Connected on 2009-04-30 10:00:00
from , GA, US
- 9:42 am
- TeacherGood morning we are here and ready to go
- Bugscope Teamhi, welcome to bugscope, we are still setting up presets
- Bugscope Teamif you totally want to start right now, we can, but we can also make more persets for you
- Teacherwe will wait until you are ready, we are eating our lunch and looking at the pictures
- Bugscope Teamok, cool
- 9:48 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are almost done here...
- Bugscope Teamone more preset
- Bugscope Teamwell, maybe a couple more...
- Bugscope Teamok, we are ready!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome!
- Bugscope TeamReady to roll.
- Bugscope Teamyou should see controls on your right, navigation, magnify, focus, etc.
- Bugscope Teamyou can also click any of the presets, and the scope will move to that location
- 9:53 am
- Bugscope Teamif you have any problems seeing the images (black image) try refresh (F5) to refresh your browser and that should fix it
- Bugscope Teamthis is the underside of an ant's head
- TeacherWe're ready as well
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its mouthparts; part of its thorax, and its antennae
- Bugscope Teamthe magnification is 41x here, and you can see the scale bar in the lower right, the ants head is about 1.25 mm wide
- Bugscope Teamlower left
- Bugscope Teamok, if you have any questions about controlling the scope, please just ask, otherwise, it is yours, drive away!
- TeacherMrs. Stanley is reading your comments to the kids
Bugscope Teamah, so the kids can't see the screen?
- Bugscope Teamah yes, scale bar is in lower right
- Bugscope Teamahhhhh, scale bar is in lower left... left...
- Teacherjust clicked on center andwe lost the picture
- Bugscope Teamhit f5
- Bugscope Teamcan you refresh (F5)?
- Bugscope Teamsee now?
- Bugscope Teamthe little branched structures we see now are palps
- TeacherHow many parts are in the mouth and what does he actually bite with?
Bugscope Teamit uses with jaws to bite things with, they are near the top of the image
- Teacherdo I want to click on drive to move the picture up and down
- Bugscope Teamuse click to center
- Bugscope Teamclick to center is a little easier to use than click to drive, but you should try both and use whatever you prefer
- 9:58 am
- Bugscope Teamthe jaws themselves are at the top of the image
- Bugscope Teamthey open like a gate
- Bugscope Teamwhen using click to drive, just remember to click once to start moving, then you must click again to stop
- Bugscope Teamsome ant jaws are so small that we would not be able to feel them bite us
- TeacherWhat are the hair-like things on the jaws?
Bugscope Teamthose hairs are called setae (see-tee). they are kind of like cat whiskers, in that they help the insect to sense its environment
- Bugscope Teamthose are setae
- TeacherWhat do they do?
Bugscope Teamsetae (see-tee) are very cool, and very helpful to the insects. they stick through the exoskeleton, to nerves underneath. so if an insect passes by a lot a wind or a yummy dinner, those hairs can transmit those feelings to the nerves, and thus the insect knows about its surroundings
- Bugscope Teamthe palps, which have setae on them, are used to help the ant manipulate and also taste its food
- TeacherOkay..cool, but remember we're first graders - glad we don't have to get our food that way
- Bugscope Teaminsects have TONS of setae on them, that's very noticeable under a microscope!
- Bugscope Teamsetae allow insects to feel things as well as taste things and also determine if they are hot or cold
- Bugscope Teamso some of the setae are like taste buds
- TeacherWhat is that sticking out of the moth's eye
Bugscope Teamthat is another seta
- Bugscope Teamthe eyes also have these hairs (setae), and they are believed to help the insect when flying
- 10:04 am
- TeacherDo they have only one?
Bugscope Teamthey have 2 compound eyes
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs (setae) on the eyes send wind speed and direction to the bug brain, and help it to fly like an eagle!
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that the eye has lots of facets, which we call ommatidia
- TeacherWe meant the hair sticking out of this compound eye
Bugscope Teamwe'll often find many setae on compound eyes of flying insects
- Bugscope Teamthe compound eye is made up of hundreds of bumps. those bumps are actually individual sockets, called ommatidia, each one has a lens in it
- Bugscope TeamHello all!
- Bugscope Teamwe think that insects with compound eyes, with multiple lenses for each eye, see many images, and their brain needs to process those images into something that makes sense
- Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes it might be confusing, but it would give you better peripheral vision -- you'd be able to see more of what is around you without moving your head
- TeacherJuliana would like to talk to Cate - wonders why she is so quiet
- Bugscope Teamand also, if you had compound eyes you would be able to see movement more quickly -- that is why flies are hard to catch
- Bugscope Teamsorry juliana, I'll try to be more talkative
- TeacherWhy does it have all those hairs?
Bugscope TeamThe hairs serve a variety of functions. Some sense touch, some sense smells, some sense vibrations, and some are for decorative purposed
- TeacherThey look like hooks
- 10:09 am
- Bugscope Teamkind of like Velcro
- TeacherWhy would it need velcro
- Bugscope Teampurposes
- TeacherDoes it feel scratchy
Bugscope TeamThe hairs are so small that we most likely wouldn't be able to feel them. I know I don't.
- TeacherDo you know what the first insect was on earth? We couldn't find it in our research
Bugscope TeamThe oldest insect fossil is a type of springtail--Rhyniella praecursor. It is over 380 million years old
- Bugscope Teamdepending on where the tiny setae are, there may be an advantage to being able to stick to things, especially if the setae are on the tarsi, which are like our forearms
- Bugscope Teamyay cool!
- Bugscope Teamthese are called 'tenent' setae
- Bugscope TeamI may have spelled Rhyniella incorrectly
- TeacherDoes that have a layman's name
Bugscope TeamIt is just a springtail...not any special type of springtail. That particular species is now extinct.
- TeacherAre these the setae as well?
Bugscope Teamyes they are They are specialized to allow the insect to walk on walls
Bugscope Teamwell, yes but they are special setae, that help insects stick to wall and such
- Bugscope TeamSorry...scientists are sometimes not very good about giving common names to species
- TeacherUnderstood
- Bugscope Teamthey act like little suction cups and are found on the ends of their legs
- TeacherAre these gooey?
- 10:14 am
- TeacherMust be why they can stick to the ceiling
- Bugscope Teamthese setae are called tenent setae, they are not gooey, but good thinking! they use a special force called the van der waals force, to "stick" to walls
- Bugscope TeamYes! We can tell which insects would be likely to climb on walls or ceilings, and which ones would not.
- Bugscope Teamthe van der waals force doesn't work with stickiness, it uses a very small force of attraction. gecko's have them for sure, and i hope i'm right about these setae using van der waals too????
- Teacherwhere is the fly's claw located on his body
Bugscope Teamthe fly has six legs, and at the end of each leg is a pair of tiny claws
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the claws, and also the little pad, called the pulvillus, that has the tenent setae on it
- Teacherwhat is the most important part of the claw?
Bugscope TeamIt depends on what surface the fly lands on..if it lands on something soft, the claws will grip the surface. If the fly lands on something hard and there is nothing to grip with the claws, the center sticky part is most important.
- Teacherwhy would a fly need a claw if it has a suction cups
Bugscope Teamwell, it might use the claw to manipulate food, or fight with other insects, or to help itself move around, in ways that the tenent setae wouldn't help it do so
- Teacherwhy don't insects have larger claws?
Bugscope TeamMostly the claws are proportional to the size of the insect. Big beetles have big claws.
- 10:20 am
- TeacherSince it's an insect and it has an exoskeleton, what's inside the claw?
Bugscope TeamIt is a hollow tube with nerves and probably a little bit of muscle and bug blood.
- Bugscope Teammost insects have claws, and they open and close when a tendon called an unguitractor is moved up or down inside the tarsus
- TeacherWhat is a true bug - we don't remember that one
Bugscope Teamwell, it's an order of insects, called Hemiptera, and there are lots of varieties of them. a common type of true bug is a shield bug
- TeacherWhat are the holes for
Bugscope TeamThe holes all have a seta (insect hairs) in them. You will be able to see that better if you zoom in on them.
- TeacherIs that the eye of the true bug
Bugscope TeamYes it is!
- 10:25 am
- Bugscope TeamA true bug has incomplete metamorphosis and has half hardened wings
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the holes better as well, and if you look closely you will be able to see little nubbies sticking out which are the hairs
- Teacheran incomplete metamorphosis of what bug
Bugscope TeamTrue bugs have incomplete metamorphosis. That means that when it hatches out of the egg it looks like a miniature version of the adult.
- TeacherWhat's the stuff next to the hairs
Bugscope Teamwell, i think that's juju. juju = stuff we aren't quite sure what it is, but it's probably dirt, grime, junk, etc.
- Bugscope TeamContrast that to complete metamorphosis where there is a larva, a pupa, and an adult
- Bugscope Teambugs get dirty. if they were little kids, their parents would be telling them to bathe once every hour!
- Bugscope Teamhere is one of the japanese beetles you sent!
- Bugscope TeamThe antennae are the things that look like golf clubs
- Teacheris this his mouth we're seeing
Bugscope Teamyes, right above those little finger looking things is the mouth
- 10:30 am
- Teacherwhat the little finger looking things
Bugscope TeamThose are called palps. They are kind of like little hands and tongues rolled into one. They help the insect to taste and to manipulate its food
Bugscope Teamthey are the beetle's palps that help the beetle to taste or manipulate its food
- Teacherwe think he's smiling - must be thinking about his food
- Bugscope Team:)
- Bugscope TeamYum, bean plants
- Teacherdo those hairs help filter his food
- Teacherhe looks like he has problem skin - what are all those bubbles
Bugscope TeamJust plain old dirt and goo
- TeacherDo we have one where we could look at a thorax or abdomen
- 10:35 am
- Bugscope Teampreset #2 is a spiracle (which is way cool in its own right), but those spiracles are usually on the abdomen, so you could zoom out on that preset to see an ant abdomen
- Bugscope Teamspiracles are breathing holes on some insects
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen on the ant here is going to be the big round area to the lower left
- Bugscope TeamSpiracles are like nostrils in insects
- Bugscope Teamwell, that's odd, on this ant the spiracle is near the back...
- Bugscope Teamcool
- Bugscope TeamNostrils on different parts of the body
- Bugscope Teamvery good driving gwen, you are doing great
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen on this ant is to the left
- Bugscope Teamthe legs are attached to the thorax
- TeacherWhat's that on the abdomen - does he need to take a bath as well?
Bugscope Teamyeah, i think so, sometimes we do find very interesting things on insects, like mites or pollen or brochosomes, etc.
- 10:40 am
- Teacherwhat are the folds for - what do they do
- Bugscope Teamgood questions, i'm just not sure though, maybe it helps the abdomen to increase/decrease in size without ripping?
- Bugscope Teamthe folds are like the folds you see on an armadillo, they are like plates for movement.
- Bugscope TeamYou can also think of a suit of armor
- Bugscope Teamthanks cate!
- Bugscope Teamthe spikey balls are the pollen grains
- Bugscope Teamvery cool, now those ball like things are pollen grains
- TeacherWe hope the wasp doesn't have allergies
- Bugscope Team:)
- Bugscope Teamwe tried putting one of your bees on here, but they were just too juicy for the vacuum
- Bugscope Teamannie can clarify, but i think some insects can have allergies, or sensitivities to certain chemicals, etc.
Bugscope TeamInsects can be repelled by certain chemicals or smells, but generally they don't have skin allergies like we do.
- TeacherAre those like the other gates?
Bugscope Teamyes that's right!
- 10:45 am
- Bugscope Teambees and mosquitos get riled up if you breathe on them. It's the CO2.
- TeacherIs that part sticking out the tongue
Bugscope Teamyes, but it's called a proboscis
- Bugscope Teamthe largest proboscis in the world is the elephant trunk!
- Teacheris it like a straw
Bugscope TeamYes, very very similar. The suction is created with muscles in the insect's head
- Teacherwhat would he pull through the straw
- TeacherAny teeth?
Bugscope TeamThe closest it has to teeth are its hinged jaws
- Bugscope TeamWell, in some insects they suck plant juice and garbage juice and blood and nectar through their proboscis. In this insect, I am not sure what he would pull through the straw. Probably plant nectar.
- 10:50 am
- Teacherwe're looking for the stinger
- Bugscope Teami checked for it earlier, I think it's hiding in its abdomen
- Bugscope TeamToo bad, the stinger is hiding
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the trap door where it comes out though
- Bugscope Teamthis is on one of your rolypolys
- Bugscope Teampill bugs are not insects, but rather crustaceans
- TeacherWe didn't know that
- Bugscope Teamso they are like tiny crabs, i bet they aren't as good to eat tho
- 10:55 am
- Bugscope Teamyep they are terrestrial crustaceans
- Bugscope TeamI bet they taste like dirt
- TeacherYummmm
- TeacherWe all studied a different insect and have a couple of questions - are you game
- Bugscope Teamsure
- Bugscope Teamsure, glad we have annie here to answer ;)
- Bugscope TeamAbsolutely..I have been in grad school for six year studying insects. I am ready for anything you can throw at me
- Bugscope Teamahem, six yearS, plural. They did teach me to spell too
- Bugscope Teamhere is a really cool color picture of a walking stick, by the way: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/64/Ctenomorpha_chronus02.jpg
- TeacherWe couldn't find a Monarch butterfly - are all the little hooks like the ladybug had different colors on the butterfly
- Bugscope Teammany people have walking sticks as pets!
- Teacherare they affectionate
Bugscope Teamyou know, i really have no idea! but walking sticks are bread and sold as pets so i imagine they are pretty tame
- 11:01 am
- TeacherHow is it that the catepillar change into a butterfly in such a small space
Bugscope TeamThe change happens at the cellular level and it all happens within the body of the caterpillar. So many small changes in many cells results in a big change in form. It is remarkable, isn't it?
- Bugscope TeamI think they make good pets because they are such a weird looking insect and they are also easy to keep
- Bugscope Teambred i mean, not bread, sorry
- TeacherThe kids would like to know why you decided to become insect scientists
Bugscope TeamI always like to be outside. I always enjoyed capturing insects and frogs and learning about the world around me. When I was in high school, I was thinking about going into theater and music, but decided that I would be much happier in a job where I would be outside learning about nature. That is when I decided to be an entomologist
- Bugscope Teami am an IT person with the group, and i've learned everything i know about insects through my involvement with Bugscope. it's such a great learning experience for me, but it's not my field of study
- Bugscope TeamAlex and I don't actually study insects like Annie, but we have come to learn a lot of insects through bugscope. We find they are so interesting to learn about because they all have cool things about them like special features or little bugs living on them
- Bugscope Teamannie is the true expert among us
- Bugscope Teamannie is an entomologist
- Bugscope TeamAlex and Cate are very very knowledgeable about insects, don't let them fool you. We all learn a lot through Bugscope.
- Bugscope TeamThe rest of us have become more and more interested in insects and other jointed arthropods, which are endlessly fascinating
- Bugscope Teamthanks annie :)
- TeacherWe have learned a lot as well - thank you so much once again (3 times now) for another wonderful session with our bugs
- Bugscope TeamAnd Scott too!
- Bugscope Teamthank you, you did a GREAT JOB in your session, one more thing....
- Bugscope Teamthank you for all your great questions! you can visit your member page at any time to view chat and images from today at http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2009-032/
- Bugscope Teamall the chat and images are saved to your member page: http://bugscope.beckman.uiuc.edu/members/2009-032
- 11:06 am
- TeacherThanks...see you next year
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- Bugscope Teamgood bye!!
- Bugscope TeamThank you!
- Teacheradios amigos
- Bugscope Teamadios, hasta luego!
- Bugscope Teamau revoir!
- Bugscope Teamsee you next year!
- Bugscope Teamnice session everyone, l8tr!
