Connected on 2008-08-22 13:00:00
from Fairbanks, AK, US
- 12:43 pm
- Bugscope Teamworking on getting to vacuum
- Bugscope Teamthere is something that is juicy that is making it take a while
- Bugscope Teamalmost ready to start the 'scope...
- Bugscope Teamthis is Scott, using Cate's login for a minute.
- 12:48 pm
- Bugscope TeamCate is using the microscope to collect the presests, and I am at the computer so that I can help set them
- Bugscope TeamHi cgp!
- Bugscope TeamWe are running a little behind because the sample was so juicy, and it shouldn't have been - it should have been quite dry.
- TeacherHi, here we are!
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope TeamCGP can you see the images?
- 12:53 pm
- Bugscope TeamWe will be done very soon and will turn control over to you.
- TeacherYes! It looks good!
- TeacherWill all of these images be saved?
- Bugscope Teamyes all of the images will be saved to your database automatically
- TeacherWhat are we looking at?
- Bugscope Teamthat is the skeeter you sent
- TeacherWhat is this?
- Bugscope Teamthis is salt from Wendy's
- TeacherFrench Fries?
- 12:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamfrom a packet of salt
- Bugscope Teamno French fries with the salt
- Bugscope Teamyou can go ahead and try out the controls if you want
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have questions or if you have any trouble driving.
- Teacherwhat is the best way to drive/
- Bugscope TeamYou can select Click to Center and drive around at lower mag.
- Bugscope Teamlike if you take the mag down you can see where you are in the larger scheme of things.
- Teacherwhere is the head of the mite?
- Bugscope Teamthis is really cool -- a mite on the abdomen of the waso
- Bugscope Teamwasp
- Bugscope TeamUm it is on top but you can't see it -- there is not much to see
- TeacherWhat insect is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is a true bug of some sort. You labelled it as the small black fly.
- Bugscope Teamoften the head is so tiny it does not look like much
- Bugscope Teamthis is a small beetle like insect that is actually a true bug
- 1:03 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the spruce budworm antenna
- Bugscope Teamor atleast a small part of it
- Bugscope Teamtrue bugs are Hemiptera, and they are distinct in that they have piercing mouthparts, among other features
- Bugscope Teamyou are doing a great job driving
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the segments of the antenna
- Bugscope Teamwe are sorry but we had to pull the longhorn beetle you sent off of the stub today
- Teacherwhy is the hair coming out of the eye
- Bugscope Teamnow because the focus on this seems to have slipped, you can actually adjust it if you would like
- Bugscope Teamthe hair helps the bug determine the speed of the wind as it flies
- Bugscope Teamfor example mechanically, by bending and sending a signal to the nerves
- Bugscope Teamor chemically, by being triggered to react via some scent in the air
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called setae, and the functions are mechanosensory or chemosensory
- Bugscope TeamIn fact, insects "taste" using setate
- Bugscope Teamthis is a mire in which you can see the head, but it is tiny
- TeacherIs the tail on the bottom?
- 1:08 pm
- Bugscope Teammite
- Bugscope Teamthe head is to the bottom of the screen
- Bugscope Teamso that larger element is the head
- Bugscope Teamit does not have eyes
- Bugscope Teamtho earlier in the week we did we a mite with eyes
- Bugscope Teamrecently we found a mite with eyes, and it looked so very strange
- Bugscope Teamd'oh
- Teacherhow common are mites on insects? Are they only on live insects? Or dead ones?
Bugscope TeamThey seem to be pretty common
- Bugscope Teamhi scott!
- Teacherhi
- Bugscope Teamoops, sorry about that everyone
- Bugscope Teamwell they get on when they are alive, and then they 'go down with the ship'
- Teacherhi annie
- Bugscope Teamactually sometimes it is true that mites will arrive after the insect dies
- Teacherwhat is this
Bugscope Teamthis is a small section of a very large milliede
- Bugscope Teamlike a dust mite could get on a dead insect
- Bugscope Teamwe have seen what we think are dustmites on ladybugs that died overwintering in a house
- Bugscope Teammillipede
- Bugscope Teamthis millipede scared me when I opened the package it was in
- Bugscope Teamit was so big, like a giant worm or small snake
- Bugscope Teamwe tought "why would anyone need to use a microscope to look at this/"
- Bugscope Teamthought
- Bugscope Teammillipedes are arthropods, but they are not insects
- Bugscope Teambut it is so cool -- it turned out to have lots of mites
- Bugscope Teamit was a pretty funny sight because scott isn't one to yell out like that
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ventral side - the underside
- 1:14 pm
- Teacherhow long is it?
- Bugscope Teamyeah I had an audience to my dismay
- Bugscope Teamit was I think about 4 inches or what is that 10 cm?
- Bugscope Teamhahah
- Bugscope TeamI dropped it on the floor
- Bugscope Teamnow whenever I touch it it makes me itch
- Teacherwhat does the warning mean?
Bugscope Teamif you got a warning trying to lower the mag, it's because you have reached the limit. it can;t go any lower
- Bugscope TeamI think some of the mites abandon ship for the next warm body, although millipedes are not warm
- Bugscope Teamyou can find mites we did not see earlier
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the proboscis of the female mosquito you sent
- Bugscope Teamthe proboscis is a sort of sheath that has the lancet -- the sharp part -- inside
- Bugscope Teamwhen the mosquito bites the lancet comes out and sticks into your skin
- Bugscope Teamit is serrated at the end like a steak knife
- Teachermy students are sketching this right now. Tristian is guessing that we are looking at the sucker thing. Is he correct?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- 1:19 pm
- Bugscope Teamyeah it is the tip of the tube through which the blood goes
- TeacherHow do you sex a mosquito?
- Bugscope Teamtheir antennae are different
- Bugscope Teamfor one
- Bugscope TeamThe mosquito also injects a chemical that keeps your blood from coagulating. Many people are allergic to this compound, which is what make mosquito bites itech
- Bugscope Teamitch
- Bugscope Teamand males do not try to bite
- TeacherAre males larger than females?
Bugscope TeamFemales are generally larger in insects. They need to be larger to carry around all those eggs.
- Bugscope Teamonly the females bite
- Bugscope TeamI think that the antennae are the main way that people use to tell males for females. Also, if a mosquito is biting you, it is a female
- Bugscope Teammaybe in some species there is a size difference, Annie may know
- Bugscope Teamyeah that would be the main difference. the female is the one that bites!
- Bugscope Teamit seems like males have more ornate antennae
- TeacherWhat is the thing to the upper right that looks like it has plates on it?
- Bugscope TeamYes, males have very very fuzzy plumose antennae
- Bugscope TeamAnnie is an entomologist, and she keeps us on the straight and narrow
- Bugscope Teamthe things that look like plates, or shingles, are scales
- Bugscope Teamscales are kind of like feathers
- Bugscope TeamHa ha, sometimes...I apparently can't spell or type today!
- TeacherWhat are the scales on?
- Bugscope Teammosquitos, moths, butterflies, skippers, silverfish, and a few odd other insects have scales
- Bugscope Teamprobably one of the legs
- Bugscope TeamThe scales make the mosquito slippery. The scales readily fall off, helping the insect to slip out of the grasp of predators
- TeacherCould we take a look at the antannea?
- Bugscope Teamcan you take the mag down and see?
- Bugscope TeamI am afraid the antennae are gone but you can look and see where they were
- 1:24 pm
- Bugscope Teamif you change the magnificatio so that is is lower and then perhaps move to the north a little
- Bugscope Teamnow we see that the thing with scales was a leg
- Bugscope Teamand the head is to the north
- Bugscope Teamyou can see part of the wings too
- TeacherWe love this.
- Bugscope Teamnow see the head?
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are hard to keep on mosquitoes. they fall off easily
- Bugscope Teamthe things that look like tiny donuts are not eyes but the bases of the antennae
- TeacherSo, are the antennea missing from this one?
Bugscope Teamyes. they would be attached to the 2 small round balls you see on the head
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes are much larger and rounded -- they cover almost the whole head
- Bugscope TeamMosquitos are not very robust insects. They have to be very light to sneak up and bite their hosts.
- Bugscope Teamtheir antennae are not very robust for sure
- Bugscope Teamnow you can start to see the facets of the eyes
- TeacherThis is too cool!
- Bugscope Teamthe little round things packed together are ommatidia -- the individual facets of the eyes
- Bugscope Teamthis is fun, isn't it? and it's critters you sent, for the most part
- Teacherwhat is the big round thing under the anteanna socket?
- Bugscope Teamthis is an abnormally well-travelled mosquito
- 1:30 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe thing with the two clefts in it is the base of the mouth
- Bugscope Teamor the base of the proboscis
- Bugscope Teamsee how there are scales everywhere?
- Bugscope Teamthe donut shapes held the antennae, and the antennae fall of so easily
- Bugscope Teamthis is the ant
- TeacherIs this the mouth?
- Bugscope Teamits eyes are mostly covered up by its antennae
- Bugscope Teamyes!
- Bugscope Teamthe mouth, with its hinged jaws
- Bugscope Teamand lots of stuff sticking out of it
- TeacherThis class will have to leave soon, and a new group will join me. Please be patient with us!
- Bugscope Teamwe have 'til 2 our time
- TeacherWe'll keep looking and asking questions with the new class!
- Bugscope Teamis it like 10:35 there?
- Bugscope Teamall of the images you take will be saved to your school's database, which may be accessed using your session number
- Bugscope Teamso they will exist on the web forever
- 1:35 pm
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see the low dome that is the eye
- Bugscope Teamsort of shadowed by the antenna
- Bugscope Teamyou can tell, in a way, that the antennae are often much more important to an ant than its eyes
- Bugscope Teamit gets most of its information via its antennae
- Bugscope Teamit is tiny setae sticking out of the top of its head
- Teacherwhat is a setae?
Bugscope Teamsetae or for singular seta, are hairs found on insects
- Bugscope Team*has* tiny setae
- TeacherMy 5th hour calss has arrived! They will have many questions.
- Bugscope TeamCool!
- 1:40 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the Aztec salt from Wendy's
- Bugscope Teamwe think it has anticlumping agents on it that make it look so complex
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the [rp
- Bugscope Teamproboscis
- TeacherShe says it looks like velcoro on the lancet! What is the velcro looking stuff?
- Bugscope Teamthose are tiny setae that probably have a sensory function
- Bugscope Teamsome insects have special pads of setae that looks and acts like velcro. you would see those on the insects that can walk up walls and ceilings
- Bugscope Teammosquitos can tell where you are by sensing the CO2 you give off when you breathe
- Bugscope Teamthe Ant!
- 1:45 pm
- Teacherwhat does an ant eat?
- Bugscope Teamthey eat lots of things, but they really like sweet syrupy liquids
- Teacherwhat are those little ball like things under the jaw?
- Bugscope Teammany insects have evolved special defenses against ants
- Teacherwhat sort of defense have insects evolved?
- Bugscope Teamfor example some aphids release a wax that hardens very quickly in air and can disable an ant
- Bugscope Teamthe ant gets stuck in the wax
- Bugscope Teamthe main defense is their own exoskeleton, but there are specialization that some have developed like the stink bug emits an odor that wards of others
- Bugscope Teamand many insects have chemical sprays that help deter ants -- keep them from attacking
- Bugscope Teamand then ants, wasps, and bees have stingers
- 1:51 pm
- Teacherwhat part of the wasp is the mite on?
- Bugscope Teamthis is the abdomen
- Bugscope Teamone of the segments of the abdomen
- Teacherare those sticks hair?
Bugscope Teamthose little spikes are setae yes
- Bugscope Teamif you take the mag down you can see where you are
- Bugscope Teamthis is on the wasp, which had a bit of dust on it, which leads me to believe this is a dust mite
- Bugscope Teamit looks very much like a dustmite for sure
- Bugscope Teamlook at the eyes!
- Teacherwhat is this?
- Bugscope Teamand you can see the antennae
- Bugscope Teamit's some sort of true bug -- Hemiptera
- Teacherwhat are the little parts to eye called?
- Bugscope Teamommatidia
- Bugscope Teamthe facets of the eye, each of which produces its own image
- 1:56 pm
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we see eyes that are broken open, and some of them are actually, apparently, crystalline
- Bugscope Teamlike lenses
- Bugscope Teamcan I try focusing this a little better?
- Bugscope Teamthat is better -- something had moved since we set this up
- 2:01 pm
- TeacherMy students are sketching this image!
- TeacherHow much longer do we have in our session?
- Bugscope Teamcgp we have to go
- Bugscope Teamyou can access all your images and chat on your member page http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-038/
- Bugscope Teambe sure to email us if you have any other questions
- TeacherSo long! Thanks you!
- Bugscope Teamso you can pull up all of the images from this session and make drawings whenever you wish
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope Teamthank you for all your questions, and we hope to see you again!