Connected on 2011-10-24 10:15:00
from Calhoun, Georgia, United States
- 9:13 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is coating right now; next step is to put it into the 'scope
- Bugscope Teamyo
- Bugscope TeamK putting sample into the 'scope in just a sec
- 9:20 am
- Bugscope Teamthere it is in the CCD view; now pumping down
- 9:27 am
- Bugscope Teamvacuum is almost there
- Bugscope Teamwe will start making presets in a minute
- 9:37 am
- 9:43 am
- 9:50 am
- 9:58 am
- 10:03 am
- 10:09 am
- 10:14 am
- 10:19 am
- 10:30 am
- 10:38 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready to roll!
- 10:44 am
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small colony of mites living on the 'shoulder' of a female earwig
- Teacherthanks for the call
Bugscope Teamyou bet!
- Bugscope Teamso you've already found that you can change the mag
- Bugscope Teamyou can also click on any of the presets on the screen to the left
- Bugscope Teamand the 'scope will drive you to that position
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the earwig's head, to the north
- Bugscope Teamyou can also click on the screen itself to center what you want to look at
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the eyes of a huge praying mantis
- Bugscope Teamthe mantis was about 4 inches long, huge for us
- Teacherthat is large
- Bugscope Teamso I put its head and one of its forearms on today's stub
- Teacherhow was the eye damaged?
Bugscope Teamsomeone mailed it to us in a flat package, no protection, so it got smashed
- Bugscope Teamto the right you can see the base of one antenna, and one of the three ocelli -- simple eyes -- on the top of the head
- 10:49 am
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know whenever you have questions or it you have any problems dirving
- Bugscope Teamduh like I have problems spelling 'driving'
- Teacherlol
- Bugscope Teamthe large lobes we see are the chelicerae, or chelicers, which hold the fangs
- Teacherlittle more than our school budget
- Bugscope Teamthe fangs are curved inward and masked to us with lots of setae
- Teacherwhat type of spider is this?
Bugscope Teamit's a small brown spider, a female
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its eyes, all eight of them
- Bugscope Teamspiders and almost all insects/arthropods we see often look surprisingly 'hairy' to us.
- Bugscope Teamthat's because they have an exoskeleton, and it's sort of like if you were wearing a coat of armor all of the time -- you wouldn't be able to feel things touching you
- Bugscope Teamthis is the face of a cockroach
- 10:55 am
- Teacherwhat type of roach is this?
Bugscope Teamum I think it's a German cockroach
- Teacherour class has a set of madagascar hissing cockroaches in the room
Bugscope Teamyeah if we put one of those in the 'scope there would be no room for anything else
- Bugscope Teamalso of course it would not be very happy in the vacuum
- Bugscope Teamcoated with gold-palladium to make it conductive
- Bugscope Teamroaches can survive for awhile in the vacuum. they just close their spiracles and thus kind of hold their breath
- Bugscope Teamso this is the face, smooth but a lot of junk on it. dirt, tiny bristles...
- Bugscope Teamroaches are actually not that interesting in the SEM because they are so streamlined -- they have no specialize features
- Bugscope Team'specialized' features
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see a piece of the wing of a dragonfly
- Bugscope Teamand to the top of where we are now is part of a large moth's wing
- Bugscope Teamthe scales on the moth's wing are similar to those of mosquitoes, butterflies, silverfish, and very few other insects
- 11:00 am
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see some super tiny salt crystals in the 'hand' of a housefly
- Bugscope Teamit is likely they are sodium chloride, since they make those cubic crystals
- Teacherwhy is the object moving?
Bugscope Teamwhen we hit something with high-energy electrons, which is what we do when we're imaging using the SEM, it can make the sample move, especially at high mag. this is 21,818x, not super high, but the sample is sensitive to the electron beam
- Teacherok
- Bugscope Teamthe samples are dry or we could not get the vacuum to pump down, and they are not conductive, so we have to coat them with a thin layer of gold-palladium
- Bugscope Teamtake the mag down a bit and you can see where you are
- Bugscope Teamif you'd like
- Bugscope Teaman electron microscope is like an old-style TV
- Teacherok
- Teacherclass change
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope TeamI can drive the 'scope from here, of course
- 11:05 am
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the fly's claws, and the pad called the 'pulvillus' that allows it to walk on vertical surfaces
- Teacherlunch time. can we resume at 12:26? I know I've only got the scope reserved until 1:15 EST
- Bugscope Teamsure! I can go get food as well and will be right back!
- Bugscope Teamalso, we can go longer if you'd like...
- Bugscope Teambrb
- Teachermy next class comes in at 12:26 and i'd like to have them see it. see u at 12:26 EST
- 11:13 am
- Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- Bugscope TeamMr B if you can work past 1:15 EST we can as well. We have the microscope until 2:30 your time.
- 11:20 am
- 11:27 am
- Teacherok. i need to give a quick test/review. i wasn't sure that it was possible to go a bit longer
- Bugscope Teamno problem we are all good
- Teachercan we go until 1:25 my time?
Bugscope Teamyes we can
- Teacherif so, i'll give the test quickly and then come back to u in a few minutes and we can have a good 30 minutes or so to use the scope
- Bugscope Teamtotally cool
- Bugscope TeamI will be fixing a couple of things here
- Teacherthanks for being so flexible in all of this
- Bugscope Teamno problem!
- 11:37 am
- 12:03 pm
- Teacherback
- Bugscope Teamwelcome back!
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the housefly's claws
- Bugscope Teamthe little pads like hairy carcher
- Bugscope Teamhairy catcher's mitts... are called the pulvillus
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny hairs we see, called 'setae,' are specialized to help the fly stick to surfaces when it walks
- Bugscope Teamthe individual setae are called 'tenent setae.'
- Bugscope Teamthis is a colony of mites on the thorax of an earwig, in a place in which the earwig cannot easily brush them
- Bugscope Teamaway
- TeacherDo the mites irritate the bug they are on?
Bugscope Teamwe don't know
- Bugscope Teamthere is what looks like a very good book on mites but it is $174
- Bugscope TeamI guess I could buy it for Bugscope
- Teacherno worries, just curious
- Bugscope Teamthese mites do not have eyes, and when their host dies they apparently 'go down with the ship'
- 12:08 pm
- Bugscope Teamwe are not sure whether they suck hemolymph through the cuticle of the earwig or possible eat scraps of food the earwig misses
- Bugscope Teamthis is a roach, of course
- Teacherinteresting
- Bugscope Teamits eyes are streamlined into its head
- Teacherwhere are the eyes of the roach?
- Bugscope Teamvery smooth
- Teachercan u pinpoint the eyes for us?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its antennae and also its palps
- Bugscope Teamthat is the left eye
- Bugscope Teamit's a compound eye, and the facets are smooth compared to the eye facets of a fly, for example
- Bugscope Teamthe eye facets are called 'ommatidia'
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of a dragonfly
- Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes here?
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the bases of the antennae
- 12:14 pm
- Bugscope Teamlike in the center of the image here
- Teacheranother one broke off in the mail?
Bugscope Teamyes they break so easily
- Bugscope Teamthis is a female housefly
- Bugscope Teamyou can tell with some flies because the males have the eyes super close together, like Mikhail Baryshnikov, and the females have their eyes far apart, like Uma Thurman.
- Bugscope Teamthese are the mouthparts, and we don't see them like we would in life -- they are kind of dried out
- Teacheri remember counting sex bristles on flies in genetics in college
Bugscope Teamha Yeah you could've just looked at the eyes.
- Bugscope Teamactually it only works with some flies
- Teacherfruit flies?
Bugscope TeamI don't think it works with fruit flies.
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool
- Bugscope Teamthe viens on the wings have little spines on them
- Bugscope Teamveins, sorry
- Teacherfunction of the spines?
- 12:20 pm
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure, but I think one function is to keep them from sticking too tightly to flat surfaces when they are wet
- Bugscope Teamyou might also be dissuaded from eating a wing if it had spines on it
- Bugscope Teamso it might protect all dragonflies to have spines on their wings
- Bugscope Teamof course they are super small
- Bugscope Teamhere we see where the spider's fangs are curved into the bases of the chelicerae
- Bugscope Teamthey can spread those chelicers to bite you
- Bugscope Teamfemale spiders can be much larger than males
- Bugscope Teambut also, males usually have larger palps -- those things that look like legs on either side of the chelicerae
- Bugscope Teamthis is a female -- the palps are small at the ends, whereas with a male they may look more like boxing gloves, swollen at the ends.
- Bugscope Teamspiders have lots of mechanosensory setae, and they are often shaped like tiny long pine trees
- 12:25 pm
- Bugscope Teamsome spiders also have what are called 'urticating hairs,' which they release if you come too close. they irritate your eyes and nasal passages.
- Teacherthanks so much
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Teachermy class greatly appreciated your time
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year?
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2011-079
- Teacherthought we might send something in next time
- Bugscope Teambelow is your member page
- Teachermost def. any possibility of working it again in the spring?
Bugscope Teamplease apply again right away -- we have been getting a lot of applications, into the Spring for sure
- Bugscope TeamKendra can find you a good time when you apply.
- Teacherthanks again. i'll be in contact
- Bugscope TeamThank You! See You!
