Connected on 2011-03-05 14:00:00
from Champaign, Illinois, United States
- 12:48 pm
- Bugscope Teamsample is pumping down...
- Bugscope Teamit is 12:48...
- Bugscope Team1.6 x 10-4
- Bugscope Team1.5...
- 12:54 pm
- Bugscope Teamalmost there...
- Bugscope Teamokay now setting up
- 1:03 pm
- 1:09 pm
- 1:16 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow we're making the presets for today's session
- Teacherhi scott
- Bugscope TeamHi Orpheum!
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Teacherthanks! i'm going to hand over the controls to patrick and amanda who will be helping out the kids today.
- Bugscope TeamSEM = Scot = sj = Scott
- Teacherpatrick has a background in physics and amanda design - both of which will be helpful for the kids
- Teacherso what are we looking at now?
- Bugscope Teamsweet
- Bugscope Teamthis is a potato beetle with a wound in its thorax
- Bugscope TeamI am not done making the presets.
- 1:22 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the traditional symbol of martyrdom on this fruit fly's eye -- a palm frond
- Bugscope Teamif you can give me another 20 minutes or so, I'll have a lot more cool places for you to check out
- Teachercan we move around while you are making the presets?
Bugscope Teamno because I have to move around myself
Bugscope Teamyeah
- Teachersounds good
- Bugscope Teamha I am sorry I giving away the secrets before you have a chance to discover them yourself
- Bugscope Teambut there will be more places you can go that I have not been to
- 1:27 pm
- 1:34 pm
- Bugscope Teamlooking for diatoms
- 1:41 pm
- 1:48 pm
- 1:53 pm
- Bugscope TeamOrpheum we are ready to roll!
- Bugscope TeamSorry it took so long but there are a lot of critters to look at!
- Bugscope Teamyou may drive whenever you'd like
- Bugscope Teambee right back...
- 1:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a stinkbug, and you can see where one of its antennae broke off, on the right
- Bugscope Teamand there is a thrips
- Bugscope Teamjust above where we are now
- Bugscope Teamthis is the proboscis
- Bugscope Teamthis is part of the suction apparatus that lets it suck plant juices into its proboscis
- Bugscope Teamit looks like a vacuum cleaner hose, in a way, except it sucks up fluids like sap
- Bugscope Teamto the north is a flying insect called a thrips that crashlanded on the stinkbug
- Teacheris there a bee?
Bugscope Teamnot today, I'm sorry
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a male mosquito
- Bugscope TeamThe dots are the individual facets of the two compound eyes
- 2:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamonly the female mosquitoes bite, or suck blood
- Bugscope TeamEach facet forms a very simple image, then the brain merges all of those together into a coherent field of vision
- Bugscope Teamyou can tell a male because they have ornate antennae, whereas those of females are plain
- Bugscope Teamornate = fancy
- Bugscope Teamthe mosquito is lying on its back; we are looking at the ventral side of the body
- Bugscope Teamyou can see one of the legs sticking up in the foreground
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving a $600,000 scanning electron microscope
- Bugscope Teamthis is a large beetle
- Bugscope Teamit is interesting that it has those flat frond-like pads on its leg
- Bugscope TeamYes, that's sort of unusual looking
- Bugscope Teamwe think that they fulfill the function of the sticky pads on other climbing insects' legs
- Bugscope Teamthey help the beetle cling to surfaces
- Bugscope Teamthe things they most resemble are wasp or bee tongues, but spread out a bit
- Bugscope TeamOften times beetles will have a pad of dense hairs, called a pulvillus, at their equivalent of a "wrist". It usually has a sticky substance on the hairs so they can use it to adhere to walls, ceilings, etc.
- 2:09 pm
- Bugscope Teama ladybug, for example, may have two or three pulvilluses along its legs. and of course being an insect it has six legs
- Bugscope TeamThe black circle is an empty hole in the center of a broken-off antenna
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eyes to the left and right of the face of the stinkbug
- Bugscope TeamYou can see the eyes on the sides of the head; the large round balls with lots of dots
- Bugscope TeamEach of those little structures is about the size of a single bacterium
- Bugscope Teamthis is a very dense mat of chemoreceptors in the butterfly antenna; this is only a small area of one segment
- Bugscope Teamcaterpillar!
- Bugscope Teamthey're not so pretty until they become butterflies
- Bugscope Teamthe facets of the compound eyes, called 'ommatidia,' are flatter than those of the mosquito
Bugscope TeamThe number, size, and shape of the facets are very interesting to compare across different types of insects. You can get a strong sense of how important vision is to them just by the morphology of the eyes
- Bugscope Teamsee the tiny eyes?
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes of a caterpillar are called 'stemmata.'
- Bugscope Teamyou can see all six of its regular legs, but toward the left, toward the back of the body, there are more legs, called 'prolegs.'
- 2:15 pm
- Bugscope Teamhey cool you can see the mouth - the mandibles and the palps
- Bugscope Teamas well as a couple of eyes -- the stemmata
- Bugscope Teampalps are like little hands that help manipulate food. They do a lot of what we use our tongue for: shifting around food in our mouth
- Bugscope Teamthe background is sticky carbon tape the insects are mounted on
- Bugscope Teamthe palps also have little chemosensors on them, like tastebuds
- Bugscope TeamWe use carbon tape because it is conductive. The sample is being blasted with electrons, so basically it's like it's hooked up to an electrical source. If the tape didn't allow the charge to conduct to ground, it would build up and ruin our image. In some cases it can even discharge like lightening inside the microscope
- Bugscope Teambe sure and let us know when you have questions for us
- Bugscope TeamFor that reason, the sample is also coated with a nearly invisibly thin coating of metal to make it conductive too
- Bugscope TeamNeat!
- Bugscope Teamyou can use the click to center function by clicking your mouse on the screen, and the image will center at that point
- 2:20 pm
- Bugscope Teamthere are a number of these, kind of like sponges or sea squirts, that grow on the exoskeleton of the caddisfly larva, which lives in streams
- Bugscope Teamcaddisfly larvae only live in clean streams, so they are a good sign that a stream is not polluted, when you find them
- Bugscope Teamthey are sometimes used as bait, and fishermen make lures that look like them
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a butterfly
- Teacheris that the butterfly tongue?
- Bugscope TeamThe diagonal stripe is the coiled up "tongue" viewed side-on
- Bugscope Teamyes it is!
- Teachercool!
- Bugscope Teamthe tongue -- the proboscis -- is usually coiled when it is not being used
- Bugscope Teamit is difficult to image butterflies and moths in an SEM because they are resistant to the coating we do to make them conductive
- 2:25 pm
- Bugscope TeamThat's why the image is very contrasty, it's one of the effects when the electrical charge can't conduct to ground
- Bugscope Teamsometimes as many as 20 nanometers
- Bugscope Teamwe coat our samples for Bugscope with gold-palladium alloy
Bugscope TeamThe choice of gold-palladium is simply because it's a combination that produces a very fine coating. Some metals would clump up and be more visible, ruining imaging of fine-features
- Bugscope Teaminsects like butterflies, moths, mosquitoes, silverfish, and very few weevils and beetles have scales on their wings and exoskeleton that have several purposes; one of those is to help them get away from spider webs
- Bugscope Teamif a moth flies into a spider web it may be able to slip away by leaving its scales stuck to the web but getting out safely, otherwise
- Bugscope Teamwhen you rub a moth's or butterfly's wings, the fine powder you feel is the scales
- Bugscope TeamSimilar idea to using flour to keep dough from sticking to the counter
Bugscope TeamBut in reverse I guess
Bugscope Teamyeah they came up with the idea first
- Bugscope Teamif you wanted to see the rest of the beetle you could drive up the arm there
- 2:30 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe claws open and close when a tendon called an 'unguitractor' is pulled or relaxed
- Bugscope Teamnow we're looking right at the tongue
- Bugscope Teamthis might have moved -- just a sec...
- Teacherwhat is this?
- Bugscope TeamThose column-like structures are hairs with striations along their length.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a diatom on a caddisfly larva
- Bugscope TeamScott is getting us moved back to the diatom stuck to one of those hairs, or "setae"
- Bugscope Teamyou can see a couple of bacteria lounging on it
- Bugscope TeamA diatom is a unicellular organism that lives in water and constructs a shell around itself out of silica. They are renown for having beautifully intricate and artistic patterns
- Bugscope Teamthey come in different shapes, but we often see these, which look like canoes, sort of
- Bugscope Teamd'oh 'diatoms'
- Bugscope TeamThere are also round ones, and ones that look like fans
- 2:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamcaddisfly larvae have lots of fine setae to which all of this stuff sticks and helps disguise them
- Bugscope TeamYou can see the image shifting slightly every time it updates. This is the sample "drifting" as the energy of the beam causes it to flex, or perhaps as it dries out in the vacuum
- Bugscope Teamfor Bugscope this is kind of high mag, when we can see bacteria
- Bugscope TeamYes, we're at 21 thousand times magnified, or about 21 times better than a good light microscope can achieve
- Bugscope Teamsee how we're at the front of the body, which extends back to the left?
- Bugscope Teamthe prolegs are back further to the left
- 2:41 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe tongue!
- Bugscope Teamso usually this is neatly coiled, and when the butterfly wants to extend it, she pushes hemolymph into it to make it pop out like a New Years' party favor
- Bugscope TeamOrpheum can we try to find the stink glands for you?
- Bugscope TeamI forgot to do that earlier
- 2:46 pm
- Bugscope Teamthey are usually between the 2nd and 3rd legs on the ventral side of the body
- Bugscope Teamyou could do it by moving to the south
- Teacheryes
- Bugscope TeamCool Ok just a sec!
- Bugscope Teamisn't it cool looking?
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the stinkbug lets its bad smell out
- Bugscope Teamstinkbugs do not like their own smell either
- Bugscope Teamboy mosquito head
- 2:51 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the proboscis, which is covered with scale
- Bugscope Teamscales...
- Bugscope Teamlook at the scales!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the same as the proboscis of a female, but she has piercing/cutting mouthparts inside this tube
- Bugscope Teamif we go to the first preset we made we can see a more detailed scale
- Bugscope Teammany caterpillars produce silk from glands near the mouth
- 2:56 pm
- Bugscope Teamso sometimes the things that look like palps are actually comparable to spinnerets
- Bugscope TeamI can fix this for you -- the mag is so high it gets messed up as the sample dries in the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamthis is what paper looks like up close
- Bugscope Teamcellulose fibers
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tab that a tiny Cephalotes ant is attached to
- Bugscope Teamtiny paper tab, tiny ant
- Bugscope TeamCephalotes ants have funny flat heads that they use to block the entrance to their nest
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the leg on the left is broken
- Bugscope Teamcool
- 3:02 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is a parasitic wasp
- Bugscope Teaminsects often have jaws that open from side to side like a gate
- Bugscope Teamyou can see here that one of the wasp's jaws is open, there to the left
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its antennae, and its compound eye, and its ocelli -- the three simple eyes on the back of the head
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see the neat patterning on its thorax
- Bugscope Teaminsects have a head, thorax, and abdomen, as well as six legs
- Bugscope Teamthe wasp has lots of tiny setae on its head -- super tiny hairs
- Bugscope Teamjust below the back of the antenna are the ocelli
- Bugscope Teamor the base of the antennae...
- 3:08 pm
- Teacherdo parasitic wasps have a stinger to inject the eggs? is it similar to the colonial wasp counterpart?
- Bugscope Teamthis is the outside of two halves of the ovipositor
- Bugscope Teamwhich is the stinger
- Teachercool!
- Bugscope Teamthe inner component is curved around so we cannot see it under the tip of the abdomen
- Bugscope Teampiercing is not such a good idea if you are an insect
- Teacherwhat made that hole?
Bugscope Teamthis was once a pinned specimen from someone's collection
- 3:15 pm
- Teacherwhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is a wing scale from another insect on this potato beetle's body
- Teachercool
- Bugscope Teamit looks like a fern frond, or a palm frond
- Bugscope Teamthis is very small beetle -- a potato beetle
- Teacherwhat is that?
- Teacheris it holding something?
- Bugscope Teamthat is an ant called Cephalotes
- Bugscope Teamit is holding onto the paper tab
- Bugscope Teamsometimes ants have stingers
- Bugscope Teamalmost all of the ants we see are females
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen of an ant is called a 'gaster.'
- 3:20 pm
- Bugscope Teamthere are two of its tarsi, and claws
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of one of the Cephalotes ants
- Bugscope Teamit has places for its antennae to tuck into
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its antennae, its mouth, and its compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamoh and its mandibles!
- Teacherdo they have teeth?
- Bugscope Teamno insects have teeth, but sometimes the mandibles are hardened, with zinc or calcium, for example
- 3:26 pm
- Bugscope Teamcompound eye here...
- Teacherwhat is that?
- Bugscope Teamand this is one of the claws of the 2nd Cephalotes ant
- Teacherwhat is in the middle?
- Teacherin between the pincers
- Bugscope Teamthe thing in between the claws is what it uses to stick to vertical surfaces
- Teacheris it a suction pump?
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure whether it can produce suction - but some insects have an arolium that they can inflate and deflate to help them get into cracks
- Teacherwhich insect is the best climber?
Bugscope Teamflies are very good; they may be the best
- Bugscope Teamthis seems to be a combination between an arolium and a pulvillus, which Chas had described earlier
- 3:31 pm
- Bugscope Teamparasitic wasp
- Bugscope Teamwe had a guy who studies these here a couple of weeks ago
- Bugscope Teamhe said that there is a parasitic wasp for every other kind of insect, and also for every larva -- like caterpillars
- Bugscope Teamone of the guys gave us a wasp that parasitizes roachs
- Bugscope Teamoops roaches -- its specialty!
- Bugscope Teamthese wasps are quite small
- Bugscope Teamand they would not be interested in depositing their eggs in you
- Bugscope TeamIs that a row of little holes on the side of the thorax there?
Bugscope Teamit is not holes but a kind of stitch-like ornamentation
- Bugscope Teamit's how entomologists, and more usefully -- other wasps -- identify species
- Bugscope Teamthe ovipositor is dry and split into different components
- 3:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamovipositors and stingers are the same thing, and it also emphasizes the fact that most of these are females
- Bugscope Teammales in many of these species don't do much besides breeding
- Bugscope Teamthe thing that looks like a 'beak' here is one of the mandibles, bent outwards
- Bugscope Teamyou can see someone's scales on the ridge of the wing
- Bugscope Teambees and wasps have four wings, but when they fly they attach the two forewings to the two hindwings and use them as two wings
- Bugscope Teamso flies -- Diptera -- have two wings and two halteres
- Bugscope Teambut wasps and bees and flying ants (the male ants) have four wings
- Bugscope Teamwasps, bees, and ants are Hymenoptera
- 3:42 pm
- Bugscope Team cellulose!
- Bugscope Teamisn't paper yucky up close?
- Bugscope Teamreally it is just plant fibers
- Teacherwhat kind of paper is this?
- Bugscope Teamit is a coarse paper tab that entomolgists use to attach tiny insects to pins
- Bugscope Teamit's for when the insect is so small it cannot be pinned
- Bugscope TeamDon King
- Bugscope Teamwow
- Bugscope Teamthe proboscis is like a straw
- Bugscope Teamgood job driving!
- 3:47 pm
- Teacherthanks
- Teacherdo you need to go soon?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see a few tiny strands of fungus
- Bugscope TeamI can stick around for a little while longer if you have people who are enjoying this
- Bugscope Teamor if you are enjoying it
- Bugscope Teamdid you get a good crowd at Orpheum?
- Teacheryes
- Bugscope Team Chas is at his apartment, and I am in the basement of Beckman
- Teacherthere are a lot of people here
- Teacheralthough no on else looking at the electron miucroscope now
- Bugscope TeamFriday and Saturday is Open House here, so people can come visit this microscope in person
- Bugscope Teamwe can shut down if it's a good time for you to do so
- Teacher2 more minutes
- Bugscope Teamha no problem
- Bugscope Teamthese are covered with dirt, sorry
- 3:52 pm
- Teachercan you focus for us?
- Bugscope Teamwhen we run bugscope we work at a long distance from the sample, so we do not get the best resolution
- Bugscope Teamsure!
- Teacherok
- Teacherawesome
- Bugscope Teamnot that many insects have these super fine nano features on their eyes
- Bugscope Teamthose dots are maybe 150 nm in diameter
- Bugscope Teamthis is a single ommatidium
- Bugscope Teamcan you hold on a sec, and I will push the resolution?
- Bugscope Teamit's one of the facets of the compound eye
- Teacherok
- 3:58 pm
- Bugscope TeamI moved us a little closer to the pole piece
- Bugscope Teamso you get better resolution
- Bugscope TeamI also had us on the CCD view of the chamber for a sec
- Teachercool
- Teacherwe saw that
- Teacherjoe was explaining it to us
- Bugscope TeamI would like to try one more thing...
- Teacherok go ahead
- Bugscope Teamthat didn't work -- I could not find what I was looking for
- Bugscope Teambut let's go to the diatom
- Teacherthats ok
- Teacherif you want to shut down now
- Teacherthat would be fine by us
- 4:03 pm
- Teacherthank you!
- Bugscope Teamhey Thank You!
- Teacherhey scott, chris here. we've really enjoyed it.
- Teacherlotta kids. lotta ooouwww's and ahhh's
- Bugscope Teamgood deal, Chris
- Teacheroh, how cool!
- Bugscope Teamyou did a good job driving
- Teacherthanks! that was all patrick and amanda. they were great with the kids!
- Bugscope Teamokay the caddisfly larva says Bye!
- Teacherso where do these larva live? are they like maggots?
- Bugscope Teamsee you!
- Bugscope Teamoh in the water, so they are like water maggots
- Teacherbye caddisfly larva!
- Teacheri see
- Bugscope Teamthey live in streams and are an indicator of water quality
- Bugscope Teamthey don't live in polluted water
- Bugscope Teamha See You!
- Teachercool. interesting. well thanks again. talk to you soon.
