Connected on 2008-12-02 09:30:00
from , NY, US
- 8:18 am
- Bugscope Teampumping down
- GuestWhat are you looking at today?
- Bugscope Teamcaddis fly larvae, stone fly larvae, one black fly larva, a beetle, and a porcupine quill
- 8:31 am
- Bugscope Teamgood morning johnnie
- GuestFollwed a blog link to this site - incredible
- Bugscope Teamcool! We are just setting up for a session that is taking place in an hour
- GuestLooks great. I am with Ontario Ministry of Education and will share this site with our Science Education Officer
- 8:37 am
- Bugscope TeamWow that sounds great!
- 8:42 am
- 8:49 am
- 8:56 am
- 9:02 am
- 9:09 am
- 9:18 am
- Teacherhello again
- Teacherit looks like our presets have changed, nice variety
- GuestThis is fantastic! It looks like a horror movie!
- Bugscope Teamhello the session is unlocked
- GuestThe antenna of stonefly looks almost telescopic.
- Bugscope TeamYeah they do look telescopic.
- Guesthow did the porcupine quill get in the mix?
- Bugscope TeamGood morning Ms. Faville!
- Bugscope TeamMs. F sent it with the beetle.
- TeacherGood morning how's it going today?
- Bugscope TeamGood!
- Bugscope TeamWe always have to make new presets when someone else has used the 'scope, and of course we didn't want them to be the same as yesterday. If we could help it.
- 9:23 am
- Bugscope TeamAlso, we figured out which end of the blackfly larva is the head.
- Teachervery nice are the hydras still available to view?
- Bugscope TeamWe didn't see them this time. I got our pond scum guy to identify them, though.
- Bugscope TeamThey're called Salpingoeca fusiformis.
- Teacherwhat were they?
- Bugscope Teamthey aren't hydra -- I'm sorry.
- Bugscope Teamwith that genus species you can easily look them up on the web, or I can send you the links Mark sent.
- Bugscope TeamWe'll have to find another new species for your school.
- Bugscope TeamAnnie!
- Bugscope Teamhello all!
- Bugscope TeamAnnie is our entomologist. She won't let us, for example, tell students that lobsters are just big insects with extra antennae.
- Teachernice images of the diatoms
- TeacherThanks Annie for joining us today
- Bugscope Teamit is interesting that the caddisfly larvae seem to have opposable thumbs.
- 9:28 am
- Bugscope TeamI am happy to help out
- Bugscope Teamoh this moved a little since we set it
- Bugscope Teamnice-liookin' diatom
- Bugscope Teamlookin'
- Bugscope Teamthat was Russian, I guess
- Bugscope TeamI don't know how much help I will be with pond scum
- Guestmy students are asking what is beetle palp?
- Bugscope Teamthat's just for some of the closeups, Annie
- Bugscope TeamA palp is one of the various parts of an insect's mouth
- Bugscope TeamPalps can help the insect to taste and to manipulate its food
- GuestHow big can a caddisfly get?
Bugscope Teamthey can get up to 20mm long according to one source of information
- 9:34 am
- Bugscope TeamThere are 12,000 species...
- Studenthow many cells does the caddisfly have
- Bugscope Teamthey will have thousands and thousands of cells
- Studenthow long can they live
Bugscope TeamI think that most caddisflies have a one year life cycle, but I imagine that like some other aquatic insects, the larvae may take several years to develop.
Bugscope TeamTo clarify, some species may spend two or more years in the larval form
- Teacherits amazing the perpective when you zoom out
- TeacherThe students were wondering what the specimen is mounted on
Bugscope Teamwe put everything on an aluminum stub with double stick carbon tape (the bubbly stuff in the background
- 9:39 am
- Bugscope TeamYeah we often plan it so that you will have a sort of dramatic view when you pull back.
- Bugscope Teamwhere it looks smooth in the background is where we put silver paint to help ground the charge as well as help the insects stick to the carbon tape
- Bugscope Teamthis is in a small cleft between segments on the dorsal side of a caddisfly larva
- Studentwhat eats the them and what do they eat?
Bugscope TeamCaddisflies eat a variety of foods. Some eat mold and little single celled organisms. Others are predators. Fish, amphibians, and aquatic invertebrates like crayfish will eat caddisfly larvae and pupae. The adults are eaten by birds, bats, lizards, and fish (when the adults land on the water),
- Guestif the caddisfly can get to be 20mm long, how big can there claw get?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a place in which the silk spin by the larva has trapped a lot of diatoms
- Bugscope Teamthe caddisfly larvae go through a large number of molts during that time
- Guestwhere do they live
- StudentSorry i meant what eats them and what do they eat
Bugscope TeamThe Caddisfly Larva eats algae and plants (living and dead). Some species feed on other insects and spin silky nets to capture their prey. Some eat the larvae of other Caddisfly species, while others scrape algae from stones or plants, or shred leaf litter.
- Guestwho eats them
- Bugscope TeamWhat eats them is other insects and maybe fish and birds
- Studentcan they be used for anthting important in our life?
Bugscope TeamThey are very important sources of food for birds and other small animals (fish too). They are also important species that can indicate the healthy of streams.
- Bugscope Teamlike a lot of seemingly inconsequential organisms, they have a role that might surprise you
- 9:44 am
- Bugscope Teamif they were not part of the system we might not have certain fish to eat, for example
- Bugscope TeamSome people even make jewelry out of caddisfly cases!
- Guesthow small are the eggs? and THANKS - we really enjoyed this!!
- Studentwhat type of water do they live in and does it have to be in a certain tempature????
Bugscope TeamCaddisflies live in freshwater--usually streams, although I believe that there are a few species that can live in lakes. Caddisflies are very sensitive to water temperature, dissolved oxygen, and polutants. Some species can only live in clean, cold streams. That is why caddisflies are used by biologists to determine the health of streams
- Teacherdo they have an incomplete or complete life cycle?
Bugscope TeamThey have complete metamorphosis. They are in fact, most closely related to butterflies and moths.
- Teacherwe just visited a caddisfly larva jewelry site :)
- TeacherAre caddisfly endemic to any particular area of the world
Bugscope TeamI believe they are found all over the world, with the exception of Antarctica.
- Bugscope TeamMost caddisflies are univoltine, completing a life history cycle in one year.
- Studentthank you very much :)
- 9:50 am
- GuestThanks for letting us look
- Studentwhat do they do in the winter do they go into the mud and make those houses
Bugscope TeamWell, usually, the temperature of the water does not change too much between the seasons. So you can usually find active caddisfly larvae during even the coldest months. I once collected caddisfly larvae in the snow.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the one terrestrial insect on the stub today
- Bugscope Teama beetle
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the palps -- one of the feeding mouthparts
- TeacherThe students wondered what a palp is?
Bugscope Teamit is found on the head and helps taste/manipulate its food
- Studentwhat are the hair on the legs and body
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called setae (see-tee), or seta, singular
- Studenthow big is a micro unit
- Bugscope Teamsetae are often sensory -- they help the insect sense its surroundings through the exoskeleton
- Bugscope Teammicro in this case means one millionth
- TeacherHow closely related to hair are the setae
- 9:55 am
- Bugscope Teama micrometer, or micron, is one millionth of a meter. it is also one thousandth of a millimeter
- Bugscope Teamthey are often called hair, even by entomologists, but they are not like mammalian hair
- StudentWhat insect is it related to?
Bugscope TeamCaddisflies (order Trichoptera) are closely related the butterflies and moths (Order Lepidoptera)
- Teacherdo they take care of there eggs..=)
- Bugscope Teamsetae can be mechanosensory, like cat or rat whiskers, and they can be chemosensory, detecting smells in the air, or pheromones; they can also be thermosensory and help the insect gauge temperature
- Studenthow many eggs do they lay at a time
- Bugscope TeamFemales deposit their eggs in strands or masses over the water, though some species crawl beneath the water’s surface to deposit eggs. Emergence and egg laying are especially vulnerable times for a caddisfly as many fish, especially trout, are quick to take notice of the readily available food source.
- 10:00 am
- Bugscope Teamthey dont watch over the eggs
- Studenthow long do they live
Bugscope TeamMost caddisflies have a one year life cycle. They probably only live a few days as adults. I don't think the adults feed.
- Bugscope TeamThe female will either drop down eggs on the surface as it flies along a stream or she will try to crawl/swim to the bottom of the stream to lay some there
- TeacherWhat is the function of the caddis claw
Bugscope TeamTo hold on to rocks
- Bugscope Teamprobably
- Bugscope Teamwell, better that probably. I know that most caddisflies use their claws to hang onto rocks or onto the insides of their cases
- Bugscope Teamthe claws likely also help the larva seize prey, if they are carnivorous
- Bugscope Teamnot all caddisflies live in cases
- Bugscope Teamthey all produce silk, however
- Bugscope TeamSome of the carnivorous larvae actually spin a sticky net to catch prey--kind of like a spider
- Studenthow old is this
Bugscope TeamThe larvae are probably less than one year old. It is hard to know exactly how old they are though.
- TeacherOne student asked if you were all out of college?
Bugscope TeamI am in graduate school. I am working on my PhD in entomology and I will graduate in May
Bugscope TeamI have a degree in Physics and work in the lab full time
- Studentwhere do you find this @
- 10:05 am
- TeacherIs the claw jointed? hinged?
Bugscope TeamThe terminal segment of the claw is not jointed or hinged--although each segment of the insect body is jointed.
- Bugscope Teamsorry Chaos is Cate right now
- Bugscope Teamor vice versa...
- Studenthow much money do you make
Bugscope TeamNot that much at this point
- Bugscope Teamthere now thats better
- Bugscope TeamChaos and I make more money than Annie because she is a grad student
- Studentuh how big is the microscope..
- Bugscope Teamsoon Annie will metamorphose and go out into the real world, where she will make more money
- TeacherFrom this vantage point can you see the eyes?
Bugscope TeamNo, this is the bottom of the head and the eyes are on the top/side
- Bugscope Teamthe microscope has its own room
- Bugscope TeamI sure hope so, as do my parents
- Bugscope Teamthe microscope is about the size of a large desk, but a little taller on one end
- Studenthow good is its seeing. can i see colors..=
- 10:11 am
- TeacherWe were wondering what mouth parts we were looking at exactly
Bugscope TeamYou can see the mandibles, the labium and part of the clypeus
- Bugscope TeamI think these particular caddisfly larvae do not have eyes -- we have been looking for them
- Bugscope TeamI stand corrected on eyes
- Bugscope Teamif you go to preset 9 you can see the compound eyes on a stonefly larva
- Studentwhen they see, do they see lots of things like, flies do?
- TeacherWhere does the thorax begin
- Bugscope TeamEach segment of the thorax bears a pair of legs. So the thorax start right where the head ends
- Bugscope Teamthe part where the crack is on the head is the compound eye
- Student if they break a leg will it grow back?
Bugscope Teamthey molt a few times. So they could get their leg back in the next molt
- 10:16 am
- TeacherHow often do they molt?
- StudentDo they have the same body parts of a ant?
- Bugscope TeamI believe they go through a number of molts
- Bugscope TeamCrusteaceans molt throughout their lives--I think it depends on their nutritional state...if they are nice and healthy, the molt more and grow larger than less healthy individuals
- Bugscope TeamI am not sure if there is a set number of molts.
- Teachercan you give us some points of reference?
- StudentIs this a boy or a girl
- 10:21 am
- Bugscope Teamwe have three different kinds of larva in the microscope, and it is hard to ensure that we are getting the info correct for each one. this is a blackfly larva, now
- Teacherok we are all on the same slide
- Bugscope Teamoften with insects it is difficult to tell the difference between males and females, although females are often larger.
- Bugscope Teamwith larva I think it is even harder to differentiate the sexes
- Bugscope Teamthis is the head of the blackfly larva. they do not have legs
- Bugscope TeamOK--STONEFLIES have the same parts as ants. All insects have six legs, two antennae, compound eyes, paired jointed appendages, and three body segments. The adults have two pairs of wings. The internal organs of stoneflies and ants are very similar
- Bugscope Teamalthough there is a central footlike appendage below the head, (above, here)
- Teacheris it comprised of setae
- Bugscope Teamlet's go see!
- Bugscope Teamthis is the appendage, the single appendage on the blackfly larva that is said to resemble a foot
- TeacherAre it sensory?
- Bugscope Teamit actually does resemble a proleg in a caterpillar, and it has little hooks as well, which in caterpillars are called crochets
- 10:28 am
- TeacherDoes it help to take in food?
- Bugscope Teami think it is used to help stabilize it in place-- like to grab onto things.
- Bugscope Teamyesterday was the first time I had seen one of these
- Bugscope Teamand reading about it -- well I didn't find the right thing to read, yet
- Teacherwow another discovery!
- Bugscope TeamI think Cate is right -- that the blackfly larva attaches to the substrate at its base end, way above, and then it filter feeds, and that this helps anchor the head when necessary
- Bugscope Teamif you drive north you can see the tail, which is more bulbous
- Bugscope Teamyes Ms. Faville we are happy that you sent aquatic larvae, which we rarely see, but we are sad not to have ready answers
- Bugscope Teamyou remember click to stop from yesterday ;)
- Bugscope Teamthankfully because of you, if it comes up again, we will seem maybe a little more knowledgable :)
- Bugscope Teamthis, on the left, is the smooth part of the porcupine quill
- 10:33 am
- Teacherwe also are raising brook trout in our classroom so this exercise ties in nicely
- Bugscope Teamwow!
- Bugscope Teamyou can feed these larvae to them as a tasty snack
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tip of the antenna of one of the stonefly larvae
- Teacherwe wanted a peek at the annentae preset before we left!
- Bugscope Teamlikely it is broken at the tip
- Teacherwe are suprised to see that its hollow
- Bugscope TeamI took an aquatic entomology class in college, but we do not have black flies in our area, so I don't know too too much about them!
- Bugscope Teamwe see that a lot--hollow antennae
- TeacherYou're lucky you don't have blackflies in your area!
- Bugscope TeamWhen the insect is alive there are muscle fibers and nerves that run throughout the antenna, but when the insect dies, those parts decompose rather quickly
- Bugscope Teamthat is a good point -- I was just thinking I was not so thrilled with the cold here
- Bugscope TeamI know!! I have visited places where there are blackflies and that is not too much fun!
- TeacherThank you so much for our session :)
- 10:38 am
- Bugscope Teamwhen you do bugscope, insects become prey
- Bugscope Teamthanks again for joining us and letting us lok at your larvae
- Bugscope TeamYes Thank You Ms Faville!
- Bugscope Teamremember you can visit your member page to check out the chat and iimages from the session at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2008-110/
- Bugscope Teamthe same is true for yesterday's session
- Bugscope TeamWe are going to shut down. Thank you, everyone!