Connected on 2010-03-01 10:00:00
from Sweetwater, TX, US
- 9:07 am
- Bugscope Teampumping down...
- 9:25 am
- 9:30 am
- 9:37 am
- 9:43 am
- 9:50 am
- Bugscope TeamSession is unlocked, ready to roll.
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamWhere are you from?
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope.
- GuestJust checking out Bugscope...from New Jersey
- Bugscope TeamCool! Our class is not on yet; they should be on in 10 minutes.
- Bugscope TeamLet us know if you have any questions.
- GuestGreat.
- Bugscope TeamThe school we are working with today is in Sweetwater, Texas. Where it is likely warmer than it is here or in NJ.
- GuestDefinitely!
- Bugscope Teambaseball spring training in NJ is nice though, i hear?
- Bugscope TeamO.o
- GuestSpring training in lots of mud...it's going to be a slushy spring.
- 9:55 am
- Bugscope TeamWe dropped the mag a bit so you could see where we are.
- 10:00 am
- Bugscope Team^.^ or >.
- Bugscope Teamwont let me do the semi colon
- Bugscope Team--.--
- Bugscope Teamyes there is also that -.-
- 10:06 am
- Bugscope Teamhello!!!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope
- Bugscope TeamGood Morning!
- Bugscope Teamlet us know if/when we can help you
- Bugscope Teamwe were looking at the coiled proboscis of this Monarch butterfly
- Bugscope Teamthis is the cricket head, and you can see it is holding one of its claws over its face
- Bugscope Teamcan you see chat ok?
- 10:12 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is the edge of the mandible, which is to the right
- Bugscope TeamPlease be sure to click on presets when you get to a place that is not so interesting.
- Bugscope Teamcool, i talked to carola a bit about how to drive, she is good to go!
- Bugscope Teamshe's got students now, and another class coming in a bit
- Bugscope TeamCool. Thanks, Alex
- Bugscope Teamso please carola, just let us know when you have any questions
- Bugscope Teamwe will try to chat with you about what you are looking at
- TeacherThey are wondering what is this
- Bugscope Teamthis is a caterpillat
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillar i mean
- Teacherwhat part
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the 'prolegs' of a caterpillar
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars have these prolegs instead of regular legs
- Teacherwhat is a proleg
- 10:17 am
- Bugscope Teamscott or cate should answer, they know better than me
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars are insects, so they have six legs, but they also have these extra legs that are called prolegs, and they have these cool little hooks on them called crochets
- Bugscope Teamnice job controlling the scope, you are doing great!
- Bugscope Teamremember, to click again to stop moving, nice
- Bugscope Teamnice
- Bugscope Teamsorry, pronouced... see-tee
- Bugscope Teamsetae are sensory, in that they help insects to sense their environment
- Teacherwhat are they trying to sense
Bugscope Teamthey can sense all kinds of things with setae, touch, taste, smell....
- Bugscope Teaminsects have a hard outer shell, called an exoskeleton. that exoskeleton can't feel anything. so those setae stick through the exoskeleton to nerves underneath, that's how they feel things
- Bugscope Teambut most setae are fine-tuned towards one sense
- Bugscope Teamhere is a beetle charging up with electrons
- Bugscope Teamthat's why is has bright areas
- Bugscope Teamlike chemosensory setae can sense chemicals, ie smells or tastes
- Bugscope Teamthey can sense hot and cold, and touch, and wind, and they can sense all different kinds of smells
- Bugscope Teamwhereas mechanosensory setae can sense movement
- Bugscope Teamwe mount most of the insects on their backs so we can see their faces, and their mouthparts, as now
- 10:22 am
- Teacherhow does this guy communicate
- Bugscope Teamthe sharp things that are folded over each other are the mandibles
- Bugscope Teamsometimes they make noises, called stridulating, when they rub their leg against their abdomen or thorax, and they often communicate by releasing chemicals into the air -- pheromones.
- Bugscope Teammost insects communicate with their antennae or by making noise, as is the case of the cricket
- Bugscope Teammost ants communicate with smells
- Bugscope Teamthey also move their limbs a certain way -- like a dance -- and they can see each others' colors, to tell if they are the right species
- Bugscope Teammany insects have the ability to release scents that are intended to deter ants -- ants will often attack anything
- Bugscope Teamthose were a couple of the palps, or pedipalps, that are mouthparts
- Bugscope Teamand now we see the compound eye of the butterfly that is in the 'scope today
- Bugscope Teamthese are called ommatidia -- the individual facets of the eye
- TeacherWhat are the clumps between the other parts
- 10:27 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are not sure! they look like fat little bacteria, sort of
- Bugscope Teamthey are quite small -- the size of bacillus bacteria
- TeacherHow many "eyes" are on 1 eye
Bugscope Teamon a moth or butterfly or wasp, for example, there may be 5000 ommatidia that make up one compound eye
- Bugscope Teamthey may be bacteria that have a film over them
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny dots we are not sure about -- they seem to indicate another level of complexity. Butterflies and moths can often see ultraviolet wavelengths of light that people do not see.
- Teacherwe are changing classes. We
- TeacherWe will be a moment
- Bugscope Teamno problem see you soon!
- Bugscope Teamsure
- Bugscope Teamwe'll be here
- 10:34 am
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the tibiae -- the middle portion of the leg -- of the cricket
- Bugscope Teamwe see things we don't always recognize
- TeacherI can't get any picture now
- Bugscope Teamhit refresh
- Bugscope Teamtry refreshing the browser window
- Bugscope TeamF5 is also refresh
- TeacherMuch Better. Thanks
- Bugscope Teamcool
- Bugscope Teamthis is so creepy-looking
- Bugscope Teamthe little hairs -- the setae -- help the caterpillar sense where it is placing its prolegs
- TeacherHow much does this microscope magnify
Bugscope Teamwe can take the magnification up over 600,000x, but there is not much to see. sometimes we take images at 200,000x. But that is infrequent.
- Bugscope Teamwhen we look at caterpillars like this it is sometimes important to realize that they have shrunken a bit since they died
- Bugscope Teamwhen looking at insects we don't usually go above 30,000x but we have gone up to 100,000x when looking at insects in the past. There just isn't that much interesting detail at that high
- 10:39 am
- Bugscope Teamall the images are black and white. that's because this is an electron microscope. it uses electrons to gather the image, not light
- Bugscope Teamwe are now about 2 to 3 times what you can see using a light microscope
- Bugscope Teamwith a regular light microscope, you see color because color is a property of the frequency of light. since we aren't using light in an electron microscope, no color
- Bugscope Teamyou are getting very good at driving!
- Bugscope Teamhowever, with an electron microscope, you can get WAY higher magnification than with a light scope. sometimes we can gett 600,00x mag on this scope
- Bugscope Teamwhen you focus it is either up or down -- it gets worse or it gets better
- Bugscope Teamnice job focusing!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a close-up of a compound eye
- Bugscope Teamthe micron bar in the lower left corner of the viewing screen also gives you an idea of the magnification you are working at.
- TeacherWhat is a micron
Bugscope Teama micron is one millionth of a meter, ie there are one million microns in a meter. it's really really small!
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes are really cool. they are made up of individual bumps called ommatidia, each one has a lens in it
- Bugscope Teamthe rod-shaped bacteria -- the bacilli -- are often about 2 microns long
- Bugscope Teama micron is also a micrometer, and it is one one-thousandth of a millimeter
- Bugscope Teamso right now we are looking at 3 microns, that's 3 millionths of a meter!
- Bugscope Teamheh, now one micron!!!
- Bugscope Teamthe little dot-like features of the eye are in the nanometer scale
- Bugscope Teami'm not sure what those dots are though. compound eyes sometimes have those dots. those are really small
- 10:44 am
- Bugscope Teamthere are one thousand nanometers in one mcron
- Teacherwow that's small
- Bugscope Teamthose dots are about 150 nanometers in diameter
- Bugscope Teamlooks like those dots are one hundred nanometers in size, or there abouts
- Bugscope Teamcool! this is the beetle
- Bugscope Teamit has very sharp mandibles
- Bugscope Teamhis head is kinda tilted to our right
- Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes on either side of the head, which is tilted?
- Bugscope Teamyeah with all those mouthparts. It looks as if there is an insect in its mouth
- Bugscope Teamthe antenna are sticking out to the right
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are like rabbit ears
- TeacherDo you know what kind of beatle this is?
- TeacherBeetle
- Bugscope TeamInsects often have tiny accessory feelers called palps, or pedipalps, that help them taste and manipulate their food
- Bugscope Teamwe don't know just what it is, and we will have to take it to the entomologists, none of whom are logged in today
- Bugscope Teamit looks like a bark beetle of some sort
- Bugscope Teamit resembles a lightning bug, but it is not one of those
- TeacherDo they have tongues
- Bugscope Teaminsect mouths are sideways compared to ours
- Bugscope Teamsometimes they have tongues -- the Monarch does
- Bugscope Teambut this beetle does not have a tongue
- 10:49 am
- Bugscope Teama bee tongue is called a 'glossa'
- Bugscope Teammouths are so complicated...
- Bugscope Teamyay! this is the caterpillar!
- Bugscope Teamsee the little bumps on the sides of the head? those are tiny eyes, called 'stemmata'
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its mandibles too --
- Bugscope Teamthe mandibles are forked
- Teachercan they really see
Bugscope Teamit is likely they do not see well at all -- just shapes and shadows
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillars are often able to produce silk -- like spiders -- but it comes from around the mouth, as in this caterpillar
- TeacherDo they sense smell
- 10:55 am
- Bugscope Teamwe think that some of the little knobby setae we see now are chemosensory -- like tastebuds. and that is how they smell/tatste their food
- Bugscope Teamwe are looking right at the forked mandible now
- Bugscope Teamthe mandibles open side to side, like a gate
- Teacherwhere exactly
Bugscope Teamsee the ball looking thing in the lower right, those setae on it, those are chemosensory setae, i think
- Bugscope Teaminsects don't have noses like we do, instead they smell with chemosensory setae
- Bugscope Teamthe mandible is folded over another mandible
- Bugscope Teamthis part, that looks like an upside-down heart, is called the clypeus
- Bugscope Teamit moves, as well, when the caterpillar chews
- Teacherand it does what
Bugscope Teamwell, madibles in general are there to help push food into the direction of the insects mouth, like if we had little hands on the sides of our mouths that could scoop food into it...
- Bugscope Teamwe think it helps hold and direct the food into the mouth
- Bugscope Teamsome of those little turrets may be spinnerets that produce silk, or web
- Bugscope Teambut our normal hands are good enough at doing that, so we don't need mandibles.... :)
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the Monarch butterfly head
- 11:00 am
- Bugscope Teamin the middle, coiled up because it is not being used, is the proboscis -- the 'tongue'
- Teacherwhat are the 2 holes above the tongue
- Bugscope Teamthe long thing sticking out of its face, that's the proboscis
- Bugscope Teamhmm, what are those holes? i don't know. maybe spiracles? but normally spiracles are on the abdomen
- TeacherWhat does the proboscis do
Bugscope Teamit's used for drinking liquids, like nectar
- Bugscope Teambutterflies live on a liquid diet
- Bugscope Teamthe butterfly pushes hemolymph into the inside cavities of the proboscis in order to get it to extend
- Bugscope Teamit is like blowing up one of those New Years' Eve party favors, and it rolls back up when the butterfly leaves the flower it is taking nectar from
- Bugscope Teamother animals on this planet have a proboscis as well. the largest proboscis in the world is the elephant trunk.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the edge of the proboscis, and in the background we see a lot of scales -- butterflies, moths, skippers, mosquitos, and silverfish are covered with scales
- 11:05 am
- Bugscope Teamsalt!
- Bugscope Teamthis is salt from wendys fast food chain
- Bugscope Teamsee how the salt forms cubic crystals?
- Bugscope Teamsugar does not form crystals this shape
- Bugscope Teamsalt from Wendy's is really neat-looking because it has those intricate shapes
- Bugscope Teamthis may be another chemical that is safely added to the salt to help keep it from clumping
- Bugscope Teamhere are some of the butterfly scales
- Bugscope Teamcarola, remember, all the chat and images from this session are being saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-001
- Bugscope Teamand you can see a pore where one of the scales is missing
- Teacherthe scales fit into the pores?
Bugscope Teamyes they do!
- Bugscope Teamwhen you rub a butterfly's wings and they feel slick, that is the scales
- Teacherwhat is the powder that comes off when you handle a butterfly?
Bugscope Teamthat powder is scales!
- Bugscope Teamthese are very small, and they make the wings feel velvety
- 11:10 am
- Bugscope Teamif you were a butterfly, and you flew into a spider's web, you might be able to slip out and leave scales stuck to the web
- Bugscope Teambut also, spiders do not like the taste of Monarchs, and they will cut them out of their webs
- Bugscope Teamthe shapes we see now are very small and regular, and they form what are called 'structural colors'
- Bugscope Teamthey taste bad because monarchs eat from milkweed plants and those plants are poisonous to a lot of insects/animals
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the cricket head
- Bugscope Teamthe mouth is to the south
- Bugscope Teamthe mouth is so complicated
- Bugscope Teamthat tube is one of the palps that the cricket uses to taste the air, and taste smells coming off of its food
- Bugscope Teamthe eye is the dome on the bottom, and you can see another one on the top
- 11:15 am
- Bugscope Teamin the top right corner is the left eye
- Bugscope Teamone of the claws!
- TeacherWe are going quickly. The class is about over.
- TeacherWhat is the opening under the claw
Bugscope Teamit's probably not really an opening, but where some softer cuticle deflated a little after the insect dried out
- Bugscope Teamall of these 'extra' images will be saved to your member page, and you can look at them later as well
- Bugscope Teamthat is where the 'unguitractor' is -- it is like a long tendon that opens and closes the claw
- Bugscope Teamyou can see some flattened fungal hyphae there
- Bugscope Teamwow good job focussing
- Bugscope Teamare you sure you haven't done this before? ;)
- TeacherThanks so much for everything. Class just ended. We are going to have to do this again sometime. Hopefully I will know how to do this better.
- Bugscope Teamyou are welcome to come back. Thank You!
- Bugscope Teamyou did well especially for your first time
- 11:20 am
- TeacherI guess I just log on and get to view these images again?
Bugscope Teamyes go to your member page and you can click to view the transcript from today and all the chat and the images viewed will be there
- Bugscope TeamYou can have your students log in if you have a computer lab that will let you do that. and the students can ask questions.
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-001/
- TeacherI just won't be able to manipulate the scope?
Bugscope Teamwhen you work with us again you will be able to drive, and we can also, with your permission, let students drive, one at a time
- Bugscope Teamlog onto the url below
- TeacherThanks so much for your time. The students loved it and were amazed at how close the scope got.
- Bugscope TeamCool. Thank You!
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year!
- Bugscope Teamover and out...
- TeacherThanks. 4th period said love ya'll!
