team in the upper part of the screen are the jaws and then curving around from there is the bee's tongue. There also is some wing from an insect, maybe a bee, to the bottom of the screen
- Bugscope Team spiracles are large pores, usually on either side of a body segment, that let air into the tracheae to circulate inside the body cavity
- Bugscope Team the images from the microscope you are driving today are black and white because we are using electrons instead of light to collect them
- Student How many bees live in one hive?
- Student How do they use their tongue?
Bugscope Team they use their tongues to lap up nectar, kind of like a cat lapping milk, and the proboscis is said to collect the liquid nectar through capillary action
- 8:51am
- Bugscope Team the proboscis is like a straw
- Bugscope Team the bumble bee's mouthparts are easier to see today, on another preset
- Student why are bees black and yellow?
Bugscope Team they are warning colors to other animals, like people. There are some bees that look like a wasp with black and white stripes so they will be mistaken for a wasp and be left alone.
- Student How big is the queen compared to the drones?
Bugscope Team I have never seen one, but they can be several centimeters long
- Bugscope Team a queen bee can be twice the size of a worker bee; it depends on the species
- Bugscope Team queen bees are also said to have nonbarbed stingers, meaning that the stinger does not get caught in, for example, mammalian (like us) skin
- Bugscope Team so queen bees can sting repeatedly
- Student why does a bee sting hurt?
Bugscope Team it's what is in their venom that hurts. Some stinging insects hurt more than others.
- Guest how long is a bee stinger
Bugscope Team we can see that this broken stinger is about 150 micrometers, or 0.15 millimeters long. stingers vary in length
- 8:57am
- Student why does a bee die when it stings someone?
Bugscope Team honeybees have a barbed stinger that tends to get stuck in a mammal's skin. When the bee tries to pull away, the stinger and venom sac stays put. This creates an open wound on the bee and it eventually bleeds out and dies
- Student Dose the stinger grow
Bugscope Team no but often it does not show completely; some of it is still inside the bee
- Student why isn't the end of the stinger not that pointy in the microscope?
Bugscope Team its broken; we didn't know that when we made the sample
- Guest how long is a bees lifespan
Bugscope Team queens can live for 2-5 years. Drones can live for up to 50 days.
Bugscope Team and workers, the females, live for 1-3 months
- Student how do they produce venom?
Bugscope Team there is a venom gland just inside, and I believe it is produced there
- Student what is the circle thing on the bee's stinger
Bugscope Team the things that look like circles are dried fluid
- Student Why do bees sting?
Bugscope Team most bees are non-aggressive. They only sting when they or their hive are threatened. The africanized honeybee is aggressive like a wasp and will sting if you are near them
- Student How much venom is in a stinger?
Bugscope Team I think just a few microliters, the size of a small drop of water to us
- Bugscope Team you can see both branched and unbranched setae here at the tip of the abdomen
- Bugscope Team drones do not have stingers because they are males
- 9:02am
- Bugscope Team the stinger is a modified ovipositor, also used for laying eggs in some insects
- Student is that pollen on the leg
- Student what are we looking at ?
Bugscope Team we are looking at the pollen basket that the bee has on its leg
- Student can a baby bee sting some one?
Bugscope Team I think so. Bees can sting other insects without losing their stinger and dying. It is mammals that have thick skin that holds the barbs of the stinger in.
- Bugscope Team this is lots and lots of pollen, collected by the bumble bee
- Student How much pollen can a bee hold?
Bugscope Team it depends of course on the size of the bee; pollen is also captured on the hairs -- the setae
- Student how big is a pollen basket?
Bugscope Team it is a few millimeters long, perhaps 2 or 3
- 9:07am
- Guest what does the bee do with the pollen
Bugscope Team it is used as food for them
- Student How big is a pollen grain?
Bugscope Team about 20-30 microns
- Student Wh is some pollen grans biger than other
Bugscope Team the bee uses its proboscis to brush the pollen with nectar so that it will stick better; what we are seeing is pollen with bee saliva/nectar on it
- Student how does a bee use the pollen too make honey
Bugscope Team it doesn't use pollen to make honey, except maybe as a raw source of nutrients that it has digested; it uses mostly nectar
- Student what is this a picture of?
Bugscope Team this is a live image of the head of a moth
- Bugscope Team the moth's compound eye is the large round thing, and the coiled thing is its proboscis, which is rolled up when it flies
- Student What is the picture of?
- Student what are the spiky things?
Bugscope Team those are hamuli. bees, wasps, and flying ants use them to hook together their hind- and forewings to make them one big pair of wings
- Student who is queen elizabeth?
Bugscope Team there have been several, but the one we were thinking of was the Queen of England during the time of Shakespeare. Her clothing looked like the moth's scales and setae around its head.
- 9:12am
- Student where is this located?
Bugscope Team now we are looking at hamuli, little hooks that hold the fore and hindwings together
Bugscope Team as Cate said...
- Bugscope Team when bees and wasps fly, they hook their wings together
- Student what is the cuved line on the right?
- Student what is the straight line?
Bugscope Team that is the edge of the forewing
- Student what are they made of
Bugscope Team they are made of chitin
- Student Are the wings fragile
Bugscope Team their tough in the insect world.
- Student what is chitin
- Student whats chitin
Bugscope Team it's similar to what our nails are made of
- Guest how big are the wings
Bugscope Team they are usually about a centimeter
- Student do the wings have a texture
Bugscope Team the wings often have tiny setae on them called microsetae that help hold onto the air and also keep the wings from sticking together when they get wet
- Bugscope Team this is cool
- Student what is the things in the middle of the swirl
- Student how long is the proboscis?
Bugscope Team these can be more than a centimeter long, allowing the moth to reach deep into a flower to collect nectar
- 9:18am
- Bugscope Team there is a hawk moth with a proboscis that is nearly 6 inches long. This one is much smaller
- Student what are the spiky things on the proboscis
Bugscope Team they function kind of like the strings on a mop, to help hold nectar and also pollen
- Student what is the proboscis?
Bugscope Team it's a tube that it extends into flowers to drink the nectar
- Student what is it made of
Bugscope Team almost all of the harder surfaces on an insect or similar arthropod are made of chitin, which as Cate said is similar to what our fingernails are made of. A shrimp shell is made of chitin.
- Student what are the indents on the proboscis
Bugscope Team the small indentations are what help the proboscis bend, and they also provide rigidity to it -- it is a tube
- Teacher Is there an antennae to look at
Bugscope Team we can see
- Bugscope Team oops guess what this is
- Bugscope Team moth antennae are very fragile
- Bugscope Team those of males are often ornate, like those of male mosquitoes, whereas female antennae are more plainlooking
- Guest what does the proboscis feel like
Bugscope Team to us it would feel soft and perhaps tickle
- 9:23am
- Student is that a ear
Bugscope Team most insects do not have ears, really; the praying mantis has a single large one on its thorax, I think. but this is the base of one of the antennae
- Bugscope Team this is where the antenna broke off
- Bugscope Team because sound is a form of vibration, insects can 'hear' using some of the fine setae -- the hairs -- they are often covered with
- Bugscope Team this is so awesome
- Guest what are the hairs on the antenna
Bugscope Team those are setae- insect hairs. Scales are modified setae as well
- Student how do bees communicate
Bugscope Team they use chemical signals that they use their antennae to understand
- Student How many bees live on earth?
Bugscope Team there are said to be more than 20,000 different species of bees in the world, so there are billions and perhaps trillions of bees in existence at one time
- Guest how many different kinds bees are there
Bugscope Team there are 20,000 known bee species
- Student what is it
Bugscope Team this is the bumble bee head, and right now we see the antenna and beneath it one of the mandibles
- Student how long is a antennae
Bugscope Team looks like it is about 7 millimeters long
- Student If a antenna falls of will it regrow?
Bugscope Team no. once insects have wings they are adults, and they do not molt or grow or regenerate lost parts
- 9:28am
- Guest what is the most common bee
- Guest what is that sharp thing
Bugscope Team the thing to the left, pointing down, covers the glossa; normally there is one on either side
Bugscope Team they are called 'stipes'
- Student what is a glossa
Bugscope Team that is what we think of as the tongue, or more the tip of the tongue
- Student What is the most common bee?
Bugscope Team sweat bees are the most common. But the best known species is the africanized honey bee
- Student how many eggs can a queen bee lay
Bugscope Team about 2000 eggs per day
- Student is a queen bee stinger worse than a worker bee
- Student can a bee things?
Bugscope Team can it think? not quite the same way we do; it seems programmed to do different things in different situations
- Guest what is the difference of a honeybee and a bumblebee
Bugscope Team bumblebees are often bigger and their stinger lacks the barbs that a honeybee has. It also doesn't make honey
- 9:33am
- Student can a bee taste things?
Bugscope Team yes they can taste with the tiny setae we see; some of the setae are chemoreceptors, which can sense smell, and smell is the same as taste, in a way
- Bugscope Team insects are covered with setae to allow them to sense the world around them
- Bugscope Team because insects have an exoskeleton (whereas we have an endoskeleton), they do not have skin with nerve endings in it
- Guest what does a bumblebee eat
Bugscope Team they eat both pollen and nectar; when they feed their young, they spit up a mixture of pollen and nectar for them
- Bugscope Team if you had an exoskeleton, it would be like wearing a suit or armor, and you would not be able to feel things touching the surface of the armor
- Student thank you so much we have to go now
- Student Thank you so much we have to go know
- Student thank you we learned so much!
- Bugscope Team because insects essentially have suits of armor -- their exoskeletons -- they need to project setae through that armor to be able to sense what it around them
- Bugscope Team Thank You, Everyone!
- Guest thank you so much we have to go now
Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team thanks for all your great questions and using 'beescope' with us today
Bugscope Team haha Yeah!
- 9:39am
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team Bye!
- Teacher Thanks I'll see you tomorrow-Maddy
