Connected on 2007-10-08 14:30:00
from Milwaukee, WI, US
- 1:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamsession enabled, rxl started, waiting for scope vac...
- 1:50 pm
- Bugscope Teamvac taking too long, still stuck above 2.0, taking out cricket, trying the vac again.
- Bugscope Teamworking! 1.9, 1.8...
- 2:00 pm
- Bugscope Teambeam on, finding presets
- 2:05 pm
- 2:10 pm
- 2:20 pm
- Bugscope Teamdone with presets, we are ready!
- 2:26 pm
- Bugscope Teamhi michele, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Teacheroooh...Ilike this new format :)
- Bugscope Teamwe do too ;)
- TeacherI will be with you all in about 5 minutes or so - I have to get my class settled and introduced to Bugscope ":)
- Bugscope Teamif you have any quetsions please go ahead and ask. you can start controlling the scope anytime.
- Bugscope Teamah, okay, take your time, we will be here
- 2:33 pm
- Bugscope Teamafter the session we are gonna grill it up for lunch
- Bugscope Teamnever mind that, i was talking about the praying chicken head, which we are NOT going to be eating...
- Bugscope Teamheh
- Bugscope Teampraying chicken head is another term for praying mantis
- 2:39 pm
- Bugscope TeamScott isn't on board today?
- Bugscope Teamscott is in a meeting, so he will not be here for this session
- TeacherWhat are these hairs on the body?
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called setae, they help the insect sense it's environment
- Bugscope Teaminsects are very hairy, but they need them to function
- Bugscope Teamit is suprising how many hairs are on insects...
- Bugscope Teamfocus can be a bit tricky. try focusing in one direction, if it gets worse, go the other way...
- Bugscope Teamsince they have exoskeletons, they can't feel things or sense things like we do, so they have these setae (or seta sing.) that are attached to nerves and let them know what is going on
- 2:45 pm
- Bugscope Teamwhoa. gnarley looking claw here...
- Bugscope Teamso this is some sort of flying insect, we weren't able to classify it
- TeacherWhat is the claw's function?
Bugscope Teamthe claw is used to help direct food to the insects mouth, at least that is one use.
- TeacherHow do the claw hindges stay together?
Bugscope Teamthey are linked the same way crab legs are or lobster legs
- Bugscope Teamit can close together so it grasps things like clamps I believe
- Teacherwhich others? any we would recognize?
Bugscope Teamthe praying mantis (AKA praying chicken head) has claws too, i think you can see them in this sample...
- Bugscope Teambeetles will have them like lady bugs and june bugs
- Bugscope Teamwhich are both on this sample
- 2:50 pm
- Bugscope Teamif you were wondering, we found out today that according to wikipedia, another name for the praying mantis is the praying chicken head
- TeacherWe were, thank you
- Bugscope TeamI was speculating earlier that I think the reason behind it is when the praying mantis has his head cut off by the female, he is still able to perform activities like a chicken will run around with its head cut off
- Bugscope Teamyeah, but he still won't do the dishes
- TeacherAre those little hairs on each of the eyes?
Bugscope Teamyes, many compound eyes on insects have setae on them. preset #4 shows this very well...
- Bugscope Teamif you try to bring it into focus a little better we can try to see, we know it isn't the easiest thing to do
- Bugscope Teamif that does not go well preset 4 has a fuit fly eye with hairs
- Bugscope Teamhere we see a part of the compound of of a fruit fly
- TeacherWhy do insects need hairs on their eyes? Do they function the same as the body hairs?
Bugscope Teamit helps them detect changes in the wind because they need to think fast, like how they know to move away when a fly swatter is coming at them
- Bugscope Teamand as a characteristic of most flying insects, there are setae in between the facets or ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamsometimes if the sample is too close to the detector, the image cannot focus well... but this preset looks great! see all the setae inbetween each facet of the compund eye
- Teacher... and what are facets and ommatidia?
Bugscope Teamthose are the little bumps
Bugscope Teamthe insect compound eye is made up of individual eye facets, called ommatidia
- 2:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamthey see in image in each of those facets
- TeacherHow many are on one eye? Does every fly have the same number of them?
- Bugscope Teamwith the more the insect relies on their eyes, the more ommatidia there will be
- Bugscope Teamso something like an ant will have fewer than a fly
- Teacherso some rely on their eyes more than others?
Bugscope Teamthats exactly right
- Bugscope Teamyou can see a bump on the top of its head as well, these are occuli which detect the movement of the sun
Bugscope TeamIn addition to navigation, I believe the ocelli also triangulate the position of the sun to help them know their absolute orientation. e.g. am I flying right side up, sideways, etc.
- Teacherwhy do they need to detect the movement of the sun? why is this important?
Bugscope Teamit is theoriezed that some birds use the setting of the sun as a compass, maybe some bugs do the same?
- 3:00 pm
- Bugscope Teamprobably so they know not to fly at a certain time, like when predators are out
- Bugscope Teambut your guess is as good as mine really
- Teacheris it true that flies puke when they land?
Bugscope TeamYes, but instead of throwing up food, they're just regurgitating digestive juices. The juices dissolve the food they throw up on and then they suck it back up like a milk-shake so they don't need teeth
- Bugscope Teamflies secrete saliva whenever they attempt to feed, but they don't attempt to feed every time they land.
- Bugscope Teamso partially that is true
- TeacherWhat are the black spots?
Bugscope Teamthose are holes in the scales of the butterfly. the scales are very thin, to help keep the scales light, and some are fragile and some have holes in them...
- Bugscope Teamthese are butterfly scales
- Teacherwhat is their function or do they have a function?
Bugscope Teamthe scales' shape maximizes their surface area while minimizing the weight. that means they get lots of lift from their wing strokes without getting weighed down. the reason for the detachable scales is likely so that if they fly into a spider's web they can shed some scales and break free
- Teacheris there a head on this specimen or is this just a wing?
Bugscope Teamjust a piece of wing
- Bugscope Teami had to paint with silver paint around the piece of wing so it would help ground the current, butterfly wings like to charge up
- 3:06 pm
- Bugscope Teamah, here is the lovely praying chicken head!
- TeacherWhat are the top left spikey things?
- Bugscope Teamthe forelegs are used to hold insects while they are being eaten
- Bugscope Teamthey look very sharp too
- Teacherwhat is the highest magnification we can go?
Bugscope Teamthis ESEM can go up to 600,000x, but for these big bugs, i would say 20,000x would be maximum and still get a somewhat decent image...
- Bugscope Teamthe butterfly scales were at 21,000x, and that image looks real nice!
- 3:11 pm
- TeacherWhat does haltere mean?
Bugscope Teamthe haltere is used to help the insect balance itself during flight.
- Teacherwe can't see an image, it is all black. What do we do?
Bugscope Teamtry hitting F5, or refresh
Bugscope Teamit is often only temporary. if it lasts longer than ~5 seconds, then refreshing does the trick
- Bugscope Teamit beats against its body as it flies
- Bugscope Teamthe image will black out occasionally, refresh should always fix it.
- Teacherthank you
- TeacherDo the hairs serve the same purpose here?
Bugscope Teami'm not sure, i wish annie (entomologiest) was here. but yes, i do think the hairs are used for some type of sensory, even on the fast moving haltere...
- Bugscope Teamyou are doing a great job as always controlling the scope
- Teacherare there only 2 haltere's on the body?
Bugscope Teamyes, my recollection is that they are where the 2nd pair of wings would be if they had 4 wings
- Bugscope Teami've heard the answer many times before....
- 3:16 pm
- TeacherWhat are the big roud t
- Teacherwhat are the big round things between the eyes?
Bugscope Teamthose are the facets of the compound eye, also called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamcan we zoom out so we can see them again?
- Bugscope Teamwell this is the mouth area of the insect
- Bugscope Teamthese are the antennae
- Bugscope Teamyep, Cate got it. Antennae
- Bugscope Teamthe contrast may act kind of funny around here because they are charging
- Bugscope Teamimage could use some focus adjustment to get the features looking sharp again
- Bugscope Teamoh, sorry, you mean not IN the compound eye, but between the two eyes. sorry i'm wrong...
- Bugscope Teamthese are just some features I thought looked cool on the arm of the praying mantis
- Teacherwhat is that white thing?
- Bugscope Teamthey look like setae wings type things... wetae...
- Teacherwhat do they do?
- Bugscope Teamthat white thing coming at us is just another seta
- 3:21 pm
- Teacherhow many legs do praying chickens have?
Bugscope Teambeing insects they have 6
- Teacherheads*
- Teacherwow!
- Bugscope Teamthese are the top 2 that are the praying arms
- Bugscope Teamthe other 4 are like hte hind legs
- Bugscope Teami hope not
- Bugscope Teamyou can see part of the claw here
- Teacherwhat kind of food do they eat
Bugscope TeamPraying mantis eat other insects
- Teacher?
- Teacherand do these puke when they land too?
Bugscope Teamno, the praying mantis secures it's food with those fore-arms full of spikes then slowly devours the prey with its mouthparts
- Bugscope Teambigger ones can eat small birds and reptiles and even some mammals
- Teacherwhoaaaaaaaa
- Teacherwhere do the ones that can eat these birds live? do they eat the whole bird?
Bugscope Teamcheck out this wikipedia article, it talks about the praying mantis diet a bit...
- Bugscope Teamyes, there are some rediculously large praying chicken heads running around in this world...
- 3:27 pm
- Teacherwhat geographical location?!
Bugscope TeamI couldn't find any specifics on where the ones that eat birds live. It didn't sound like it was specific to one species though, so it might be more widespread.
Bugscope TeamWikipedia says there are approximately 2,000 praying species worldwide, the majority are found in Asia
- Teacherand how big can they get?
Bugscope Teamlook at this one, it is the size of your hand: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:NG-PrayingMantis.jpg
- Bugscope Teamack! here is that article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Praying_mantis
- Bugscope Teamthey live in all parts of the world, but I'm not sure where they are biggest, or how big they get
- Teacherhmmmm
- TeacherWell folks - we have to go now! Thanks for your time and answers! The future teachers had a great time! Thanks - Michele Korb, Instructor
- Bugscope Teamthank you, great job driving michele!!!
- Bugscope Teambye thanks, and see you next semester
- Bugscope Teamwe hope you like the new intreface, chas worked very hard on it.
- Bugscope Teamoh, coolness...
- Bugscope Teamoh wow, tell them they were rgeat!
- Bugscope Teamgreat*
- TeacherYes - see you next semester.