Connected on 2008-05-27 15:30:00
from Turlock, CA, US
- 2:31 pm
- Guestwhat are we looking at?
- Bugscope Teamhi guest, welcome to bugscope, this is an ant jaw
- 2:41 pm
- 2:47 pm
- 2:56 pm
- 3:02 pm
- Bugscope Teampresets are done
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready
- Bugscope Teamsession unlocked ;)
- 3:08 pm
- 3:16 pm
- Bugscope Teamhi kk, welcome to bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamHi kk!
- TeacherHi. Just looking right now. This is the first time for us.
- Bugscope Teamwe are ready any time you are, if you have any questions please just ask
- Bugscope Teamplease feel free to test things out as soon as you wish
- TeacherIs this the caterpillar we sent?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a fruit fly
- Bugscope Teamit looks like we did not get samples yet, and we are sorry about that, but we made a set out of what we had here
- TeacherToo bad. I sent it the day after we returned from Yosemite - May 7.
- 3:22 pm
- TeacherWhat part of the fly is this?
- Bugscope Teamhmm...well this is the head
- Bugscope TeamI wonder what happened. I hope they are not sitting upstairs in receiving..
- Bugscope Teamwe were looking at the ocelli, which are its 3 simple eyes
- Bugscope Teamthis is the top of the head of the fruit fly -- what we had started on was one of the ocelli -- the three 'simple' eyes there.
- Bugscope Teamit also has 2 compound eyes, which is what is taking up most of the screen right now
- Bugscope Teamas Cate said...
- TeacherAre there hairs growing out of the eye(s)?
Bugscope Teamyes, the fruit fl,y among many other insects, have tons of hairs. the hairs coming from the eye here help it sense where the wind is moving
- Bugscope Teamalso, notice the scale bar in the lower left of the image, um is microns, one micro = one millionth of a meter
- Bugscope Teammuch of the brain is used for visual processing, and you can see why
- Bugscope Teamthose hairs are called setae (see-tee)
- Bugscope Teambugs are very hairy, when looked upon under a microscope
- TeacherWhy does it have circles - from Mario
Bugscope Teamwell, they are actually hexagons. notice that the compound eye surface is actually curved, and those hexagons fit much nicer into the curved surface than if they were circles
- Bugscope TeamSome of the hairs have been knocked out of their roots in the eye and are laying on their sides
- TeacherHow does it eat? Does it suck through a tube? from Xochitl
Bugscope Teamit has a sponging mouth- a part comes out, some juices are spit up on the food, the food is liquified, and the mouthpart sponges it all up
- TeacherCan you tell how old this speciman is? from Sukhman
- Bugscope Teamit has a spongy sort of mouthpart that sucks up its food as a liquid
- Bugscope TeamFlies generally first "throw up" stomach acid through their soft mouth parts onto what they want to eat and wait for it to dissolve into a liquidy goo. Then they suck up the liquid
- 3:28 pm
- TeacherDo they only live for 24 hours? from Israel.
Bugscope Teamwell, most insects live for a season, like summer or fall, but there are exceptions. monarch butterfly's can live for a few years, they can migrate long distances as well
Bugscope TeamSome species of Mayfly only live for a few hours, with the longest lived only lasting a few days.
- TeacherHow does it defend itself? from Joey
Bugscope Teamits flies away for the most part. the little hairs on the eyes help a lot to do that because they sense where the wind is coming from, so if you are swatting your hand at them, they are able to feel that coming and fly away
- Bugscope Teamthe proboscis (the mouthpart) is soft, and when it dries it shrivels up, so sometimes it does not look so good
- TeacherHow does it rid itself of waste? from Xochitl
- TeacherHow did this one die? from Navedeep
- TeacherWhere do fruit flies live? from Jamison
Bugscope TeamI'm pretty sure they are found all over. If you leave some rotting fruit out, they are the insects that are flying around the fruit
- TeacherDo they have taste buds? from Xochitl
Bugscope TeamFew insects have tongue that resemble ours, buts some have what we call "chemoreceptors", essentially chemical sensors built into other body parts, even their feet!
- TeacherAre they cannibals? from Jason
- TeacherHow do fruit flies reproduce? from Jesus
Bugscope TeamThey reproduce sexually, then the female lays eggs in rotting fruit
- TeacherHow high can they fly? from Valerie
- TeacherWhere was this one found? from Sukhman
Bugscope Teamthis fruit fly is from our stock collection. someone brought in a lot of them so I don't know exactly where
- TeacherDo they only eat fruit? from Xochitl
Bugscope Teamthey actually eat fungi that is found on the rotting fruit, but yes they do
- 3:33 pm
- Bugscope Teamkk, click again to stop moving
- Bugscope Teamthere ya go. if you get lost, just click on a preset
- Bugscope Teamclicking on a preset takes you to that image
- Bugscope TeamI think we are looking at silver paint
- Bugscope Teambut there is something to the lower left
- TeacherWhat are we looking at now?
- Bugscope Teamkk, if you are too busy typing questions, we could take control of the scope and drive around for you?
- Bugscope Teamthis is just the stub, no bug right now
- Bugscope Teamkk, try clicking on a preset
- Bugscope Teamah, nice! this is a close up of the fruit fly haltere
- TeacherWhat is a haltere?
Bugscope TeamA haltere is a wing that has been modified into a little bag that bounces back and forth during flight, acting like a gyroscope to help them sense motion and keep a steady course
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the halteres, which are modified hindwings
- Bugscope Teamthey balance the movement of the wings
- TeacherYes, please do take control. We would like to see the whole bug.
- Bugscope Teama haltere is found on flying insects, it works like a gyroscope, to help the fly balance itself during flight
- Bugscope Teamokay, i'll take control then
- 3:39 pm
- Bugscope Teamthy beat opposite of the way the wings move
- Bugscope Teamthe hole by the haltere is called a spiracle which is a breathing hole for insects
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the entire fly
- Bugscope Teamwhen insects dry out, some things deflate. so the abdomen on this insect looks a bit smooshed because of that
- Bugscope Teamif you have any questions or want me to stop on something, just hollar
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see that the antennae are missing, as are the mouthparts on this fly
- TeacherDo they have a particular habitat? from Sukhman
- TeacherWhat structure are we looking at now??
Bugscope Teamthis is part of the antenna, you can see setae here (insect hairs)
- Bugscope Teamclimates
- Bugscope Teamthese are microsetae on the head
- Bugscope Teamwhoa, is that drift, or are the setae moving?
- Bugscope Teamwell it was close to the antenna anyway
- Bugscope TeamHello all
- Bugscope Teamokat, now i'm going to move to the a spider, a spinneret on the spider
- Bugscope TeamHi Annie!
- TeacherHow big can they get? from Jesus
Bugscope TeamFemales are about 2.5mm long, the males slightly shorter
- Bugscope Teamthe spider spinneret is where the silk comes out of
- Bugscope TeamFruit flies seem never to get more than a few mm long.
- 3:44 pm
- Bugscope TeamYes, I am in Newhall, CA. I just got back from setting up traps in the mountains. I feel like ticks are crawling on me.
- Bugscope Teamcan you catch some for us?
- TeacherWhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is a spider spinneret, this is where spider web comes from
- Bugscope Teamthis is a spider spinneret
- Bugscope Teamthis is where the web comes from -- some of these will produce sticky web and some will produce non sticky web
- TeacherThis is a spider now, right?
- Bugscope Teambut if the spider gets stuck in its own web it can often eat its way out
- Bugscope Teamyep, this is the spider
- TeacherWhat kind of spider?
Bugscope TeamI think it is a wolf spider, but I'm not 100% possitive
- Bugscope Teamspiders recycle their web by eating it
- Bugscope Teamit is hard to tell if it is a wolf spider or a recluse
- TeacherCan we see the whole thing?
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see where the fangs are, but we see only one
- Bugscope TeamAlex will take it down as far as he can.
- Bugscope Teamit is kind of a big spider, but you can see most of it
- Bugscope Teamwe are now at the minimum resolution, the spider is on its back
- Bugscope Teami'll circle around it so you can see the whole thing
- Bugscope TeamIf we look at something very large it may be too big for the microscope to show all of
- TeacherWe know you showed the spinnet, but how exactly are webs made? What are they made of?
Bugscope TeamHow spider webs are created is actually a mystery currently being investigated by scientists. We know they're a protein polymer, but there has been little luck creating them in the lab. If we could produce them commercially they may help produce super-strong fabrics to replace things like kevlar in bullet proof vests
- 3:49 pm
- TeacherHow do spiders get poison in their bodies? from Xochitl
Bugscope TeamThe spiders have glands that fabricate the poison from the foods they eat, similar to how your body produces stomach acid
- Bugscope Teamthe web is protein -- silk
- Bugscope Teamthe silk is a liquid when it is inside the spider
- TeacherWhat is the poison made of? from Vanessa
- Bugscope Teamwhen the liquid gets into the air it hardens
- TeacherWhat is this?
- Bugscope Teamthe poison is different -- it is venom that the spider produces but does not harm the spider
- Bugscope Teamthis is the joint of one of the legs (tarsi) of the spider
- TeacherAre they dangerous to humans? Pets? from Marissa
Bugscope TeamSpiders are considered pests because people don't like them. Usually they can't hurt people. Occasionally people can get large infestations of brown recluse spiders which are of concern. Brown recluse spiders can harm humans.
- Bugscope Teamthe venom (poison) is injected into the spider's prey and dissolves the inside of the prey's body
- Bugscope Teamokay, moving to another preset now
- Bugscope Teammost of the bad spiders like to hide and don't want to bother you unless you disturb it, like the brown recluse.
- Bugscope Teamthe spider sucks the insides of its prey up like a milkshake
- Bugscope Teamsome venom, like that of the recluse spider, can cause a lot of harm to humans
- Bugscope Teamthis is a scale that is on a small moth proboscis (something like a bug tongue)
- TeacherWhat type of moth?
- Bugscope Teamthe recluse venom kills tissue and makes a large ulcer
- Bugscope Teamit was a very small moth, I couldn't tell what it was
- 3:54 pm
- Bugscope Teamrattlesnake venom can do the same thing
- TeacherIt looks "beat up." Is this its normal look? from Israel
- Bugscope Teamonce they die, insects are often not so organized -- they cannot take care of themselves
- Bugscope Teamso it may have rattled around with other insects for awhile before Cate prepared it
- Bugscope Teamwe are looking at the proboscis now
- TeacherWhat do moths normally eat? from Vanessa
Bugscope TeamSome moths feed on nectar from flowers or rotting fruit. Other moths do all their eating as caterpillars, and they do not feed as adults
- Bugscope Teamthe 'tongue,' which is coiled up
- TeacherDo they eat like flies? from Xochitl
Bugscope TeamSimilar, but not identical. The moth just sucks its food through a long straw...whereas the fly spits digestive juices onto its food and then sucks it up.
- TeacherDo all moths eat clothing? from Israel
Bugscope Teamtheir larvae eat clothes
Bugscope Teamnot all moths eat clothes. Only the larvae of clothes moths. Most moths eat nectar or fruit juice.
- Bugscope Teamkk, did you want to control the scope again?
- Teachersure - thanks.
- Bugscope Teamok, you've got control
- 3:59 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is salt from Wendy's restaurant, which is kind of different and cool to look at
- Bugscope Teamah, this is cool, this is salt from wendy's. for some reason their salt looks different, they put some additive that makes it look different
- TeacherWhat is hamuli
Bugscope TeamHamuli are the little hooks you can see there which join the two pairs of wings together into one larger wing
- TeacherWhat is hamuli?
- TeacherIn case we are out of time, many, many thanks. this is amazing
- Bugscope Teamno problem, we hope you are all having fun!
- TeacherIf you find the caterpillar I sent, could I be notified? Cunningham will be on line again in Sept. Would love to see it then.
- 4:05 pm
- Bugscope Teamsure, and if we dont, we will keep and eye outside :)
- Bugscope Teamhere is a mite we found on an ant leg
- Bugscope Teamhere is an ant mouth
- Bugscope Teamthe jaw is hinged like a gate
- Bugscope Teamand there are palps coming out the bottom that looks similar to an insect trying to crawl out
- Bugscope Teampalps help the insect taste food and move food
- 4:10 pm
- TeacherHow many spots on ladybugs? Do males and females look the same?
Bugscope TeamDifferent species of lady bugs have different numbers of spots. There are nine spotted lady bugs, seven spotted lady bugs, twice stabbed lady bugs. The markings on males and females are pretty much the same.
- Bugscope TeamIn a lot of insects, ants especially, they use their jaws (called mandibles) like a pairs of hands
- TeacherWhat does "twice-Stabbed" mean?
Bugscope TeamThe twice stabbed lady beetle is solid black, except for two bright red spots--one on each of its wings
- Bugscope Teamyeah, i was wondering the same thing
- Bugscope Teamannie is a PHD in entomology, so we are always learning cool things from her!
- Bugscope TeamPhD student..
- 4:16 pm
- Bugscope TeamI wish I was a PhD.
- Bugscope Teamsoon to be PhD then
- Bugscope TeamI hope so ;)
- GuestWhat kind of ant?
- Bugscope Teamnot sure
- Bugscope Teamoooh, dunno. Ants are hard for me...I study beetles.
- 4:23 pm
- GuestHow much can this magnify?
Bugscope Teamwell, the maximum resolution is 600,000 times or even higher, but at that mag it is hard to get a good image. for bugs like this the resolution is 30x to 100,000x max
- Bugscope Teamit can go around 900,000x but you usually dont get anything useful beyond 200,000x
- TeacherHow big are the brains of ants?
- GuestWhat is the smallest thing you have seen?
Bugscope TeamProbably the smallest identifiable structures I've seen are tiny tin balls evaporated onto a carbon surface. It's one of our resolution standards for calibrating the microscope. I've observed that at ~600,000x magnification
- TeacherHow long would it take an ant to travel 1000 miles??
Bugscope Teamants always live in colonies, which can travel pretty fast, they move fast enough that you better run fast if you bother a colony
- GuestI know the ant has antennae, but can it smell? Is there a nose?
Bugscope TeamAnts don't have lungs, so they don't have a nose they can draw air through. They have chemosensors on their antennae, however, that function similarly to our sense of smell
- 4:29 pm
- TeacherHow big is the ant brain? How are they connected?
Bugscope TeamThe ant brain takes up probably 1/2 of its head. The antennae are directly connected to antennal lobes in the brain.
Bugscope TeamOne place says ant brains are 1/100th of a gram... so like a tiny speck
- Bugscope TeamI don't know if an ant could travel 1000 miles. It probably would probably die of exhaustion before it traveled 10 miles, much less 1000. I don't know if anyone has calculated how long it would take a single ant to travel 1000 miles, even if it could happen. It would depend on the ant.
- GuestIf ants don't have lungs do they have spiracles?
Bugscope TeamYes, they respirate through spiracles
- GuestIs their digestives system similar to ours? stomach, intestines?
Bugscope TeamSort of similar. They have a mouth and an esophagus. That connects with the foregut, then the midgut, and the hindgut. The food is ground up in the foregut, most of the absorption of nutrients and water occurs in the midgut, and the hindgut is where final water balance takes place. They also have malpighian tubules that are kind of like our kidneys.
- TeacherHow fast does the ant travel?
Bugscope Teamokay okay, so ants don't travel particularly fast, and there are so many variables, like which ant, on what surface, etc. BUT the fastest moving biological structure of any kind is the trap jaw ant, who's jaw can move at an astounding rate, so fast that it uses this snapping jaw to propel itself away from danger
- TeacherDo they have a group brain?
Bugscope Teamwell, there is the queen of the colony, and ants communicate through chemical sensory means
- Teacherdo ants have a "queen"?
Bugscope TeamYes. Some ant colonies can have multiple queens.
- 4:34 pm
- Bugscope Teamants do have a queen, similar to the way bees have a queen
- Bugscope Teamsome may have more than one queen
- GuestDo they have digestive enzymes like bile?
Bugscope TeamThey have some digestive enzymes...but I am not sure any one if them is analogous to bile.
- TeacherDo ants have "stages of life", like caterpillars?
Bugscope TeamYes, like all insects with complete metamorphosis, theu have larvae, pupae, and adult stages.
- TeacherHow do they choose a queen?
Bugscope TeamThe queen is "made" so to speak. Some larvae are given special food when they are growing. This special food turns on certain hormone pathways that turn the larvae into a quen and not a worker. When a queen emerges it has wings. The queen ants usually leave the nest, and fly away to establish their own nests.
- Bugscope Teamants do not have a stage in which they metamorphose into something completely different, such as a caterpillar into a moth or butterfly
- GuestDo they have a circulatory system? blood? heart?
Bugscope TeamThey have an extremely simple one. They don't have veins going everywhere, just one main tube along the length of their body that pumps hemolymph (a.k.a. blood) towards the head to circulate some of the fluids
- Bugscope Teamthey have an open circulatory system
- GuestHemoglobin?
Bugscope TeamOnly two types of aquatic insects have hemoglobin and it serves a slightly different function in insects than it does in mammals. Insect blood doesn't carry oxygen to the cells. Each cell has its own air supply (tiny spiracles)
- Bugscope Teamtheir organs are bathed in hemolymph, which is kind of like blood except it does not carry oxygen
- 4:40 pm
- Bugscope Teaminsects get their oxygen not from blood but via the spiracles, which do function as part of a respiratory system
- Bugscope TeamInsects are small enough that oxygen can be transported to the cells just by diffusion from the spiracles. This places a limit on their maximum size due to the laws of physics, so no need to worry about car-sized ants someday developing.
- GuestWhat evolutionary advantage do those aquatic insects have if any? (hemoglobin)
Bugscope TeamInsects that live in the water do not have access to as much air as do terrestrial insects. So they need the hemoglobin to store oxygen--in case they can't get enough dissolved oxygen from the water
- Bugscope Teambecause they do have a respiratory system analogous to ours, insects, thankfully, can grow only so large
- TeacherThanks so much. We have learned a lot. Hope to have this experience next year!-kk
- Bugscope Teamsorry I mean because they do not have a respiratory like ours...
- Bugscope Teamthanks kk! you did a great job, just apply again whenever you are ready, we'd be glad to have you back
- Bugscope TeamGreat to have you with us today! We look forward to seeing another application from you
- Bugscope TeamOK--gotta go work. It is still the middle of the day folks.
- Bugscope TeamSorry
- Bugscope Teamhee hee
- Bugscope Teamok see you annie, thanks for the great answers!
- Bugscope Teamhaha bye annie
- Bugscope TeamBye all!!! Thanks for the questions kk!
- Bugscope Teambye kk, thank you for all your interesting questions
- 4:45 pm
- Bugscope Teamlk, did you want to drive the scope a bit?
- Bugscope Teamyou can find your transcript and images from today on your session page
- Bugscope Teamlk, i just gave you control of the scope
- GuestWhat are the two species? How did someone determine that was the hemoglobin's use?
- Bugscope Teamwhich is at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-035/
- Bugscope Teamlk, sorry but annie has left, she is the entomologist of us, so i'm afraid i can't help you out with an answer to that question
- Bugscope Teamyou can see it has a ball-and-socket antenna
- GuestThis looks like a ball and socket joint. Have you seen others like this on other "bugs"?
- 4:50 pm
- Bugscope Teami don't remember specifically, scott or annie would be able to say
- Bugscope Teamother hymenoptera have them like bees and wasps, we might have seen them on other insects as well, but i can't think of any on the top of my head
- Bugscope Teamor cate :)
- Bugscope Teamthere's a spiracle
- Bugscope Teamlooks like it
- Bugscope Teamyes that is a spiracle
- GuestDo you know what that is?
- Bugscope Teami don't
- Bugscope TeamI really have no idea
- Bugscope Teamsorry lk, the session has ended, and our entomologist left
- Bugscope Teambut you are welcome to stay a little longer and drive around
- Bugscope Teamhmm, that flower pot looking thing was right on the abdomen, that outa tell us something about it
- GuestThank you for everything!!!!
- 4:55 pm
- Bugscope Teamkind of like the spider spinneret, cept the ants don't have silk
- Bugscope Teamyou are welcome lk
- GuestThis was a lot of fun!!!
- Bugscope Teamthanks for joining us today, glad you liked it
- Bugscope Teamif you'd like to apply for a session: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/apply
- Bugscope Teamupcoming sessions are also listed on the main site: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu
