Connected on 2010-04-22 13:15:00
from Krum, TX, US
- 12:32 pm
- Bugscope TeamWe'll need to plug the cable back into the video splitter, because right now the digitizer is plugged in directly
- Bugscope TeamCate says "Thanks, Dude." We seem to have figured it out.
- 12:40 pm
- 12:46 pm
- Bugscope TeamCute spider
- 12:51 pm
- 12:57 pm
- 1:03 pm
- 1:09 pm
- 1:24 pm
- Bugscope TeamMrs Martin!
- Bugscope Teamwelcome to bugscope!
- TeacherHi there
- TeacherWe are all so excited
- Teacherwe have a bunch of insect questions to ask you
- Bugscope TeamI just talked with the receptionist, sorry -- she may be looking for you
- Bugscope Teamhi mrs martin
- Bugscope Teamwe were concerned that we had not reminded you of the session
- Bugscope Teambut yes we are ready to go!
- Bugscope Teamyou have control of the microscope so you can click on a preset to move to a different insect or change the mag from here
- Bugscope Teamyou can also drive manually, with click to center being the easiest to control
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope Teamif you do use click to drive, you click once in the direction you want to move to start driving, then click again to stop
- Bugscope Teamjust let us know when you have questions or if you have any trouble
- Bugscope Teamthis is the edge of the sample, or was anyway
- Teacherwhat are we looking at here?
Bugscope Teamthis is a fruit fly compound eye, with setae, or bug hairs, sticking out between the individual facets, or ommatidia
- Bugscope TeamI clicked on the fruit fly eye preset to pull us off the edge of the world...
- Bugscope Teamhere if you want you can take the mag down lower to see just where you are
- Bugscope Teamthe hairs help the insect navigate different wind currents here
- Teacherethan asks Why do insects have antennae?
Bugscope Teamantennae are very important to insects, some insects rely solely on their antennae to get signals.
- 1:30 pm
- Teachermorgan asks how can you tell if an insect has laid eggs?
Bugscope Teamhmm good question. I'm not sure. Sometimes we have entomologists that log in that might be able to answer that. I guess one way would be to open them up or look in the areas where they live.
- Teacherdaniel asks why do bees have stripes?
Bugscope Teamthey are warning. Bright colors on insects are warnings to other animals that they are dangerous. Sometimes they aren't dangerous, they just have them as a defense mechanism
- Teacheranthony asks Do insects sleep?
Bugscope Teamthey don't have the same sort of sleep we do. They go into a state called "torpor" that is the insect's equivalent of sleep.
- 1:36 pm
- Bugscope TeamAn insect in torpor exhibits immobility and distinctly reduced response to stimuli
- TeacherJaidyn asks Does an insect have to mate before it has a baby?
Bugscope Teamyes a most known mating insect is the praying mantis where the female supposedly eats the male after mating. Though studies have shown that only seems to happen in captivity where the male can't easily escape
- Bugscope Teamthis punching bag is called a haltere that only flies have
- Bugscope Teamthey are evolved from a second pair of wings (flies have 2 wings and insects like bees or dragonflies have 4)
- Bugscope Teamthey beat against the wings creating a gyroscopic effect, helping stabilze the fly in flight
- TeacherMackenzie asks Do insects have bones?
Bugscope Teamnot like we do. They have an exoskeleton- their bones are the shell they have on the outside. It's like a suit of armor for them
- Bugscope Teamwhich is why they have so many hairs- so they can feel through their tough shell and know what's going on around them in their environment
- TeacherBreanna asks Why do bees die after they sting?
Bugscope Teamit's only the honeybees that die, and only when they sting mammals. They have a barbed stinger that gets caught in our skin. When it gets caught, the bee pulls away and essentially the stinger rips out of them along with some muscle.
- 1:42 pm
- TeacherPaige asks Why do some insects have wing cases?
Bugscope Teamwing cases, or elytra, are actually a modified pair of wings (like in the case of the fly having halteres). They are there to protect the wings beetles have.
- Bugscope TeamThis is a palp, which is used to taste or move around food
- TeacherKate asks How does a fly eat?
Bugscope Teamflies eat different ways. the ones we see most have spongy mouthparts that they use to wet and then suck up the food that their saliva has dissolved.
- Bugscope Teami guess kind of like tongues in the insect world
- 1:47 pm
- TeacherMs. Adams class wants to know are there more insects that live on land or in water?
Bugscope Teamwe think there are more on land than in the water, but some insects live in both, or in all three: land air and water
- Bugscope Teamsome flies, like horseflies, have slashing mouthparts that cut your skin
- TeacherCaitlin asks How do you know if an insect is a boy or a girl?
Bugscope Teamsometimes it is easy because the girls are bigger, sometimes the boys have frilly antennae and the girls do not, and sometimes, like in flies, the girl eyes are far apart whereas those of males are close together.
- Bugscope Teammosquitoes start out as eggs in the water, and then the larvae live underwater, and then of course they metamorphose into flying creatures
- TeacherVIctoria asks How many insects are there in the whole world?
Bugscope Teamthere are trillions, and there are hundreds of thousands of species
- Bugscope Teamor sometimes the males will be more colorful
- Bugscope Teamif an insect has a stinger or an ovipositor, it is a female
- Bugscope Teamthis is a caterpillar
- 1:52 pm
- Bugscope Teamcan you see the stemmata -- the little eyes?
- Bugscope Teamsomeone made a scientific estimate that there are 1,017,018 species of insects in the world. Wow! That means you could spend your whole life looking at different kinds of insects and never see them all.
- Bugscope Teamthe caterpillar has five or six simple eyes on either side of the head
- TeacherSkylar asks how many bees can live in a hive?
Bugscope TeamA honey bee hive can contain up to 40,000 bees
- TeacherJosh asks where do insects find food?
Bugscope Teamthey find food everywhere -- they are on every continent, and some of them can eat things we cannot, like paper and glue
- TeacherQuentin asks DO mother insects stay with the babies?
Bugscope Teamusually they do not; sometimes the babies have to be careful not to be eaten
- 1:58 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is the claw of a fruit fly
- TeacherCali asks How many eyes do bees have?
Bugscope Teamthey have two big compound eyes and three other small simple eyess
- Bugscope Teambees babies get mothered kind of
- Bugscope Teamby the workers
- Bugscope Teamthat is a good point; ants also take care of the babies, but it is not the mother who cares for them
- Bugscope Teamoops simple eyes -- also called 'ocelli'
- TeacherLindsey asks Do ants like water?
Bugscope TeamI don't think they like it at all, generally, not to live in. They have a kind of waterproof shell around them to help keep them dry.
- TeacherHannah asks Why are most beetles dark and shiny?
Bugscope Teamone reason, maybe the main reason, they are dark is because most of them live in the dirt. So they get better camouflage when they are dark.
- Bugscope TeamWow! This is my favorite!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a weevil!]
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its snout, and you can see its eyes, and its antennae
- Bugscope Teamweevils are sometimes called snout beetless
- TeacherMajor asks Do any insects hibernate?
Bugscope Teamthe Asian beetles that look like ladybugs try to overwinter in our houses, and that is kind of like hibernating.
- 2:03 pm
- TeacherWhat are those circles on the weevil?
Bugscope Teamthis isnt the weevil here. this is carbon tape, where we stick the insects on
- TeacherWe like th eweevil too
- TeacherIt looks like an amusement park ride :)
- Bugscope Teamthe weevil actually has scales like a mosquito or a moth/butterfly
- Bugscope Teamhere is the weevil, and you can see the two antennae in the middle
- Bugscope Teamyou can also see its eyes, which are streamlined into the shape of the head
- Bugscope Teamit is so cute
- TeacherMany students asked how long do insects live generally?
Bugscope Teamusually one season. some will overwinter, some will live 4 or 5 weeks. Mayflies may live only a few hours as adults.
- TeacherClaire asks Do insects live in one place all their lives?
Bugscope Teamsome may, but a good example of one that doesnt is the monarch butterfly that travels during it's life. I believe they go between canada and mexico
- Bugscope Teaminsects have different phases of life. for example the flies we see start out as eggs, and then maggots, before they turn into flies. once they get to be flies they don't grow, so a small fly will always be small.
- 2:08 pm
- Bugscope Teamthis is so cool
- TeacherDavid asks Are ladybugs nice?
Bugscope Teamregular ladybugs are usually nice. the Asian beetles that look like ladybugs are often not so nice. our skin looks like it would be very tasty, and so they bite us. it is a surprise for them as well
- TeacherWe think it is cool too :)
- Bugscope Teamthe weevil eye is the top half of what we see, and the scales are the bottom half
- TeacherWe had questions written down so we would be prepared
- TeacherWe also have six 2nd grade classes in here together
- TeacherBlayne asks Why do some grasshoppers spit?
Bugscope TeamSome grasshoppers spit a brown bitter liquid as a defensive behavior in response to being handled.
- Bugscope Teamthey aren't nice when they smell up your house, but they are helpful when they kill aphids, which are pests of crops
- Bugscope Teamooh!
- Bugscope Teamlook at the eyes!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a cool spider that has red eyes, which you cant see here
- TeacherAshton asks what is the most important body part of an insect?
Bugscope Teamit depends on what perspective we take, but it could be the antennae, for day to day communcation
- 2:14 pm
- Bugscope Teamoops can't spell 'communication'
- TeacherNicholas asks Can dogs smell insects?
Bugscope TeamDogs have a keen sense of smell. They can smell insects embedded in the ground or in woodwork. In the United States dogs are used to sniff out termite infestations.
- TeacherNina asks How do insects smell with their antennae? Or can they?
Bugscope Teamthey have tiny sensory hairs, called setae, that are chemosensory, meaning they can smell chemicals in the air with them. they also have pits in the antennae that can pick up smells. sometimes odor is sensed by touch as well
- TeacherMany students also asked how to insects fit into tight spots that seem smaller than them?
- 2:19 pm
- Bugscope Teamthe exoskeleton is flexible and can compress a little, using muscles on the inside walls
- Bugscope Teamif you ever try to pick up an earwig, you could be surprised at its ability to flex its tail around to try to pinch you
- TeacherAt our field trip nature hike on Tuesday our guides htere told us that some insects like a crane fly only live to mate and they do not eat. Kealy asks why do some insects not eat?
Bugscope Teamwell they already ate when they were larvae, and the food lasts long enough that they don't need to eat in their short life as adults
- Bugscope Teamsometimes it is safer to be in those little spots, and some of the features of insects make use of tiny spots. for example the arolium on a grasshopper's claw
- Bugscope Teamyou all have come up with great questions
- Bugscope Teami wish our resident entomologist was able to log in today. She can give some really great and fun answers
- Bugscope Teammayflies are like that. they have little time to mate and no time to eat
- Bugscope Teambut female mosquitoes have to get a blood meal in order to be able to lay their eggs
- TeacherWe are going to ask two more questions then head back to get ready to go home :)
- TeacherWe have really enjoyed our session
- Bugscope TeamSome adult moths will have no mouths so they cant feed
- TeacherMany students asked if insects have teeth?
Bugscope Teamthey dont have teeth, but some will have a hinged jaw, like this ladybug, they use to cut into their food. Sometimes the jaws will have little serrations that resemble teeth
- Bugscope TeamWe have had fun too!
- 2:25 pm
- TeacherThis is the big question...Reannen asks What was the first insect on Earth?
Bugscope Teamoh goodness
Bugscope Teamthe oldest insect is said to be similar to a may fly
- Bugscope Teamwe don't know. we do know that dragonflies have been around for a long long time
- TeacherThank you so very much.. We had a great time.. we need to go and start packing up top go home. We would love to do this program again next year!!!
- Bugscope Teambut certainly there were once simple insects -- hexapods. and they likely didn't fly at first
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Teacher:)
- Bugscope Teamthat is your member page...
- TeacherWil we be able to see our questions and responsesthere?
Bugscope Teamyes, there is a link where you can look at the transcript, which also has all the images
- TeacherAwesome
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-007/
- TeacherIs there any follow up I need to do for the session?
- Bugscope Teamthere is a feedback form that will help us in the future
- 2:30 pm
- Bugscope Teamon that page there is a link, like the 3rd line down, to submit feedback
- Bugscope Teamthat should be found on your member page as well
- Bugscope TeamThank You again!
- TeacherThank you so much!!! It was great, sorry we were late I thought our IT girl was going to set it up before hand so it too me a minute to log everything on and ge thte smarboard turned on.
- TeacherI will do the follow up
- TeacherI will get that done
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- Bugscope Teamhi whs guest
- Guestis the session ended or just starting?
Bugscope Teamit just ended, but did you want to try to control the scope a little bit? I could check to make sure the sample is still in vacuum
- Bugscope Teamthe 'scope is still set up
- Bugscope Teamyou have control if you want to move around
- Guestok
- 2:35 pm
- Bugscope Teamso please drive as much as you like and feel free to ask questions -- we have a little while before we have to give up the microscope
- Guestinsect feet just amaze me
- Guestso cool
- 2:40 pm
- Guestwing scales?
Bugscope Teamthat's right, they are are same stuff that comes off on your fingers when you rub their wings
- Guestthanks for the time with the scope.
- GuestI need to run.
- Guesthave a great day
- Bugscope Teamthanks for trying out bugscope