Connected on 2009-10-08 09:00:00
from , LA, US
- 9:05 am
- Bugscope Teamok, we cleared chat for the school.. we are ready anytime
- 9:13 am
- Bugscope Teamhey there. Welcome to bugscope
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope Team+
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome
- Bugscope TeamYou have control of the 'scope. Good to go!
- Bugscope Teamearlier we had some visitors, and we cleared chat from that...
- TeacherHi. sorry we are late. I have first graders today!
- Bugscope Teamno problemo
- Teacherwhat are we looking at?
- Bugscope Teamthis is a claw, on a beetle
- Bugscope Teammost insects have claws of some kind
- Guestwhat is that!
- Bugscope Teamit's a beetle claw
- Bugscope Teamthe claws are used to grab onto things like their food
- Bugscope TeamLook at all of the sticky pads further up the 'arm'!
- Guestwhat is the hair used for?
Bugscope TeamSince insects wear their skeletons on the outside of their bodies, like a coat of armor, they need those hairs to help them sense the environment. The hairs stick out of the "armour" , but connect to their nervous system.
- Bugscope TeamI was going to say that this beetle could not climb walls, but apparently it could.
- GuestHow do they use it!!!
Bugscope Teamwell, they use it a lot like a hand, except they don't have individual fingers so it's not as detailed control. but the claw works for shoving food towards their mouths, or defending themselves against other insects
- Guestwhat are we looking at
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of six claws, on one of this beetle's six legs
- Bugscope Teamthis is a claw of a beetle, sonic. and can i get a cheeseburger with fries please?
- 9:18 am
- Guesthow long do they live
Bugscope TeamMost insects live about a year, from the time that they are an egg to the time they die as adults. There are lots of variations though, for example, fruit flies will have a generation every few weeks.
- Bugscope Teamthe claws pinch together to grasp things. there is a tendon inside the 'forearm' that pulls down to close the claws together
- Guesthow long do beetle live for
Bugscope Teamas Annie says, most insects live about a year. In warmer climates they may live longer.
- Bugscope Teamsome Mayflies live only a few hours once they become adults.
- Bugscope Teambe sure to go to another place on the sample!
- Bugscope Teamnow we see those cool pads on the tarsi!
- Bugscope Teambetter
- 9:23 am
- Bugscope Teamand remember you have many other presets to choose from, on the right of the chat box
- Bugscope Teamwe just saw the mosquito
- Bugscope Teamthere she is!
- GuestIs it a bug or a isect?
Bugscope TeamA mosquito is an insect. All bugs are insects, but not all insects are bugs.
- Bugscope Teamher proboscis is pointing up toward us
- Bugscope Teamblue would you like control of the 'scope?
- Teachersomehow I logged out and had to relog in sorry
- Bugscope Teamno problem
- Guestwhat is that ?
- Bugscope Teamno problem blue, we just transfered control to you.... hey that rhymed!!
- Bugscope Teamthat is a mosquito! it's a female, and those are the ones that suck your blood. the males don't bite.
- TeacherIt is not letting me change the pictures
Bugscope Teamhmm, try hitting refresh (f5) and try again
- Bugscope TeamI just made that change to see if it would work for me.
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of the mosquito
- Bugscope Teamok, that's you zooming out, right blue, so it's working again... yay!
- Guestis it a bug or a insect
Bugscope TeamThis is an insect. This is a type of fly.
- Guestwhat are the bumpy things?
Bugscope TeamThose are the individual facets of the mosquitos compound eye.
- Bugscope Teamit is a little desiccated - a little dried out since the mosquito died
- Bugscope Teammosquitos are insects but not 'true bugs'
- 9:29 am
- Bugscope Teameach one of those bumps has an eye lens in it
- Bugscope Teamthe facets of the eye are also called 'ommatidia.'
- Guestwhat are those bumpy things?
Bugscope Teamthey are the individual facets of the compound eye, called ommatidia. each one has a lens in it
- Guestwhy do they need s many lens?
Bugscope Teamif you had a compound eye like that you would have better peripheral vision -- you would be able to see more without moving your head
- Bugscope Teamwhen the mosquito was alive the ommatidia were very round; now they are a little deflated
- Bugscope Teamflying insects have very good eyesight, due to the thousands of facets in the compound eye
- Bugscope Teamsee how the compound eye wraps around the entire head? that's how this mosquito has such good vision, it can see your hand from anywhere before you try to swat it!
- TeacherWe lots of mosquitos in Louisiana. How many different types are there?
Bugscope Teamthere are about 3500 different species of mosquito in the world
- Bugscope Teamalso, if you had compound eyes, you would have a better ability to see motion. that is, you would get faster updates about the world around you, and you would be able to respond more quickly
- Bugscope Teambut if you had compound eyes your friends might make fun of you
- Bugscope Teamyou would have to tell them that it was the coolest new thing
- Guestwhat is that thing coming out of that thing?????
Bugscope Teamthere is its mouthpart called a proboscis coming out of its mouth area (lower part of the head), and above that out of the circle is one of its antenna
- Guesthow fast do they fly
Bugscope TeamMosquitos fly between 1 and 1.5 miles per hour.
- Bugscope Teamthe little round things in the middle of the head, like little donuts, are the bases of the antennae
- 9:34 am
- GuestWhare is it?
Bugscope Teamwhere is the antenna? or the proboscis?
- Teacherwhy do they like water so much?
Bugscope Teampart of the mosquito's lifecycle is spent in the water. the females lay their eggs in water, and that is where the larvae grow
- Guestdo they have a nest
Bugscope TeamMosquitoes don't form a nest really, some lay their eggs in a type of raft that floats on the water, others lay their eggs in or on grass or other plants.
- GuestWhare is the boty at???????????
Bugscope Teamthe body is below, to the south. your teacher can drive down there
- Bugscope Teamthe reason female mosquitoes want so badly to bite is because they need that blood to be able to successfully lay their eggs in the water
- Bugscope Teamah this is a dragonfly!
- Bugscope Teamthe dragonfly is a predator. it eats other insects
- 9:39 am
- Guestcool
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its jaws, crossed in the middle of the head there. they are small and pointed
- TeacherHow long do they live?
Bugscope TeamLike most insects, about a year.
- Guestwhere is its mouth
Bugscope TeamThe mouth in in the middle of the screen...the large square part is the bottom of the mouth
- GuestIs thare bumpy things on the eyes?
Bugscope Teamyes! see the facets of the eyes? there are thousands of them!
- Bugscope Teamsee the pointed jaws?
- Guestwhat does it eat
Bugscope TeamDragonflies eat other animals. As adults they eat other flying insects. As immature forms, they live under the water where they eat other insects, tadpoles, fish, slugs...anything that is smaller than them.
- Bugscope Teamone of the presets is a high magnification of the tip of the jaw, and we can see brochosomes on it that come only from leafhoppers, so we can say it is likely that the dragonfly ate a leafhopper.
- Guestyes i see it
- Bugscope Teamthere are two jaws like that, and one is folded over the other. insect mouths open from side to side, not like ours
- Bugscope Teamyou can see one of the dragonfly's tiny little claws to the very lower left
- 9:44 am
- Bugscope Teamdragonflies and praying mantises remind me of Tyrannosaurus rex because their forelimbs are so small.
- GuestSo why is thare 1000s of eyes?
Bugscope Teamflying insects often do have thousands of facets in their compound eyes, and it is because vision is very important to them
- Bugscope TeamDragonflies have a mouth that they extend like an arm. The bottom lip has spikes that the dragonfly uses to spear its prey.
- Teachercan we see the grasshopper head? I can't pick it..
Bugscope TeamOops I can't either...
- Bugscope Teamthere we are!
- Teacherthanks!
- Bugscope TeamI came over to the microscope and drove there using the microscope controls
- Bugscope Teamnear the mouth of the grasshopper we can see little 'limbs' called palps that it uses to help feed itself
- 9:50 am
- Bugscope Teamthat is one of the palps
- Guestdo they have one antenna
Bugscope TeamThey have two antennae.
- Guestdo they have one anntenna
- Bugscope Teamand now we can see one of the forlegs as well
- Guestdo they have one anntenna
- GuestDoes it have two antennas?
Bugscope TeamYes, all insects have two antennae.
- Bugscope TeamThe antennae on this specimen may be broken
- TeacherYikes
- Bugscope TeamYou can see the antenna by the eye.
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that one of the antennae is broken, as Annie says.
- Bugscope Teamwhen insects die, they dry out so their limbs and antennae can pop off really easily
- Bugscope Teamthe grasshopper has a compound eye but it is not as large, and its facets -- the ommatidia -- are very smooth
- Bugscope Teamhey cool!
- Bugscope TeamYikes!
- Bugscope Teamwe think this is an aphid, but it is hard to tell
- Bugscope TeamIs the one of mine?
Bugscope Teamyes I think it is from your collection
- Bugscope Teamit seems to have antlers!
- Guestwhat is a aphid
- Guestwhat is a aphid
- Bugscope TeamHmmmm.....
- Bugscope TeamIs it black and white?
- Guestwhat is an aphid?
Bugscope TeamAn aphid is a small insect, usually with a soft body, that suck juices from plants. They can transmit plant diseases
- 9:55 am
- Guestwhat is coming out of its head?
Bugscope TeamThose are the antennae
- Bugscope Teamit does not have cornicles, as far as I could tell
- Bugscope TeamSee, there are two antennae.
- Bugscope Teamand you can see its proboscis
- Guestthe one in the middle also?
- GuestWhat is that hole???
Bugscope Teamthat is where it had been pinned when it was in Annie's collection
- Bugscope Teamthe one in the middle is its proboscis, what it feeds with
- Bugscope TeamTHis is a type of water bug...a mesovelid. They are very small and black and they skit about on the surface of ponds.
- Bugscope TeamThe front legs are short and they are used to catch prey. You can see the sharp spikes on the front legs.
- Bugscope TeamI thought this was an aphid, but it is a water bug, as Annie says
- Guesthow big is it?
Bugscope TeamIt is very small...a couple of millimeters.
- Bugscope Teamif you look at the lower left corner of the viewing screen you can see a scalebar
- Teacherwhat does it eat?
Bugscope TeamIt eats smaller insects and other arthropods...anything smaller than it.
- Bugscope Teamthe thing that looks like an upside down h is a Greek letter 'mu'
- Guestdoes it have 8 legs
Bugscope TeamNope, it has 6 legs. All insects have six legs, while spiders and arachnids have 8.
- Teachercool
- Bugscope Team824 um is 0.824 millimeters
- Guestcool
- Teacherthanks for sharing with us!
- 10:00 am
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamThis was fun for us!
- Guestthanks
- Bugscope TeamThank you for excellent questions.
- Guestthanks
- Bugscope Teamthanks for hanging out with us!
- Bugscope Teamhere is your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-024/
- 10:15 am