Connected on 2009-10-08 09:00:00 from , LA, US
- 9:05am
- Bugscope Team ok, we cleared chat for the school.. we are ready anytime
- 9:13am
- Bugscope Team hey there. Welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope Team Good morning!
- Bugscope Team +
- Bugscope Team hello!
- Bugscope Team welcome
- Bugscope Team You have control of the 'scope. Good to go!
- Bugscope Team earlier we had some visitors, and we cleared chat from that...
- Teacher Hi. sorry we are late. I have first graders today!
- Bugscope Team no problemo
- Teacher what are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team this is a claw, on a beetle
- Bugscope Team most insects have claws of some kind
- Guest what is that!
- Bugscope Team it's a beetle claw
- Bugscope Team the claws are used to grab onto things like their food
- Bugscope Team Look at all of the sticky pads further up the 'arm'!
- Guest what is the hair used for?
Bugscope Team Since insects wear their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, like a coat of armor, they need those hairs to help them sense the environment. The hairs stick out of the "armour" , but connect to their nervous system.
- Bugscope Team I was going to say that this beetle could not climb walls, but apparently it could.
- Guest How do they use it!!!
Bugscope Team well, they use it a lot like a hand, except they don't have individual fingers so it's not as detailed control. but the claw works for shoving food towards their mouths, or defending themselves against other insects
- Guest what are we looking at
- Bugscope Team this is one of six claws, on one of this beetle's six legs
- Bugscope Team this is a claw of a beetle, sonic. and can i get a cheeseburger with fries please?
- 9:18am
- Guest how long do they live
Bugscope Team Most insects live about a year, from the time that they are an egg to the time they die as adults. There are lots of variations though, for example, fruit flies will have a generation every few weeks.
- Bugscope Team the claws pinch together to grasp things. there is a tendon inside the 'forearm' that pulls down to close the claws together
- Guest how long do beetle live for
Bugscope Team as Annie says, most insects live about a year. In warmer climates they may live longer.
- Bugscope Team some Mayflies live only a few hours once they become adults.
- Bugscope Team be sure to go to another place on the sample!
- Bugscope Team now we see those cool pads on the tarsi!
- Bugscope Team better
- 9:23am
- Bugscope Team and remember you have many other presets to choose from, on the right of the chat box
- Bugscope Team we just saw the mosquito
- Bugscope Team there she is!
- Guest Is it a bug or a isect?
Bugscope Team A mosquito is an insect. All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs.
- Bugscope Team her proboscis is pointing up toward us
- Bugscope Team blue would you like control of the 'scope?
- Teacher somehow I logged out and had to relog in sorry
- Bugscope Team no problem
- Guest what is that ?
- Bugscope Team no problem blue, we just transfered control to you.... hey that rhymed!!
- Bugscope Team that is a mosquito! it's a female, and those are the ones that suck your blood. the males don't bite.
- Teacher It is not letting me change the pictures
Bugscope Team hmm, try hitting refresh (f5) and try again
- Bugscope Team I just made that change to see if it would work for me.
- Bugscope Team this is the compound eye of the mosquito
- Bugscope Team ok, that's you zooming out, right blue, so it's working again... yay!
- Guest is it a bug or a insect
Bugscope Team This is an insect. This is a type of fly.
- Guest what are the bumpy things?
Bugscope Team Those are the individual facets of the mosquitos compound eye.
- Bugscope Team it is a little desiccated - a little dried out since the mosquito died
- Bugscope Team mosquitos are insects but not 'true bugs'
- 9:29am
- Bugscope Team each one of those bumps has an eye lens in it
- Bugscope Team the facets of the eye are also called 'ommatidia.'
- Guest what are those bumpy things?
Bugscope Team they are the individual facets of the compound eye, called ommatidia. each one has a lens in it
- Guest why do they need s many lens?
Bugscope Team if you had a compound eye like that you would have better peripheral vision -- you would be able to see more without moving your head
- Bugscope Team when the mosquito was alive the ommatidia were very round; now they are a little deflated
- Bugscope Team flying insects have very good eyesight, due to the thousands of facets in the compound eye
- Bugscope Team see how the compound eye wraps around the entire head? that's how this mosquito has such good vision, it can see your hand from anywhere before you try to swat it!
- Teacher We lots of mosquitos in Louisiana. How many different types are there?
Bugscope Team there are about 3500 different species of mosquito in the world
- Bugscope Team also, if you had compound eyes, you would have a better ability to see motion. that is, you would get faster updates about the world around you, and you would be able to respond more quickly
- Bugscope Team but if you had compound eyes your friends might make fun of you
- Bugscope Team you would have to tell them that it was the coolest new thing
- Guest what is that thing coming out of that thing?????
Bugscope Team there is its mouthpart called a proboscis coming out of its mouth area (lower part of the head), and above that out of the circle is one of its antenna
- Guest how fast do they fly
Bugscope Team Mosquitos fly between 1 and 1.5 miles per hour.
- Bugscope Team the little round things in the middle of the head, like little donuts, are the bases of the antennae
- 9:34am
- Guest Whare is it?
Bugscope Team where is the antenna? or the proboscis?
- Teacher why do they like water so much?
Bugscope Team part of the mosquito's lifecycle is spent in the water. the females lay their eggs in water, and that is where the larvae grow
- Guest do they have a nest
Bugscope Team Mosquitoes don't form a nest really, some lay their eggs in a type of raft that floats on the water, others lay their eggs in or on grass or other plants.
- Guest Whare is the boty at???????????
Bugscope Team the body is below, to the south. your teacher can drive down there
- Bugscope Team the reason female mosquitoes want so badly to bite is because they need that blood to be able to successfully lay their eggs in the water
- Bugscope Team ah this is a dragonfly!
- Bugscope Team the dragonfly is a predator. it eats other insects
- 9:39am
- Guest cool
- Bugscope Team you can see its jaws, crossed in the middle of the head there. they are small and pointed
- Teacher How long do they live?
Bugscope Team Like most insects, about a year.
- Guest where is its mouth
Bugscope Team The mouth in in the middle of the screen...the large square part is the bottom of the mouth
- Guest Is thare bumpy things on the eyes?
Bugscope Team yes! see the facets of the eyes? there are thousands of them!
- Bugscope Team see the pointed jaws?
- Guest what does it eat
Bugscope Team Dragonflies eat other animals. As adults they eat other flying insects. As immature forms, they live under the water where they eat other insects, tadpoles, fish, slugs...anything that is smaller than them.
- Bugscope Team one of the presets is a high magnification of the tip of the jaw, and we can see brochosomes on it that come only from leafhoppers, so we can say it is likely that the dragonfly ate a leafhopper.
- Guest yes i see it
- Bugscope Team there are two jaws like that, and one is folded over the other. insect mouths open from side to side, not like ours
- Bugscope Team you can see one of the dragonfly's tiny little claws to the very lower left
- 9:44am
- Bugscope Team dragonflies and praying mantises remind me of Tyrannosaurus rex because their forelimbs are so small.
- Guest So why is thare 1000s of eyes?
Bugscope Team flying insects often do have thousands of facets in their compound eyes, and it is because vision is very important to them
- Bugscope Team Dragonflies have a mouth that they extend like an arm. The bottom lip has spikes that the dragonfly uses to spear its prey.
- Teacher can we see the grasshopper head? I can't pick it..
Bugscope Team Oops I can't either...
- Bugscope Team there we are!
- Teacher thanks!
- Bugscope Team I came over to the microscope and drove there using the microscope controls
- Bugscope Team near the mouth of the grasshopper we can see little 'limbs' called palps that it uses to help feed itself
- 9:50am
- Bugscope Team that is one of the palps
- Guest do they have one antenna
Bugscope Team They have two antennae.
- Guest do they have one anntenna
- Bugscope Team and now we can see one of the forlegs as well
- Guest do they have one anntenna
- Guest Does it have two antennas?
Bugscope Team Yes, all insects have two antennae.
- Bugscope Team The antennae on this specimen may be broken
- Teacher Yikes
- Bugscope Team You can see the antenna by the eye.
- Bugscope Team we can see that one of the antennae is broken, as Annie says.
- Bugscope Team when insects die, they dry out so their limbs and antennae can pop off really easily
- Bugscope Team the grasshopper has a compound eye but it is not as large, and its facets -- the ommatidia -- are very smooth
- Bugscope Team hey cool!
- Bugscope Team Yikes!
- Bugscope Team we think this is an aphid, but it is hard to tell
- Bugscope Team Is the one of mine?
Bugscope Team yes I think it is from your collection
- Bugscope Team it seems to have antlers!
- Guest what is a aphid
- Guest what is a aphid
- Bugscope Team Hmmmm.....
- Bugscope Team Is it black and white?
- Guest what is an aphid?
Bugscope Team An aphid is a small insect, usually with a soft body, that suck juices from plants. They can transmit plant diseases
- 9:55am
- Guest what is coming out of its head?
Bugscope Team Those are the antennae
- Bugscope Team it does not have cornicles, as far as I could tell
- Bugscope Team See, there are two antennae.
- Bugscope Team and you can see its proboscis
- Guest the one in the middle also?
- Guest What is that hole???
Bugscope Team that is where it had been pinned when it was in Annie's collection
- Bugscope Team the one in the middle is its proboscis, what it feeds with
- Bugscope Team THis is a type of water bug...a mesovelid. They are very small and black and they skit about on the surface of ponds.
- Bugscope Team The front legs are short and they are used to catch prey. You can see the sharp spikes on the front legs.
- Bugscope Team I thought this was an aphid, but it is a water bug, as Annie says
- Guest how big is it?
Bugscope Team It is very small...a couple of millimeters.
- Bugscope Team if you look at the lower left corner of the viewing screen you can see a scalebar
- Teacher what does it eat?
Bugscope Team It eats smaller insects and other arthropods...anything smaller than it.
- Bugscope Team the thing that looks like an upside down h is a Greek letter 'mu'
- Guest does it have 8 legs
Bugscope Team Nope, it has 6 legs. All insects have six legs, while spiders and arachnids have 8.
- Teacher cool
- Bugscope Team 824 um is 0.824 millimeters
- Guest cool
- Teacher thanks for sharing with us!
- 10:00am
- Bugscope Team Thank You!
- Bugscope Team This was fun for us!
- Guest thanks
- Bugscope Team Thank you for excellent questions.
- Guest thanks
- Bugscope Team thanks for hanging out with us!
- Bugscope Team here is your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-024/
- 10:15am
