Connected on 2009-11-23 15:30:00 from Hayward, CA, US
- 2:50pm
- Bugscope Team No Alex? Hope he is not sick.
- 2:56pm
- 3:02pm
- 3:09pm
- 3:18pm
- Bugscope Team presets done, session unlocked, we are ready
- 3:30pm
- Bugscope Team hello CSU EB!
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugsscope
- Teacher Hello there! We will be starting very soon! I have to introduce the session to the students here!
- Bugscope Team okay, we are ready anytime
- 3:45pm
- Teacher What are we looking at here?
Bugscope Team We are looking at a spider that you sent us. The underside of the head and its palps
- Bugscope Team This is a spider
- Teacher Thanks! What are palps?
Bugscope Team They are mainly used to help manipulate food or taste food
- Bugscope Team Palps also play a role in mating in spiders
- Bugscope Team That is why males generally have long palps and females have short palps
- Teacher Are palps legs? Or what?.....
Bugscope Team They are parts of the mouth, actually, but they look like legs
- 3:50pm
- Bugscope Team they are like mini legs by the head on a spider
- Teacher I see....
- Teacher How are these palps used for mating?
Bugscope Team The males actually use the palps to transfer sperm to the females
- Teacher Could you focus on the mouth parts for us? Drive please :)
- Bugscope Team Alex takes the wheel!
- Bugscope Team You can see the fangs here
- Bugscope Team those are the fangs
- Teacher Cool! Great driving! What are the fibers?
Bugscope Team This looks like fungal hyphae...but I could be wrong
- Bugscope Team looks like alien hive structures...
- 3:56pm
- Bugscope Team They are sucking out all the vital fluids!!!
- Bugscope Team although this is real, and aliens hive structures are from a movie :)
- Bugscope Team moving to the fly head
- Teacher Thanks - we will naviagte from here!
- Bugscope Team I think Annie is right about the fungus. There were some fungus in other parts of the insetcs
- Bugscope Team ok, let us know if you want me to drive again
- Teacher Hi I am Anthony I will be taken over for now : )
- Bugscope Team hi anthony
- Bugscope Team So insect and spiders and everything have fungal spores all over their bodies. The spores are in the air and all around. When a fungal spore lands on a dead thing, it can germinate without the dead thing cleaning it off or the immune system killing the growing fungus. But, when the thing is dead, the fungus germinates and establishes, and starts breaking down the body of the dead thing...in this case, the spider
- Bugscope Team Hey Anthony
- Teacher What are the spores used for?
Bugscope Team The spores of the fungus are kind of like fungus "seeds."
- Teacher Sorry we just read it
- Bugscope Team Moth head
- Teacher What part of the head are we looking at?
- Bugscope Team I couldn't fit the entire cricket, so I chose the leg because it looked pretty intact
- Teacher Are those the eyes?
Bugscope Team yup, the eyes are on either side and the mouth is in the middle
- Bugscope Team moths have a large proboscis, that's the curld up thing between the eyes
- 4:01pm
- Bugscope Team those are compound eyes, most flying insects have compound eyes, which are made up of thousands of individual facets, called ommatidia, each one with a lens in it
- Teacher Why is the nose so big on the moth?
Bugscope Team Well, it is not really the nose since moths smell with their antennae. It is the mouth only, and it is long so that the moth can extend it into the base of flowers to suck the nectar.
- Bugscope Team the part in the middle is a proboscis, which laps up liquids. It is the moth's mouth part
- Bugscope Team well, that's the proboscis, not really a nose
- Teacher more like a tongue?
- Bugscope Team a proboscis is a protrusion from the face, even animals have proboscis's, the largest in the world is the elephant trunk
- Bugscope Team Moths smell with their antennae and breath through spiracles all over their bodies---they have nostrils on each segment of their bodies!
- Bugscope Team it extends out like a new years noise maker
- Bugscope Team breathe
- Bugscope Team it's a little like a tongue i suppose, but it's called a proboscis
- Bugscope Team spelling challenges today
- Teacher So it has a little opening at the end? Is take in their food?
Bugscope Team It has two openings, I think...it is like one of those little brown coffee straws
- Bugscope Team yep
- Teacher pretty cool alex
- Teacher actually really cool!
- Bugscope Team if you zoom in on the eyes you can see more of the compound eye. it's worth it!
- Bugscope Team and the moth seems furry because of all its scales
- Bugscope Team The scales make the moth slippery--they can fall off to help the moth escape from predators
- 4:06pm
- Bugscope Team see those bumps on the eye? those are the ommatidia, individual facets, each one has a lens in it
- Teacher Wow! So, a moth doesn't focus on one thing?
Bugscope Team They get a patchwork of images, that they are able to assemble into a general idea of an image. The current hypothesis is that insects see images that look like a bad, pixelly newspaper photo
- Bugscope Team the hexagonal shape aids in the curvature of the entire eye. if the ommatidia were squares it wouldn't be able to be curvy
- Bugscope Team Hi You All
- Bugscope Team those compound eyes are very good at detecting movement though, that's why they are so good at avoiding things while flying
- Bugscope Team Moths and other night flying insects have different eyes that are designed to gather light from a lot of different sources. When they are confronted with a bright light, like one on your porch, they get confused--that is why they are so clumsy flying around bright lights.
- Bugscope Team One palp is missing.
- Teacher We are selecting a preset but it isn't coming up
Bugscope Team try refresh (F5) and then click a preset again
- Bugscope Team They gather little bits of lights from lots of dim sources
- Bugscope Team if that doesn't work, cate may need to restart the rxl server
- 4:11pm
- Bugscope Team yay!
- Bugscope Team ooo, a mite, nasty little dude
- Bugscope Team this one's for scott, because lately we haven't seen any mites
- Bugscope Team How cool.
- Teacher Thanks. What part of the earwig is the mite on?
Bugscope Team looks like it's on the leg
- Bugscope Team mites are my favorite little nastos
- Bugscope Team Fleas are my favorite nastos.
- Bugscope Team That is called the trochanter--which is part of the leg.
- Bugscope Team We think they die with the host
- Teacher Do they suck blook?
Bugscope Team We are not really sure what they do. They may just feed on dirt and goo secreted by the cuticle of the insect
- Bugscope Team The dangers of living on your food.
- Teacher blood*
- Bugscope Team Did we mention Annie is our entomologist currently residing in California?
- Bugscope Team ha! annie. it's good they don't have human sized hot dogs, cause i'd be living on that for sure...
Bugscope Team HAHahahaha, feeding on hot dog secretions.
- Bugscope Team Yes, I am also in the East Bay...the FARRR East Bay.
- 4:17pm
- Bugscope Team make sure to check out preset #4. that's really cool, a spiracle: what insects use to breathe!
- Teacher hey...new group of students... jessica, kimberly, and brittany
- Bugscope Team welcome to bugscope
- Teacher thanks! thanks for being here with us :)
- Bugscope Team here's a spider claw
- Teacher what kind of spider?
Bugscope Team Ugh, I am not sure. They all look sort of similar at this magnification. I am not so good with my spider IDs.
- Teacher what's that stuff around the claws?
Bugscope Team there's some spider hair- called setae and some fungus and mold spores
- Bugscope Team i was just wondering, it could be setae, but i'm not so sure?
- Bugscope Team See all the little forked hairs? Those are unique to spiders.
- Teacher how many eyes does this spider have?
Bugscope Team Most have eight eyes
- 4:22pm
- Bugscope Team This one goes to eleven.
Bugscope Team Nice.
- Teacher That's awesome! Thanks - so we are switching to a new group of students now - Megan, Linh, and Jen... so awesome :)
- Bugscope Team hi megan, linh and jen, welcome to bugscope!
- Teacher dark spot ont he bottom of the pincher, is that discoloration?? dirt? or...
- Bugscope Team Juju, of course.
- Bugscope Team heh, juju is own name for unknown dirt, grime, junk, stuff that isn't part of the insect
- Bugscope Team It could be dirt or it could be an area where there has been some damage to the cuticle
- Teacher haha yeah Dr. Korb already warned us
- Bugscope Team Clotho, Lachesis, ...
- Bugscope Team This is a male earwig--they have the larger, more rounded pinchers
- 4:27pm
- Teacher switching to moth scales - so are these the wings?
Bugscope Team This is a super close up of the wings. You can see all the scales that make the wings slippery and that give them their color pattern
- Bugscope Team this is just a piece of the moth wing
- Teacher so do these scales shed?
Bugscope Team yes, often when a moth is stuck in a spider web, it will shed some scales and escape!
- Bugscope Team we sometimes find moth scales all over other insects... they kinda get all over stuff, like cat hair...
- Teacher what is a spiracle?
Bugscope Team A spiracle is like a nostril that is for breathing only.
- Bugscope Team cool
- Bugscope Team a spiracle!
- Bugscope Team this is how insects breathe
- Teacher where is it on an insect?
Bugscope Team They usually have spiracles on each segment of their bodies. The spiracles are attached to a systems of tubes called tracheae, which are sort of like the lungs.
- Bugscope Team they don't have lungs, but the air goes into the spiracle and inside the body of the insect
- Bugscope Team spiracles are usually on the abdomen or the legs
- Bugscope Team mostly the abdomen i think
- Teacher and what is a katydid?
Bugscope Team they look like grasshoppers
- Bugscope Team and there's a piece of juju about to fall into the spiracle
- 4:32pm
- Bugscope Team sometimes they have little hairs that are similar to nose hairs- keeping unwanted particles out
- Guest Hello, I'm a guest.
Bugscope Team Hello Michele
- Bugscope Team hi michele, welcome to bugscope, we are online with a school in california
- Bugscope Team A katydid is a "leaf bug"--they are usually large, noisy, and have wings that are shaped like green leaves.
- Teacher Can you describe what we are seeing?
Bugscope Team We are looking at the side of a katydid, near the legs.
- Teacher What is at 9:00?
Bugscope Team looks like part of the exoskeleton?
- Bugscope Team To the left of the screen you can see part of the wings, and to the right of the screen you can see the base of the legs
- Guest do all spiders have poisonous venom?
Bugscope Team All spiders have venom that they use to dissolve the internal tissues of their prey. Not all venom is harmful to humans.
- Guest why do female spider eat male spider after they mate?
Bugscope Team It is dangerous for male spiders to come close to females because spiders will eat another spider just as quickly as they will eat a fly. Sometimes a female spider would rather have a snack than a mate.
- Bugscope Team As a side info for that: males will sometimes spit a little wad of web into the female's face so that won't happen
- Teacher Glad I am not a spider.....
- Bugscope Team me too
- 4:38pm
- Teacher So - we are all done! Thanks for 3 great sessions with my CSU classes!! take care! Michele Korb
- Bugscope Team remember...
- Bugscope Team Male spiders sometimes have elaborate courtship behavior that involve playing "songs" on the webs of females to let them know they are not food.
- Guest Thank-you. Got to pay attention to class.
- Bugscope Team thank you for all your great questions and driving
- Bugscope Team all your chat and images from today's session are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-125
- Bugscope Team ok, nice session everyone, i'm outtie
- Bugscope Team chowzers
