Connected on 2009-06-23 09:00:00
from , MA, US
- 7:11 am
- Bugscope Teammaking the sample now
- 8:14 am
- 8:20 am
- 8:26 am
- 8:31 am
- Bugscope TeamNow we are making the presets.
- 8:38 am
- 8:43 am
- 8:49 am
- 8:55 am
- Bugscope TeamGood morning! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope TeamThe session is unlocked, ready to go if you would like to drive.
- 9:01 am
- Bugscope TeamYou can choose from among the presets on the right side of the chat box here, and/or you can use the controls to the right of the image to drive directly.
- Bugscope TeamBe sure to let us know when you have questions!
- Bugscope Teamand let us know if you have any trouble with the controls, the size of the screen, etc.
- TeacherHi, We are just getting set up and finishing snack! We'll be ready in just a minute. Thanks!
- Bugscope Teamthis is an ambush bug
- Teacherwhere does this insect usually live?
- Bugscope Teamambush bugs lie in wait on flowers and leaves, and they attack and eat other insects that land on the leaves or flowers
- Bugscope Teamso you might find it on a bush, but it is camouflaged.
- Bugscope Teamit looks kind of like a wilted piece of a leaf
- Bugscope TeamGood morning Tollsy!
- Teacherare there different kinds of ambush bugs
- Guestgood morning!!!
- Bugscope TeamYes lots of different kinds, different colors
- 9:06 am
- Bugscope Teamthey have a piercing proboscis they use to spear their prey, and suck the juice out of it
- Bugscope Teamthis is the carbon tape background; this is what all of the insects are stuck to
- Bugscope Teamthe edge of the world
- Bugscope Teamthis is an ant, to the right
- Bugscope Teamyou cna use click to center if you'd like, but you are doing a very good job as it
- Bugscope Teamis
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see one of the ant's forelimbs
- Bugscope Teamthe jointed parts of the 'arm' toward its end are called 'tarsi'
- Bugscope Teamthere is a tiny claw at the end of the tarsi
- Bugscope Teamand do you see how the any has a kind of 'knee'?
- Bugscope Teamthere is another little piece there that looks like a very small comb if you look up close
- Bugscope Teamat the 'knee'
Bugscope Teamit's 'cause I have been talking more than answering questions
- Teacherwhy aren't the questions showing up on the left side of the screen so we can see them? we are having a hard time reading the scrolling sentences at the bottom of the screen
Bugscope Teamthat is because I have not been highlighting them, like this
- 9:11 am
- Teacherthank you
Bugscope Teamnow you can see its mouthparts, and its antennae
- Teacherwhat's on our screen now
Bugscope Teamto the right is an ant, on its back
- Teacherwhat is the part in the middle- the circle part under the antennae
Bugscope Teamin the middle of the head is the mouth
- Teacherwhat kind of ant is this
Bugscope Teamit is a little red ant; we don't know what species -- there are probably more than a few thousand ant species
- Bugscope TeamGood morning Rob!
- Bugscope TeamRob is an entomologist!
- Teacherwhat is this???!!!!!!
Bugscope TeamI am sorry I am not sure where we are just now. Can you move a little to the north?
- Bugscope TeamGood morning! Sorry I'm running a little late.
Bugscope TeamRob we have been doing a lot of text highlighting so the class can read the questions/answers to the left of the chat box
- 9:16 am
- Bugscope Teamnow to the north a tiny bit again?
- Teacherwhat are the hairlike things
Bugscope Teamspines, bristles, setae...
Bugscope Teaminsects do not have skin - they have an exoskeleton, which is kind of like wearing a coat of armor
Bugscope TeamThey are used for a variety of purposes - touch, taste, smell, and defense.
- Teacherwhat are they used for
Bugscope Teamso as Rob says, the hairlike things are used for a variety of purposes; often they are used as touch sensors, or taste sensors
- Teacherwhat body part are we looking at now
Bugscope TeamI'll let Scott field these - I am not quite sure where we are. It looks like a leg to me. :)
- Teacherwhere do they live and why are they called a deerfly
Bugscope TeamI've seen deerflies in the woods. They are related to horseflies, and both are named, I think, because they will drink the blood of that animal. But they will bite humans, too.
- 9:22 am
- Teacherwhat strength is the magnification of this microscope
Bugscope Team(I moved us to the compound eye). this microscope will magnify more than 200,000x
- Teacheris that the compound eye
- Teacherwhat's the gooey stuff on the right of the eye
Bugscope Teama lot of times we don't know --- the fly got into some kind of mess
Bugscope Teamsometimes they throw up, or their 'blood' oozes out
- Bugscope Teamhaltere!
Bugscope Teambe sure and try other presets if you would like
- 9:27 am
- Bugscope Teamthese are some of the tiny hairs (setae) on the body of the fly
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a mosquito compound eye, up close
- Teacherwhat is an ommatidia
Bugscope Teamommatidia are the individual facets of the compound eye
Bugscope TeamEach one has its own lens and nerve cord, like a human eye but very bad at seeing. Thousands of them together, though, can make a pretty good image.
- Teacherwhy does this look like a brain
Bugscope Teambecause it shrunk after the mosquito died. Its eye dried up
- Bugscope Teamsingular would be 'ommatidium'
- Bugscope Teamusually it would be full and round, like a soccer ball
- Teacherback to the deerfly- is it big or small
- Bugscope Teamit's about 2 centimeters long
- 9:32 am
- Bugscope Teamwhich is about an inch
- Teacherwhen the mosquito is alive, is this part squishy
Bugscope Teamit appears to be hard, but I'm not sure
Bugscope TeamThe eye is made of chitin, just like the exoskeleton. To another mosquito it would be pretty hard, but to you the entire mosquito is squishy.
- Bugscope Teamwow this is pretty high magnification
- Bugscope Teamif there were bacteria here we would be able to see them quite well
- Bugscope Teamsee the little round thing in the folded part of the ommatidium?
Bugscope Teamthe round thing is a brochosome,and it came from another insect -- a leafhopper
- Teacherwhat are the big circles on the ommatidia
Bugscope Teamif you take the mag a little lower you can see how it all fits together
- 9:38 am
- Bugscope Teamnow we see more and more of the eye
- Bugscope Teamit is very shriveled!
- Bugscope Teamnow we can see the other eye as well
- Bugscope TeamMonster!
Bugscope Teamit is still hard to recognize this as a mosquito, isn't it? you can see the antenna, now
- Teacherwhen a tick is a baby is it's exoskeleton harder than an adult
Bugscope TeamI think it is very similar to when it is an adult, except it has only six legs when it is a baby
Bugscope TeamDifferent parts of the tick have thinner or thicker exoskeletons, depending on if it will expand during feeding.
Bugscope TeamBoth young and old ticks will feed on blood, so they always need some thin exoskeleton.
- Bugscope Teamticks are arachnids -- they are related to spiders -- so they have eight legs when they grow up
Bugscope Teamif you look at the tick's exoskeleton up close you will see that it has tiny ridges like cardboard -- it looks like it is corrugated. those ridges are so that it can expand to several times the current size
- Teacheris this insect falling apart- it looks like the body parts are scramble up
Bugscope Teamyes! you are right. It took a beating to get to us!
Bugscope Teamwe do our best to put your insects in the microscope in the condition they arrive.
- 9:46 am
- Teachercan we see the proboscis on this insect?
Bugscope Teamnow we are looking at the proboscis. all of the biting and sucking apparatus is inside this sheath
- Teacherhow does a tick transmit lyme disease
Bugscope TeamIt moves in through the mouth while it's feeding, but it takes a long time - over a day. If you find the tick soon enough, you usually prevent it from transmitting.
- Teachermatt wants to know if you're having fun answering questions
Bugscope Teamthis is fun for us; it is our favorite thing to do
Bugscope TeamAbsolutely, wouldn't be here otherwise!
Bugscope Teamwe love to look at these cool images and help you understand them better, too! Isn't it fun to look at these up close?
- Teachercan we look inside of it
Bugscope TeamI wish we could. We would have had to prepare it a different way so the mouthparts would come out of the sheath
- Bugscope Teamthere are at least four cutting blades, thin and leaflike, inside of this sheath
Bugscope TeamI think I want to scream thinking about four cutting blades in there. Really, Scott?
Bugscope TeamHey, at least it also gives you some anesthetic while its feeding. Horseflies and deerflies will just rip you right open. Ugh!
- 9:52 am
- Teacherwe're having fun too, but we're talking a lot and even screaming
Bugscope TeamYay!
- Bugscope TeamI think you should go to preset no. 22
- Bugscope TeamHorseflies and deerflies have slashing mouthparts, but we could not see that on our sample here today.
- Teacherdo you have any presets of ticks
Bugscope Teamno I am sorry no ticks today. when you go to your part of the Bugscope webpage later, to see this session, you can search for ticks, and for mosquito stylets
- Teacherwhy are there hairs on the proboscis
Bugscope Teamthe mosquito uses its proboscis to feel around the surface of your skin, trying to find a good place to push the fascicle, which is inside, in. those tiny hairs help it feel and likely taste yuor skin
- 9:58 am
- Teacherwhy does the proboscis look like a lip
Bugscope TeamIt is like a lip and opens like a sheath and sometimes we can see the fascicle inside
- Bugscope TeamHere's your homepage: http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2009-066/
- Bugscope Teamyou can return to this page anytime and see the chat and images!
- 10:04 am
- Teacherok, we have to go now. thanks for all the fun and interesting information, too da loo
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Bugscope TeamSee you next time!
- Bugscope Teamthank you!
- Bugscope TeamNo problem, thanks for the questions!
