Connected on 2009-02-19 10:00:00
from , MS, US
- 9:37 am
- Bugscope Teamsession is ready to go
- 9:47 am
- Bugscope TeamI think if I had super long legs and a small body I might need stronger tenent setae to help stick down in the wind.
- Bugscope Teamit's like everything including the claws is elongated.
- Bugscope Teamyeah
- 9:56 am
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamhello, let us know when you have any questions, and you can go ahead and start driving the scope when you are ready
- TeacherWhat is it?
Bugscope Teamthis is a fly head
- TeacherMy students said ewwwww!
- Bugscope Teamhehe we like to go for that gross out factor sometimes
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eyes and its tongue, and one of its claws on the left, waving to the students
- Bugscope Teamone of the compound eyes is caved in
- Bugscope Teamyou can take the mag up if you wish
- TeacherWill you go through all of the insects on the menu?
- Bugscope Teamand you can drive to the eye to take a look at the individual ommatidia -- the facets of the eye
- 10:01 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can click on a preset when you'd like and the 'scope will drive you to that place
- Bugscope Teamtoday we have available a leafhopper, bumblebee, a parasitic wasp, a small beetle, an assassin bug, mosquito, a couple owlfly larvae, a butterfly, a fly, and salt from wendy's
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the mouthparts, and to the right you can see pollen grains!
- Bugscope Teampretty cool
- Bugscope Teamthe head is covered with microsetae -- tiny little hairs
- Bugscope Teamif you click to adjust, you can change the brightness if it is too bright on your screen
- Bugscope Teamyou are driving A $600,000 scanning electron microscope from your school
- Bugscope Teamthe small pods are what we think is pollen
- Bugscope Teamwe are on the butterfly proboscis (AKA tongue)
- Teacherwhy are the hairs moving on the butterfly tongue?
Bugscope Teamthe electron beam is powerful enough to move small things in the microscope if they aren't held down well enough. These hairs are a good example of that
- 10:07 am
- Teachercool!!
- TeacherWhat does the owlfly larva use its claw for?
Bugscope TeamOwlfly larvae are fierce predators, and they have large jaws to impale their prey. The claws help them grasp things, like tiny hands.
- Bugscope TeamOwlflies are related to antlions and look much like them
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the eyes, which are on little stalks
- 10:12 am
- Bugscope Teamthe threadlike stuff is fungus that got on the owlfly larva after it died
- Bugscope Teamthose orblike things are eye facets
- Teacherwhat is buglike creature on the orbs?
Bugscope Teamthose are setae (insect hairs) this type of insect has, which are very different looking than any other setae we usually see
- Bugscope Teamthey look more like cacti
- TeacherYeah , you're right.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a type of true bug called an assassin bug
- Bugscope Teamit preys on other insects and pierces them with its proboscis
- TeacherIt looks pretty fierce
- 10:17 am
- Bugscope Teamsome caterpillars exude little droplets of nasty chemicals to dissuade other insects from eating them. the assassin bug can spear them and avoid those droplets
- TeacherThat looks like antlers
Bugscope Teamthese are the powerful snapping jaws of the owlfly larva
- Bugscope Teamthey are much like those of a snapjaw ant
- Bugscope Teamthis is the tarsus (the forearm segments of the arm or leg) of a super tiny weevil
- Bugscope Teamit has a smooth round body but you can see it has these flattened setae or perhaps scales on its arms/legs
- Bugscope Teamsee the micron scale bar in the lower left corner of the viewing screen?
- Bugscope Teamthis small beetle is upside down, and i apologize since i was in charge of making the sample. It was very very small and hard to grasp
- Bugscope Teamthe units are the Greek letter 'mu' and an m. Meaning micrometer, or micron. A micron is one millionth of a meter or one thousandth of a millimeter
- 10:23 am
- Bugscope TeamCate did a great job not mashing the little beetle, which was so small it looked like the head of an ant
- Bugscope Teambacteria, which we could see if there were any, are often just 2 microns in length
- TeacherWhat is the tubelike structure in the mouth area?
Bugscope Teamthat looks to be a broken palp. Palps are used to manipulate/taste food
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the little beetle also has jaws that close from the sides, like a gate
- TeacherIt looks like a bunch of grapes or olives
- Bugscope Teamyes they do!
- TeacherIt looks like each one has a fingerprint
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see individual features on the surface of the eye facets
- 10:28 am
- Bugscope Teamants usually have much less complex eyes with very few ommatida
- Bugscope Teamcompound eyes usually have this hexagon pattern to them
- Bugscope Teamthat's because the shape of the hexagon most fits the curvature of the eye
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that there are spiracles on each segment of the abdomen on this wasp, and although we cannot see them all now, there is one on each side
- TeacherThank you for explaining this information to us.
- 10:34 am
- Bugscope Teamwasps and bees have four wings, unlike flies, which have two
- Bugscope Teamyou're welcome, you are doing a great job
- 10:40 am
- Bugscope Teamdw is there going to be a second class on today?
- Bugscope Teamthe chat and images from today's session can be reached anytime you want at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2009-009/
