Connected on 2014-03-06 10:00:00 from Fannin, Texas, United States
- 9:08am
- Bugscope Team sample is in 'scope and pumping down for today's session
- Bugscope Team it's 9:10 a.m.
- Bugscope Team we're waiting for the vacuum to get better so we can turn on the electron beam
- 9:16am





- 9:22am



- 9:30am



- 9:38am

- Bugscope Team Hi Brian!

- Guest Hi Scott...I am with you tomorrow...just thought that I would check what is going on :)

- 9:44am




- Bugscope Team Just back, Brian. Good to see you!
- Student Hello! We are getting the students logged in!
- Bugscope Team Bug Tracker 1 where is your teacher?
- 9:49am
- Bugscope Team Okay got it

- Student I am the teacher
Bugscope Team got it
- Bugscope Team we are ready to roll
- Student We are in a lab. I have a computer with an interactive board that I am projecting. The students have students stations.
- Student The student computers are moving a little slow.
Bugscope Team do they have some kind of blcoking software on them
- Bugscope Team can't type, sorry
- Bugscope Team here we're looking at the millipede you sent
- Bugscope Team it's coiled up in a ball, with its head at the center
- 9:55am
- Student Is that the eye?
Bugscope Team the eye is the thing with many little bumps on it. what you might think is an eye is really a broken antenna. The real eye is just below that
- Bugscope Team hi!
- Student hi
Bugscope Team Hi!
- Student These are our students logging in..
- Bugscope Team BugHunters now has control of the microscope.







- Student Hi
Bugscope Team Hi Gaby and Ally!
- 10:00am
- Bugscope Team I just moved us to the butterfly's compound eye, way up close
- Bugscope Team we can see a few of the ommatidia, which is what the individual facets or lenses of the compound eye are called
- Student hello
- Student hi
- Student What Kind
- Student Thanks. What kind of interesting things can you tell us about the butterfly's eye?
Bugscope Team there are tiny nanometer sized features on them that only the butterflies and moths have.
Bugscope Team the features might be similar to the rods and cones in our eyes
- Student what kind of butterfly
Bugscope Team i think it was a monarch
- Bugscope Team butterflies and moths can see in the UV wavelengths of light, and we cannot.
- Student tell us about the scales
- Student what kind of eye sight does it have
- Student are all butterfly's eye like this
Bugscope Team all that I have seen, yes
- Bugscope Team that means they can see colors we do not
- Student how can we control the microscope
Bugscope Team I just gave you control.
- Student wow

- Student why is it like that
Bugscope Team you mean why is it black and white,?
- Student what color is the eye
Bugscope Team i think it was black
- 10:05am

- Bugscope Team good job driving
- Student We are getting there! We are first grade through third
- Student can we see the ant
Bugscope Team ask the people who are driving to select that preset and the microscope will drive to that position of the stage

- Student what are those little dots
Bugscope Team those are nanometer sized features on the eye. I think they are similar to the rods and cones in our eyes that help us see in different light conditions.
- Bugscope Team this is cool
- Student ant
- Student What are these?
- Bugscope Team we are looking at ridges and other features of a single wing scale that are so small that they interfere with the wavelengths of visible light and show up as different colors
- Student hi again
- Student do butterflies have r
- Student what are those lines?
Bugscope Team the long lines are ridges that strengthen the scale, like a Ruffles potato chip
- Student how do we change the picture
Bugscope Team the person who has control can click on the blue arrow on the left of the screen and choose a preset area in the microscope to drive to
- Student do the lines help the butterfly
Bugscope Team the butterfly has thousands of scale that give it color and also protect it from spider webs
- Bugscope Team scales
- 10:10am

- Student oops ! we ment to say do butterflies have eye lashes
Bugscope Team haha not really!
- Student How do the scales protect it from spider webs?
Bugscope Team they can shake loose whatever scales are stuck to the web and get away. monarchs are also poisonous to a lot of insects and spiders, because they eat milkweed, so the spiders will often cut them loose from their webs anyway
- Student ok !
- Student what is its spaecaile abilities
Bugscope Team the special abilities of the scales?
- Student what does the butterfly eat
Bugscope Team monarchs eat milkweed, which is poisonous to a lot of animals
- Bugscope Team butterflies also drink nectar from flowers
- Bugscope Team like sugary water

- Bugscope Team this moth lost its mouth and palps, part of its face
- Student is that the head?
Bugscope Team this is a moth, not the butterfly, although they look similar
- Student what do they eat
- Student what is on its head
- Student are those balls it's eyes
- Student bird????
Bugscope Team it does looks like a cardinal or something with its plume of scales on top
- Student it looks like a parret
- Bugscope Team scales are a lot like feathers on a bird

- Student looks like a goat
- Student why does the nose look like a beak
Bugscope Team it is missing here; let's see what the butterfly's face looks like










- 10:15am

- Student is that the eye
Bugscope Team the eyes are on the left and right
- Student why does it look like fly
- Student does the moth eat the same thing as a butterfly
Bugscope Team often they eat kind of the same thing. as adults, butterflies and moths may not eat much; they eat more when they are larvae, as caterpillars
- Student the eye looks like a flies eye
Bugscope Team yes in a way it certainly does
- Student looks cool
- Student are those balls its eye,s
Bugscope Team yes they are!
- Bugscope Team flying insects need very big eyes. they help to see all around them a lot better, and are thought to see things in motion very quickly (to them our hand swatting at them is very slow)
- Student witch insect is most powerful
- Student what is next to the eye
Bugscope Team there are the remnants of a palp
- Bugscope Team a palp is an accessory mouthpart
- Student does it have a nose
Bugscope Team insects do not have noses. they have spiracles, through which they breathe, and they have lots of chemosensory setae, through which they smell
- Student it still looks like a bird
Bugscope Team i agree- i think it looks like a bird as well

- Student what are those dots on its eye
Bugscope Team the dots are the ommatidia -- the individual facets we had seen earlier
- Student Do they have bones
Bugscope Team they don't. they have an exoskeleton- so that means they have a hard shell with all the mushy stuff inside

- Student sorry! I meant witch one is most powerful butterfly or moth
Bugscope Team moths
- Bugscope Team this is awesone
- Bugscope Team um awesome?
- Bugscope Team haha
- Student Tell us a little about this guy
- 10:20am
- Bugscope Team you can see that the ant has a much smaller compound eye
- Bugscope Team it is a female. almost all ants are female
- Student why does it have hair\
- Student can we see the teeth
Bugscope Team they do not have teeth, but they have hardened edges to their mandibles
- Student ops
- Student can we zoom in on the hair on the ants

- Student they have hair
- Student please
- Student what is that hair
Bugscope Team the hair, which we call setae, is very important to insects, because as Cate said, they have exoskeletons, which are like shells, or like armor, and the setae stick through to give the insects a sense of their environment
- Student do all ants have the same head or face
Bugscope Team not really. some have really big jaws for cutting leaves or snapping its jaws so its body will fly away from harm (trap jaw ants). some have big muscly heads or really small heads
Bugscope Team some have no eyes as well
- Student what are all those dots on the eye
- Student why do ants have hair on them
Bugscope Team they are chemosensory, for smell; thermosensory, for hot/cold; mechanosensory, for touch and wind; and they also form sticky pads that help the insects crawl on surfaces
- Student why does the eye look like a beehive
Bugscope Team it comes from the shapes of the ommatidia, and the fact that they form a kind of dome
- Student are all ants the same
Bugscope Team no not at all, even within the same species and same colony
- Student why does it look like the hair is being blown off the ant

- 10:25am
- Student what all do they eat
Bugscope Team they eat almost anything. some ants are farmers and eat only fungus that they grow
- Student what do they do to the unhatched eggs\
- Student what do ant eat
- Student the eye looks like a brain
- Student We do have a general question. Righ now, only one of our students can control the microscope. Is that the way it should be?
- Student which type of ant is most dangerous
Bugscope Team there are a kind of army ants that swarm over animals and eat anything they encounter
- Student what ability do ants and wasps share
Bugscope Team they have some similar body structures and both like sweet foods to eat. they can also both fly
- Student what are those dots
Bugscope Team the dots are the lenses of the eye



- Student do all ants eat the same thin if they do what do they eat
Bugscope Team they do not all eat the same thing, but many are opportunistic and eat anything edible
- Student what other insects are like the ant
Bugscope Team bees and wasps are related to ants and thus similar in some ways
- Student hello
Bugscope Team Hi Maggie and Raquel!

- Student is that it's mouth
Bugscope Team we are looking at one of the jaws, called also a mandible, duh or we were...
- Bugscope Team do you recognize this?
- Student what kind of spider is that
- Student Yes! And it is even scarier up close!
- Student no
- Student which type of spider is that
Bugscope Team scott thinks it could be a wolf spider. we aren't very good at identifying spiders though
- Student we got in the warehouse
- Bugscope Team spiders, in front of their eyes, have great big things like jaws called chelicers, or chelicerae, and at the tips they have fangs that inject venom into their prey
- Student what are those 2 big things
Bugscope Team chelicerae
- 10:31am
- Student what is the hair for
Bugscope Team the hair helps the spider sense vibration; often but not always they do not see very well
- Student how do you now what kind of spider it is
- Student witch spider is the most dangerous
Bugscope Team a black widow or a recluse spider are both good candidates because their venom can kill tissue
- Student can we see more
- Student HELLO
Bugscope Team Hello!
- Student is this spider posions
- Student how are we able to control the microscope
Bugscope Team Minecraft we gave you control. You are the supreme ruler now.

- Student what is that thing that looks like a shell
Bugscope Team the head is joined to the thorax in spiders, and it looks like a shell; it is called a cephalothorax
- Student what are those bumps on it's head
Bugscope Team those are its eyes!
Bugscope Team the bumps are the simple eyes of the spider
Bugscope Team there are usually 8 on a spider
- Student what kind of spider is this
Bugscope Team we think it is a wolf spider, but it is hard for us to tell. often when we get spiders they are shrunken, a bit, and we do not recognize them
- Student that looks cool



- Bugscope Team we think this is a female because the pedipalps, on either side of the chelicers, which we see now, are small


- Student what are those dots at the side
Bugscope Team on the right were features of the double stick carbon tape we use to stick the insects down
- Student looks like flowers

- 10:36am
- Student do they stink
- Bugscope Team stinkbugs do not like the bad smell they make any more than anything else does
- Student why does it loos like this?
- Bugscope Team so this flower-looking stuff absorbs the smell


- Student is the daddy long legs the most poisonous spider of all
Bugscope Team we have read that people say that, and it is said that it is not true, after all
- Student what are those things that looks like a flower
Bugscope Team this part, right now, is a chemosensor that helps the stinkbug smell
- Student do all of their glands look like this
Bugscope Team the gland opening we cannot see right now, but it is nearby

- Student what is that
Bugscope Team that was a small part of the ventral side of the stinkbug (ventral means the underside, and dorsal means the top side)

- Student it looks like mushrooms
Bugscope Team yes they do!
- Student can you put us on control


- Student what age do they get there stink sack


- Student can we control it
Bugscope Team Maggie and Raquel are now the supreme rulers




- Student Anything else that is cool about the stink bug? We thinks it's funny that they don't like their smell either!
Bugscope Team I think the idea is that if you thought you smelled great it would not seem like much of a weapon to you.






- Student Yikes!

- 10:41am
- Student i thought you said that we were supreme ruler
Bugscope Team I'm sorry, Minecraft. We can have only one supreme ruler at a time. A sad fact.
- Student are those the eyes
Bugscope Team those are the eyes





- Student maggie zoom in
Bugscope Team Minecraft you are now a consultant on how to drive the microscope, for your classmates
- Student do they have en



- Student can you put us in control
Bugscope Team you are next
- Student this is awesome! do all stink bug's body's look like this. what do stink bugs eat
Bugscope Team they eat plant sap
Bugscope Team and yes they have the same body type



- Student what age can insects live up to
Bugscope Team it depends, of course; cicadas live part of their lives undergrouind, some for 17 years, but most insects live for 6 weeks to perhaps a season, to perhaps a year
- Bugscope Team Gaby and Ally are now the Popes of the 'Scope

- Student are those pointy things the teeth
Bugscope Team yes in a way by thy are really just jaws or mandibles. they move outwards like a gate, instead of up and down like our jaws
- Student sad face
Bugscope Team sorry my friend



- Student are those claws
- Student why do their tongues look like this
Bugscope Team their tongues need to be absorbent, in a way. they need to be capable of having pollen stick to them, for example, or nectar, and they may also have a delivery feature, like a paint brush
- 10:47am
- Student do they have any organs
Bugscope Team on the inside they have organs, but they are not quite like ours. they exist in a blood-like fluid called hemolymph
- Student I did not realize that yellow jackets had tongues!
Bugscope Team yes they do, and this one'
- Student I have heard that yellow jackets and wasps have different types of poison or venom. Is that true?
- Bugscope Team s tongue is caught in its mandibles!
- Student ????????????????????

- Student are all yellowjackets look the same. sorry if i missspeld anything
Bugscope Team I think their are likely a few different species we call yellowjackets, but I am not sure; there would be small differences

- Student are insects cold blooded
Bugscope Team yes they are
Bugscope Team yes they don't generate their own bodyheat
- Student which insect lives the longest

- Student happy face


- Student what are those tube like stuff
Bugscope Team those are setae, or hairs on the wasp








- Student minecraft finest has not had control sad face

- Student what do they eat
Bugscope Team they like sugary liquids

- Student Ok. I have a question. It has been very cold here in Texas, and we were hoping that it would thin the mosquitoes out. We had a warm day on Friday, and there one was! How is that pssible?
Bugscope Team the mosquito was waiting for a warm day; they need to be able to do that. there must have been some water, even a small quantity, outside, that the larva lived in, and when it warmed up the larva had become an adult
Bugscope Team i think it is kind of like how fish can hibernate in frozen water. Insects can as well. I know that i have ladybugs that like to overwinter in my house
- Student Can you all give control to Vasant and Kyleigh for a bit?
Bugscope Team Vasant and Kyleigh are now the bosses.
- 10:52am

- Student what are those scales
Bugscope Team sorry Froopper I missed that.
- Student like what
- Student are those bumps the eye
Bugscope Team very small bumps on the carapace, to the upper left
- Bugscope Team this rolybug suffered a bit after it died
- Student do they have claws
Bugscope Team yes they do!




- Student So, are roly bugs really insects?
Bugscope Team no they are crustaceans
Bugscope Team no. they are crustaceans. that means they are more related to lobsters and crabs

- Student what are those hairs
Bugscope Team they are mostly fungal hyphae that is found when things are decaying
- Student how hard is their shell to insects
Bugscope Team most small insects will not be able to pierce it

- Student witch insect has been around the longgest
Bugscope Team there are walking sticks in the Tropics that can be 21 inches long

- Student wheres the candy????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Bugscope Team oh man I knew we forgot something
- Student what are those pointy stuff
- Student Sorry for the off-topic comments
Bugscope Team it happens
- Student Kyleigh and Vasant are switching us to the claw. Then, if we could let Frooper have it for a bit.
Bugscope Team Froopper has been a trouper about this. Now Froopper is the Supreme Ruler.
- 10:58am



- Student is that the claw
Bugscope Team yes it is; these are called 'isopods' because 'iso' means 'the same,' and all of the little feet are the same, like this

- Student ya

- Student turn it down
- Student where is its eye
- Student what dose it's hair do
Bugscope Team the hair is sensory
- Student does the hair help with anything
Bugscope Team they help sense what is going on around the insect, like sense of touch, smell/taste, temperature, etc
- Student which bug is first bug
Bugscope Team I don't know.
- Student why does it have hair
Bugscope Team the hair is sensory
- Student do they eat everything
Bugscope Team they eat liquids
- Student whats that on top of of its head
Bugscope Team that is one of the antennae
- Student I have also heard that house flies secrete something on their food before they eat it: true or false?
Bugscope Team yes they spit up digestive juices that help dissolve their food
- 11:03am
- Student what does it eat
Bugscope Team they like sugary stuff
- Student can you zoom in frooper
- Student So are you all teachers and students at the University?
Bugscope Team we are scientists that work at a lab within the university
- Student does it have a toung
Bugscope Team they have sponging mouthparts, which are like tongues in a way
- Student it looks like a beak
- Student go v @ k
- Student do you like your job
Bugscope Team i do. it never gets boring. we see all kinds of different research projects come through that we get to be a part of
- Student do they really have a short life span
- Student Can you tell us a little bit about your jobs? We have some students here that might be interested in doing something like this.
Bugscope Team we train graduate students and postdoctoral researchers to do their own research using a variety of microscopes and other devices
- Student how old are yall
- Student What kind of education do you need to work in your lab?
Bugscope Team I have a degree in English and Biology, and Cate has a degree in Physics.
- Student witch insect is the most beutiful
Bugscope Team probably butterflies. they have some really pretty coloring
- Student Wow!
- Student do you like your job
Bugscope Team yes it is really fun but super busy



- Student are there still some bugs to discover
Bugscope Team yes!
- Student Well, we have really enjoyed this. It is awesome that you let us use your equipment! We had a great time!

- Student how much did the microscope coast
Bugscope Team about $600,000
- Student see you later (:
- Student were going leave soon have a nice day by
- Student bye
Bugscope Team Bye!
- Student wow $
- 11:08am
- Student Our bus will be coming back soon, so we are going to leave now. Thank you again!!!
- Student thats a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student your job sounds like a lot of fun!
- Bugscope Team thanks you for the great questions and joining us today!
- Student bye
- Student BYE
- Student bye bye
- Student thanks
- Student goodbye
- Bugscope Team Good Bye!
- Student bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!~!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Student thanks for helping me discover more things
- Student bye1111111111111111