Connected on 2013-06-11 08:00:00 from Bengaluru Urban, Karnataka, India
- 7:08am
- Bugscope Team starting setup for today's session
- 7:16am
- Bugscope Team hey good morning, Jen and Legoguy!
- Guest Morning! We are excited to be looking in the first time.
- Bugscope Team super cool
- Bugscope Team I'm setting up for the session that is scheduled for 8 our time; it's 7:15 a.m. here
- Bugscope Team I just put the sample in the vacuum chamber.
- Bugscope Team we'll be waiting for the vacuum to reach the right level, and then we'll turn on the electron beam
- Bugscope Team after that, make some adjustments and start finding and storing presets
- Bugscope Team so presently what you see is the inside of the vacuum chamber, and right in front is the stub with the insects/arthropods on it
- Guest awesome!
- 7:21am
- 7:29am
- 7:35am
- Bugscope Team now we're driving around, making presets
- Guest New here! This is awesome...I wish my kids were awake!
Bugscope Team super cool!
- Guest Is this the underside we are looking at? What type of borer?
- Bugscope Team we moved on from the borer, which seemed to be a cerambycid beetle, like the emerald ash borer; this is now a sad-looking roachlike beetle
- Bugscope Team oh yeah we are almost always looking at the ventral side, the underside, where the legs are and where we're most likely to see the 'face'
- 7:42am
- Bugscope Team looking for pollen and seeing mostly mold spores
- Guest Is that a mold spore?
- Bugscope Team this one is a pollen grain
- Bugscope Team sometimes it is hard to tell
- 7:47am
- 7:53am
- 8:00am
- Bugscope Team welcome, everyone, to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Team the person we're scheduled to work with is not on yet
- Bugscope Team can we give someone control of the 'scope until she arrives?
- Bugscope Team please, also, let us know when you have questions
- 8:06am
- Bugscope Team Legoguy I gave you the ability to control the microscope
- Guest what is that thing that looks like a braid? Is it a tentacle?
Bugscope Team the small ones are antennae, and the larger ones, in front, are the tarsi -- the last five segments of the limb
- Bugscope Team these are the tarsi, or tarsomeres
- Bugscope Team Legoguy are you still here?
- Guest This is a really neat 'service'! I have a fairly large dragonfly specimen that my husband found. I will have to have the kids round up some more insects and send them to you!
Bugscope Team HSMom I just gave you control.
- Bugscope Team the best specimens for Bugscope are often quite small. like leafhoppers, tiny weevils and beetles, mosquitoes...
- Bugscope Team you can click on any of the presets, on the lefthand screen, to get the 'scope to drive to that position on the stage
- Guest Oh, ok! I will send them in search of little insects...those are more fun to find anyhow...
- Guest How can we look at the photos on the left?
Bugscope Team click on the blue arrow
- 8:11am
- Bugscope Team totally cool
- Guest I have to hop off and take a phone call....please give control to someone else..
Bugscope Team Thank You for joining us!
- Bugscope Team palps are accessory mouthparts that help the insect manipulate and taste its food
- Bugscope Team this is a cute little moth
- Bugscope Team moths are always covered in scales
- Bugscope Team scales come off easily, and thus when an insect with scales flies into a spiderweb, there's a chance it can leave its scales and slip away
- Bugscope Team scales are modified setae, which is what the tiny 'hairs' are called
- Bugscope Team scale on the right, microsetae in the center, fluted setae above, to the left
- 8:16am
- Bugscope Team microsetae, or microtrichae, do not connect to the nerves inside the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Team scales that do not have latticework and pores in them are said to be primitive
- Bugscope Team this is kind of horrific
- Bugscope Team lol
- Bugscope Team it's a housefly head, but the mouthparts are gone
- Guest Do you have a mosquito? Interested in seeing the needle that bites you.
Bugscope Team no mosquitoes in the 'scope today. the fascicle is the component that has four sharp cutting stylets in it, part of a bundle; we do not see them often
- Guest Poor fly!
Bugscope Team haha Yeah
- Bugscope Team this is on the ventral side of the true bug, which now we can see also seems to be a stinkbug
- Bugscope Team these are absorbent structures that help keep the stinkbug from smelling its own bad smell
- Guest lol
- 8:21am
- Bugscope Team when we use the microscope for research, we have the sample much closer to the polepiece, where the electrons come from, and we get much better resolution. the tradeoff is that if we stay at a long working distance, like today, we can go to low mag and you can see more of a particular specimen
- Guest thank you, we have to step out for a minute
Bugscope Team Thank you!
- Bugscope Team Dodd Family we just gave you control, if you are still there.
- Guest yes
- Guest I thought stink bugs only stink when they are defending themselves
Bugscope Team I think you are right - when they feel endangered.
- Bugscope Team pollens!
Bugscope Team haha!
- Bugscope Team grasshopper!
- Bugscope Team the George Washington of grasshoppers
- Guest does a grasshopper have teeth or just strong jaws?
Bugscope Team they have jaws that open out like a gate
- 8:27am
- Guest do they have compound eyes also?
Bugscope Team yes and they are huge, especially compared to an ant!
- Bugscope Team insect mandibles can wear out, and some, or many, insects that use their jaws for chewing often have zinc or other minerals in them to strengthen them
- Guest What do you guys do to prepare the bugs before putting them under the microscope?
Bugscope Team in most cases they are just dry. when we collect them we freeze them and then let them dry. to attach them to the stub we use doublestick carbon tape, and we usually also lay them in a droplet of silver paint. then we use a sputter coater to put about 20 nm of gold-palladium on the whole stub
- Guest Thanks!
- Bugscope Team when we get insects in ethanol, we have the opportunity to critical point dry them, which preserves the soft parts that would normally shrivel when they dry.
- 8:33am
- Bugscope Team the fascicle is black, if you see it 'in person,' and it has a siphon tube that both delivers saliva and collects the blood. there are also, as I had mentioned earlier, for cutting mouthparts
- Bugscope Team when we critical point dry female mosquitoes, the fascicle is sometimes released from the sheath of the proboscis it is normally inside
- Bugscope Team clearly the fascicle is so named because it is bundled together like sheaves of wheat once were; the same root word as fascists
- Bugscope Team Curious you are the supreme ruler now...
- Bugscope Team it is also a stinkbug, although it does not have that shield shape
- 8:38am
- Bugscope Team here we see that one of the antennae has a scale from another insect stuck to it
- Bugscope Team Curious please let us know if you try to call up a particular preset and it does not show up.
- Guest So their antennae point downward?
Bugscope Team likely just because it is dead; they can move their antennae pretty much however they wish when they alive
- Bugscope Team this is a ladybug. if we get too close we'll see that its mouthparts are covered with juju
- Bugscope Team Cate also put a larval ladybug on the stub for us.
- 8:43am
- Guest Does the ladybug have eyes?
Bugscope Team yes, but they are a little harder to see. they are right next to thee edge of their back shell
- Bugscope Team I'm at the microscope, the SEM, and just drove us over to one of the ladybug eyes
- Guest Is there a way to look at the top of the ladybug?
Bugscope Team haha No! Sorry...
- Bugscope Team we have to choose which side we're going to mount up when we make the sample
- Bugscope Team the individual facets of the compound eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Team dragonflies may hold the record for the most ommatidia per eye; they are said to have as many as 32,000 per eye
- Guest So this is one of the eyes?
Bugscope Team yes this is one of the ladybug's compound eyes; I'll back the mag down for you in a sec so you can see...
- Guest Wow thanks! We have to get going, but this was super fascinating and we will definitely be back!
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- 8:49am
- Bugscope Team tenent setae!
- Bugscope Team If anyone else would like to drive please let us know.
- Bugscope Team we will likely close down soon if no one else is interested
- Bugscope Team we are quite happy to have had guests today!
- Guest Thank you - a wonderful resource. We will be back another time also!
Bugscope Team Super Cool!
- Guest really enjoyed it!!!
Bugscope Team Thank You, LK!
- Guest I just joined, this is very interesting... We will check it out agin for sure. Thank you.
Bugscope Team If you would like to drive please let us know.
- Bugscope Team we can stay on for a bit longer
- Bugscope Team this is a cranefly
- 8:55am
- Guest Is that the proboscis on the left of the screen or is it called something else on a cranefly?
- Bugscope Team um but we do need to know if we have an audience. Otherwise it is kind of boring, and Cate will laugh at me.
- Guest I am here ... Can we mail bugs from Canada?
Bugscope Team yes you can! if you collect live bugs into ethanol, like vodka, there's pretty much no chance they'
- Bugscope Team re going to survive and cause in international incident
- Guest Sorry don't have any vodka
- Bugscope Team well some kind of alcohol stronger than beer, or methanol would work -- rubbing alcohol
- Guest Is that the proboscis on the left of the screen or is it called something else on a cranefly?
Bugscope Team yes that is the proboscis; they kind of resemble horses
- Guest Thanks
Bugscope Team You can send insects dry, in portion containers so they don't get smooshed. The postal carriers have rules but sometimes are not aware of them, and it is easy for them to say No
- 9:00am
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye of the cranefly
- Bugscope Team the ommatidia do not look so good up close
- Guest We will check with our post office.
- Bugscope Team ugh I'm sorry -- they have some kind of juju on them as well
- Guest Haha
- Guest Now we know where they get ideas for horror movies! :>D
Bugscope Team haha
- Bugscope Team no perfect ommatidia yet today
- Guest What is that?
Bugscope Team it's a mold spore; looks like a Greek amphora at the bottom of the sea
- 9:06am
- Guest Those look like fish fins...or corn husks...what are they?
Bugscope Team they're scales
- Guest Thanks for sharing ... Going for breakfast now... We will come back another day.
- Bugscope Team mosquitoes, butterflies, moths, silverfish, and few other insects have scales
- Guest Is that the antenna?
Bugscope Team I think it's a palp -- one of the mouthparts
- Bugscope Team yes it was a palp. this is too
- Bugscope Team please, if anyone else has questions, feel free to chime in
- Bugscope Team we're going to shut down soon, for today
- Guest What does the palp do?
- 9:11am
- Bugscope Team palps are accessory mouthparts that help manipulate food toward the mouth, although not with most moths; they also have chemosensory components that help the insect taste its prospective meal
- Bugscope Team this is a ladybug larva
- Guest What were we just looking at?
Bugscope Team when we were up close we were trying to make sense of an aphid's body that is stuck to the larva
- Bugscope Team aphids are soft-bodied, like dustmites, so when they dry up after they dry they shrivel horribly
- Bugscope Team same with a spider abdomen
- Guest Thanks!
- Bugscope Team the cephalothorax of a spider is hardened
- Bugscope Team alright everyone we're shutting down
- Bugscope Team we appreciate you being on
- Guest So if we wanted to send a spider...would it be best to send it in ethanol solution?
Bugscope Team yes, then we could critical point dry it
- Guest Thanks
Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Guest Thank you! We will be back!! Off to look up 'how to critical dry' ;>)
Bugscope Team haha Totally cool.
- 9:17am
- Bugscope Team Good Bye, Everyone!
