Session 2013-004 with Olive-Mary Stitt

Application

The School

The Class

The Project

Miscellaneous

Live Session Transcript

Connected on 2013-04-17 13:20:00 from Cook, Illinois, United States

• 12:27pm
• Bugscope Team sample is pumping down

• 12:35pm

• 12:41pm

• 12:47pm

• 12:52pm

• Bugscope Team now we're making presets
• Bugscope Team Hello Mrs N!
• Bugscope Team Welcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope Team we're just finishing the presets

• Teacher Hi, Scot! Thanks for preparing our session! The students are really looking forward to meeting you and our bugs!
• Bugscope Team super cool
• Bugscope Team we are ready
• Teacher My students will all arrive around 1:20.
• Bugscope Team you may drive now if you'd like
• 12:58pm

• Bugscope Team no as long as you're comfortable driving -- that's the trick

• Bugscope Team Hello Nick!
• Bugscope Team um Bye Nick
• 1:04pm
• Teacher I think I've got the basics...I am going to get organized, get the students situated, and be back at 1:20. Thanks, Scot!!
• Bugscope Team super cool
• 1:10pm

• 1:15pm
• Bugscope Team hello students!
• Student Hello! This is Lizzie! We will have 4 computers and 17 students.
• Bugscope Team Sounds great!
• Bugscope Team this is a cool place right here
• Bugscope Team this is where a butterfly's chrysalis connects to a twig
• Student Hi this is Lauren we are waiting for our freinds
• Student I am VERY excited! We are waiting for other students!
• Bugscope Team the 'stem' of the chrysalis is to the left
• 1:21pm

• Bugscope Team (me driving, for a sec)
• Student Hi mason we are glad you logged in from home.
• Bugscope Team this is sweet
• Bugscope Team i've never seen this before
• Bugscope Team we were trying to figure out how the larva wrapped the silk around the stem
• Bugscope Team hmm
• Teacher OK, we are all set!
• Bugscope Team so Mrs N you have control of the 'scope

• Guest are you sure the silk is around the stem?
• Bugscope Team but we can confer control to anyone you'd like

• Student What are we looking at ?
• Bugscope Team maybe they set it before becoming a chrysalis by crawling around and laying the silk?
• Bugscope Team this is the tip of the chrysalis, where it attaches to a plant
• Bugscope Team Mason if you have another idea -- we're open to it. the stem of the chrysalis is to the lower left
• 1:26pm
• Student Hello, I'm Rob.
• Bugscope Team the tilted T portion we don't see now is the plant stem
• Bugscope Team Hi Rob!
• Student That is so interesting! From Lizzie

• Bugscope Team it's really fun for us, Lizzie

• Bugscope Team Mrs N are the presets not working for you?
• Bugscope Team 'cause I did this one...
• Student What is that?
• Bugscope Team hello Alex an Jacob!
• Teacher It's moving slowly..but it works.

• Bugscope Team This is an earwig -- a female earwig

• Bugscope Team often they have mites on them but we did not see any earlier
• Bugscope Team you can see the compound eye to the upper right

• Student This is so cool.
• Student Wow! how do you know its a female earwig?
• Bugscope Team it's kind of under the 'knee'

• Bugscope Team the way the pinchers bow are are straight is how you know it's a female or male
• Bugscope Team the cercopods -- the pincers -- of females are close together, and those of males are curved and further apaer
• Bugscope Team apart

• Bugscope Team the background we see now is doublestick carbon tape with silver paint on it
• Teacher Can you drive for us? I think you will go quicker.
• Student What is the cercopods and what do they do?

• Bugscope Team these are the cercopods
• 1:31pm
• Bugscope Team if you bother an earwig, it can whip around and pinch you with these
• Student Is this the back of the earwig/
• Student Hi Bugscope! This is Elizabeth. Why do you put the carbon tape on it?
• Student Are those the pincers or the mouthparts?
• Bugscope Team kind of like wire strippers
• Bugscope Team The are used to catch prey, and also for defense
• Bugscope Team these are the pincers
• Bugscope Team this is the ventral side -- the 'front'
• Bugscope Team they're at the backend of the critter
• Student Whats the critter
• Student An earwig.
• Bugscope Team this is an earwig

• Bugscope Team the carbon tape is what the specimens stick to, and the silver paint helps them stick as well as helping to ground them so they do not charge up with electrons
• Guest what are the pinchers made out of?
• Student Thanks!
• Bugscope Team the specimens we're looking at are in a vacuum chamber

• Student What does a vacum chamber do ?

• Student And I used to think it was a flea.

• Student The grasshopper, I mean.

• Bugscope Team we beam electrons at the sample in order to be able to collect images of the specimens, and in order for the electrons to pass smoothly through space they need to be in a vacuum -- much like how a lightbulb works
• Bugscope Team This here is a close up of the compound eye.
• 1:37pm

• Bugscope Team vacuum chamber is where the insects are sitting right now. We have to have them in a vacuum in order to hit them with an electron beam and get a good image

• Bugscope Team you can see the ommatidia
• Student How high magnifacion can we get?!
• Student What is the ommatida
• Bugscope Team ommatidia are the individualm lenses of the compound eye
• Bugscope Team the ommatidia are the individual units that make up the compound eye
• Student How many lenses are in the compound eye
• Student I never knew that.

• Bugscope Team they work together to give a complete image of what the insect is seeing
• Bugscope Team Mason we need to coat them (we use gold-palladium rather than just gold) so that when we beam electrons at them they do not charge up

• Bugscope Team so what insects see would be similar to something like a mosaic, or a really pixellated image

• Bugscope Team the number of lenses in a compound eye really depends on the insect

• Student Would the bugs be worth a lot of money because they are coated in gold? :)

• Student probably no because its paint
• Student What is a seta?
• Bugscope Team for certain insects like certain ants, they won't have too many facets, since they rely on other sense more heavily, in particular taste and smell
• Bugscope Team the gold or gold-palladoium coat is only nanometers thick, so we just throw the bugs away when we're done

• Student Cool!
• Bugscope Team gold-palladium sorry I am not typing so well
• Bugscope Team for insects like a dragonfly, which rely heavily on its sight, their compound eyes have lots and lots of facets
• Bugscope Team seta are what the tiny things that look like hairs are called
• Student How does the spiracle work?

• Bugscope Team setae are the sensory hairs that you can see on an insect

• Student How big is the spiracle??
• Bugscope Team A dragonfly can have 30,000 ommatidia in one eye

• Bugscope Team they help the insect sense their environment and themselves as they can't feel anything through their tough exoskeleton
• 1:42pm
• Student WOW
• Bugscope Team spiracles open and close to allow for gas exchange
• Student What are the flanges in the spiracle?
• Student What is the thing in the spiricle ?

• Bugscope Team spiracles can be opened or closed by most insects/arthropods, so it is like they hold their breath
• Bugscope Team the spiracle is attached to a long trachea that runs along the body. That is how it supplies oxygen to its cells

• Student Whats a trachea
• Bugscope Team the trachea system in insects is connected to each cell

• Student That is so interesting! I don't think I ever would have known that!

• Bugscope Team the spiracles have a kind of a filter at their opening so that the insect does not accidentally suck in a bunch of dirt or pollen or mold spores
• Bugscope Team unlike in us, where oxygen is brought to different areas with the aid of the circulatory system (heart/blood)
• Bugscope Team so the trachea is a kind of tube
• Bugscope Team trachea is just a term that is given to the series of tubes in an insect that brings gas to and from each cell
• Bugscope Team in people the trachea is the windpipe
• Student This is Danielle. Are you trying to find a way to get pictures in color?

• Student How sharp is the stinger
• Bugscope Team Danielle because we are using electrons, which are super small, we collect images as grey scale, as signal; that is, the electrons are much smaller than the wavelengths of visible light
• Student Is the stinger smooth ?? or bumpy??
• Bugscope Team so we cannot see color because we are using something smaller than color as a probe

• Bugscope Team the stinger is relatively smooth but has cutting barbs on it

• Student What is that gap?
• Teacher Can you show us where the barbs are?

• 1:47pm
• Student This is Hannah. What is the splitting line in the middle of the stinger?

• Bugscope Team now one of the barbs is in the middle of the view

• Teacher Looks good! Thanks!
• Bugscope Team the barbs are recurved to help the stinger hold into the skin that it pierces, or into an insect if it is stinging an insect
• Bugscope Team kind of like how a fishhook works
• Bugscope Team now we can see that the stinger is about 1.5 mm long
• Student What's the hollow part?
• Student This is Lizzie. Is it hard to drive the Bug scope and was it harder on your first day?
• Bugscope Team Lizzie we just gave you control.

• Bugscope Team sometimes there are lag issues - like it takes a long time from when you clicked on a command until it shows up on the screen
• Student This is Rob.
• Bugscope Team but it is really easy to use, and in person it is super easy
• Bugscope Team Hi Rob!
• Bugscope Team Lizzie you can click on any of the presets if you would like; or whoever is presently Student 1...
• Student Oops, scratch that. I accidentally hit enter.

• Bugscope Team gnarly

• 1:52pm
• Bugscope Team it's a bouquet of mold spores

• Bugscope Team so pretty!

• Bugscope Team Student 4 we are good!

• Student Okay!
• Bugscope Team I'm sitting at a computer next to the microscope, so I can slide over and tweak the focus and centering on the 'scope when it is helpful

• Student Are those hairs

• Bugscope Team they are setae, which are much like hairs, but they're often sensory hairs

• Student What r those things in the holes
• Bugscope Team those are also for sensory purposes
• Bugscope Team they're just a different shape than the setae
• Student This is really cool getting to drive. I am giving Elizabeth control now!
• Bugscope Team possibly for olfaction (smell)?
• Bugscope Team generally, they are chemoreceptors

• 1:57pm
• Student Does this help them survive?

• Student we switched, its charlie
• Bugscope Team chemical communication/signalling is very important in the insect world
• Bugscope Team hi charlie
• Student whats an arolium?

• Bugscope Team it's a sticky pad of sorts

• Bugscope Team helps the insect walk on certain surfaces

• Bugscope Team Joseph is an entomologist, Cate is a physicist, and I am a biologist
• Student Now it's Connor.

• Student What is a spiracle on a chrysalis?
• Student what are the hair like things?
• Bugscope Team these are spiracles that the larva breathes through as it metamorphoses into a butterfly
• 2:02pm

• Student By the way its Avery
• Bugscope Team in this case the hairlike things are part of the filtering apparatus of the chrysalis

• Bugscope Team the hairs are actually microsetae, which are like mini hairs

• Bugscope Team Hey Avery!

• Student cool!
• Bugscope Team this, now, is what happens when the electrons are not shed by the conductive coat we put on the sample

• Bugscope Team the microsetae are charging up with trapped electrons

• Bugscope Team this is now quite rare salt; soon we will not have any more
• Bugscope Team wendy's?

• Bugscope Team yes from Wendy's but not what they use currently
• Bugscope Team yeah like the fast food restaurant

• Student whats the smallest thing you have ever looked at under the microscope?

• Student This is Lizzie, what is the most rare bug that you've ever seen through the microscope

• Bugscope Team i'm not sure about the rarest insect I've seen. Maybe scott knows
• Student awesome!

• Student wow.

• 2:08pm

• Bugscope Team once we had a fly from Israel that was one of six known in the world
• Student what are the balls on top of the head?
• Student Do you mean the species only had six?
• Bugscope Team those are the bases (the pedicels) of the antennae of the rolypoly
• Student Oh.
• Student I can't belive thats the face of the cute bugs i see on the playground
• Student where are the eyes
• Bugscope Team the entomologist we were working with was able to find only six of those particular fly; certainly there had to be more

• Bugscope Team you can see one of the eyes, to the left, only barely
• Bugscope Team it's centered on the screen now
• Bugscope Team see those domelike bumps?
• Bugscope Team those bulbous things
• Student yeah we do
• Bugscope Team they are like a small bunch of grapes
• Bugscope Team those are ommatidia
• Student ohhhhh
• Bugscope Team each compound eye has only six or eight ommatidia
• Bugscope Team roly polies are not insects; they're crustaceans
• Teacher Since we are nearing the end of the session, is there anything else you recommend that we view?
• 2:13pm
• Bugscope Team the family name is Armadilladiidae.
• Student what are those scaly things in the backround?

• Student Thanks we
• Bugscope Team did you see the yellowjacket head?
• Bugscope Team they roll up
• Bugscope Team like an armadillo
• Student were wondering
• Student nice
• Student no
• Bugscope Team you can see that it has ocelli -- simple eyes -- on the top of the head

• Bugscope Team Student 3 I am sorry I moved the stage and am not sure what the scaly things were.
• Student What are simple eyes
• Student what are simple eyes

• Bugscope Team they help the insect detect rapid movement nearby
• Bugscope Team the thing that looks like a living comma is one of the compound eyes

• Bugscope Team and may help in circadean rhythm (day/night cycle) regulation
• Bugscope Team simple eyes are the ocelli Joseph is referring to

• Student What is the strig thing
• Student *string
• Student What are the bumps on the eye.

• Student Can bugs get bugs and if so how big are they?
• Bugscope Team the string thing is some kind of fiber, perhaps a fungal hypha -- the stem of a fungus
• Student thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!
• Bugscope Team the bumps on the eye are the ommatidia, the individual units of the compound eye
• Bugscope Team the bumps are ommatidia
• Bugscope Team you can tell that they are thousands of ommatidia per eye
• Bugscope Team the string...i think is just dust/junk
• Student Thanks!
• Student thanks so much!!!
• Teacher Thank you, Scot, Joseph, and Cate for the very informative session!
• Bugscope Team yes bugs can get bugs, and those bugs can get bugs as well
• 2:18pm
• Bugscope Team mites are often about a 10th of a millimeter long
• Bugscope Team thanks!
• Bugscope Team it's been fun!
• Bugscope Team 100 micrometers, or 100 microns, or 0.1 millimeters
• Bugscope Team Thank you, Everyone!
• Student THANK YOU!
• Bugscope Team that was fun!
• Student bye!
• Bugscope Team bye!
• Bugscope Team see you next year!
• Bugscope Team Bye!
• Bugscope Team https://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2013-004
• Bugscope Team http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2013-004
• Bugscope Team without the s
• Bugscope Team that is your school's member page
• Bugscope Team bye!