Connected on 2010-03-18 14:00:00
from Park Ridge, IL, US
- 1:33 pm
- Bugscope Teamhi mrs schaab
- 1:45 pm
- 1:51 pm
- TeacherHi! I'm just starting to set up! :)
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope TeamMrs S if you refresh the text below will go away
- 1:57 pm
- TeacherWe are almost ready... the students will be logging on shortly.
- Bugscope TeamAwesome!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- 2:02 pm
- Bugscope Teamlet us know when you have questions!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a closeup image of a scale from a moth or mosquito, probably
- Bugscope Teamor a butterfly -- but it is on an earwig
- Studenthi my name is Katlynne and my partners name is marypat
- StudentHi this is syd and grant
- Bugscope TeamWelcome you all!
- StudentHello Scot and Kate. We are Zaid and Jenna!
- StudentHi! I'm Julia! And I'm Deiter
- Bugscope Teamcool!
- StudentHi! this is Katie and Kevin
- Studenthello this is danny and greg
- Bugscope Teamhello everyone
- Bugscope Teamhi you guys!
- Studenthi I am mark, I'm Emily, and I'm Katie
- StudentWhat are we looking at above?
Bugscope Teamthis is a scale from a butterfly or moth
- Studenthello! our names r elizabeth and mark
- Studenthi from catie_ Jon we are excited to discuss
- Studenthi this is timothy and joey
- Studentwhat are we looking at right now
- Bugscope Teambut the scale is on an eawig
- Bugscope Teamwhen you rub the wing of a butterfly and it feels silky and powder comes off -- this is the powder
- StudentWhat is an earwig?
- Studentwhat are the holes between the lines?
Bugscope Teamthose are empty spaces in the lattice that makes up the scale, which is kind of like a feather
- Bugscope Teamthey are plant pests, usually
- Bugscope Teamthey have little pinchers on them
- 2:07 pm
- StudentHow big are the wings?
Bugscope Teamthe wings of a large butterfly could cover the whole stub that is in the microscope now -- it is 1.75 inches in diameter
- Bugscope Teamnow you can see more scales
- StudentIf all the scales were put together would they look like a different color?
Bugscope Teamparts of them would be different colors, and they might have the normal pigmented color as well as structural colors, which come from the way the shape of the scale reflects like
- Bugscope Teamthese are just tiny pieces of the wing
- Studentwow
- TeacherCan you give me control of the microscope so that I can change what we are looking at please?
- Bugscope Teamthere you go
- Studenthi annie
- Studenthello Annie and Scot
- Studenthi annie
- Studenthello
- Studenthi
- StudentHi Annie
- Studenthi annie!
- Studenthi Annie and Scot
- Bugscope Teamlight
- Studenthi annie
- Bugscope TeamHi Timothy_Joey, Katie_kevin, Sydney_Grant....ahhh too many! Hello everyone!
- StudentHello this is zaid and jenna.
- Bugscope TeamMrs S can you drive now?
- Bugscope Teamcool
- Studentwhat are they on a tree or a stick or something else
Bugscope Teamthis is one of the pincers of a male earwig
- Studento
- TeacherYes I can! :)
- Bugscope Teammy fault I forgot to unlock the session
- Bugscope TeamMoth and butterfly scales are often found on other insects. They are like dust--they are everywhere
- Studenthow big can an earwig get?
Bugscope Teamin the Tropics they might get to be a couple of inches, but here they are smaller, more like a half inch or so
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of the earwig
- 2:13 pm
- Studentwhy is an earwig called an earwig do they go inside your ear
Bugscope TeamThere is an old legend that earwigs would crawl into the ears of sleeping people and eat their brains.
- Studentwhy is the eye scaly-ish?
Bugscope Teamthe eye has lots of different facets -- sort of like a diamond has facets -- that are called ommatidia. each ommatidium is a lens
- StudentWhat colors can earwigs see?
Bugscope TeamEarwigs are nocturnal, so they probably can't see very well at all. They probably only see in black and gray.
- Studentif it gets dust in its eye how dose it get it out
- Studentwhat is coming of of the eye
- Studentthat is kind of scary
Bugscope Teamit is! insects can be creepy enough without looking at them up close
- Studenthow well can earwigs see?
Bugscope TeamNot very well, insects that are active at night, often have very poor vision.
- Studentwhy does it look like a spider
Bugscope Teambecause its legs are projecting out in front of its head, and/or some of the palps, which spiders have as well
- Studenty does it look like a spider
- Studentit kind of looks like a spider!
- Studentnow it lloooks like a snake scale
- Studentwhat do the bumps on the eyes do?
Bugscope Teamthose are the individual ommatidia of a compound eye. Each one is thought to acquire an individual image
- Studenthow many ommatidium do each earwig have?
Bugscope Teamprobably a few hundred per eye
- Studentits so bumpy
- Studentwhat are the hairs on the earwigs eye
Bugscope Teamthe hairs are called 'setae,' and they are likely touch or wind sensors
- Studentis there hair on that eye?
- Studentare the fly and earwig related somehow because their eyes look alike
Bugscope Teamthey are both insects but they are not closely related
- Studentdo earwigs have eyelash things like we do to protect our eyes??
Bugscope TeamNo, they rely on the strength of their exoskeleton to protect their eyes from damage. they clean their eyes with their feet if they get dirty.
- Bugscope TeamThe reason that people thought that earwigs crawled into the ear of people, was that people used to sleep on straw mattresses. Earwigs like damp, dark places, like mounds of straw. The earwigs would crawl out of the straw at night, and that is when people would find them...and for some reason, it was decided from that observation that earwigs liked to crawl into ears.
- Studentwhy does it look like it has bumps
Bugscope Teamthe bumps are the bulbous shapes of the individual ommatidia
- Studentwhat are those platform looking things under the piece of hair
Bugscope Teamthose are the facets of the compound eye
- 2:18 pm
- Studenthow many eyes do an earwig have?
Bugscope Teamthey have 2 compound eyes
- Studentis the image a leg
- Studentwhat part of the eye is it
- Studentdo earwigs have bones?
Bugscope TeamNo. Earwigs and other insects have an exoskeleton. Their bodies are supported by strong tubes of chitin--which makes up the exoskeleton. Inside the tubes of chitin are the muscles and organs. In this way, insects are exactly opposite of humans. We have our skeleton on the inside and our organs on the outside
- Studentdo earwigs have nails?
Bugscope Teamthey have claws on each of their legs. Their exoskeleton, along with other insects, are made of chitin- the same stuff our fingernails are made of.
- Studentdoes the hair on its leg help it stick to surfaces
- Studentwhy does it have such long hair so spaced apart?
- StudentWhy does it look like a bunch of pipes
- Studentwhat is the real color of an earwig?
Bugscope Teamusually they are brown, and sometimes they are translucent brown -- you can see into them
- Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes like this you would have better peripheral vision, and you would also be able register motion more quickly
- Studentwhy is it so dirty how does it clean itself?
Bugscope Teamthey live in dirt, often, near the bases of plants
- StudentDoes the leg of a ear wig have dirt on it's leg
- Studenthow many legs do an earwig have?
Bugscope Teamthey have 6
Bugscope Teamsometimes they may have less if we accidentally knock them off ourselves
- Studentoh thx scot
- Studentohhh o.k.
- Studentwhere do earwigs come from?
Bugscope TeamI believe there are earwig species on every continent except Antarctica
- Studenthow big is a normal i of an earwig
Bugscope Teammaybe a few millimeters in diameter
- Studentwhy do roly polys roll up in a ball
Bugscope TeamThat is how they protect themselves.
- Studentwhy are roly polys round
Bugscope Teamthey are round when they ball up because it makes them difficult to grasp that way
- 2:23 pm
- Studenthow does their shell help them
Bugscope TeamIt protects them from predators.
- Studenthow many legs do a rolly polly have?
Bugscope TeamI think they have 26. (?)
- Bugscope Teamyou can see the compound eyes of this rolypoly right in the corner of that fore-portion of the head
- Studentwhy are roly polys called roly polys?
Bugscope TeamBecause they roll into a ball. In some places they are called sowbugs or wood lice. However, they are neither bugs nor lice.
- Studentwhat does it eat?
Bugscope TeamThey eat decomposing stuff--mold from leaves and wood.
- Studenthow long has this rolly polly been dead
- Studentwhen ever u touch a rolly polly why does it roll up into a ball?
- Studentif it was acually this big, would they eat us or stick to eating plants
Bugscope TeamThey probably would stick to being decomposers, although it is tough to say.
- Studentdo rolly polly's have claws?
Bugscope Teamthey have single claws -- not double claws like may insects do. and the claws are alike, so they are called 'isopods,' which means that all the feet ('pods') are the same ('iso').
- Studentwhat is the hair on the leg called
Bugscope TeamThe hairs are called setae
- Studentwhat r they really called
- Studenthow big are rolly polly in real life?
- StudentHow many sections of the leg do they have in one leg
- Studenthow many bones do rolly polly's have?
Bugscope Team0 bones. Roly polies have exoskeletons, just like insects.
- Studenthow big can a roly poly grow up to be
- StudentWhy do rolly polys grow hair on their legs?
Bugscope TeamIt helps them to sense the environment. The hairs have nerves that connect with the nervous system. It lets the roly poly know what is happening through its tough shell (which is the exoskeleton)
- Studenthow many legs do roly polys have?
Bugscope TeamI think it depends on the species and the age of the roly poly....they have more than 6, for sure.
- Studentare rolly pollyies harmless????????
Bugscope TeamYes. Unless you are a fungus.
- Studentwhat is it like in a roly poly shell
Bugscope Teamthey must feel protected
- Studentwhat insects are rolly pollys realted to
Bugscope Teamroly polies are actually related to crabs and lobsters -- they are crustaceans
- Studentdo rolly polly's have gills?
Bugscope TeamYes!
- Studentif roly polys didnt have shells wat would they do for defence
Bugscope TeamWell, it is likely that if they didn't evolve shells, they would have evolved something else--perhaps they would run very fast, or excrete a nasty compound to deter predators from eating them.
- 2:28 pm
- Studentwhat do rolly pollies eat?
Bugscope TeamThey eat mold and decomposing plant matter.
- StudentAre the little bumps on the leg scales
Bugscope Teamtechically they are not scales, but it is likely they strengthen the armor of the roly poly because of their shape
- Studentare rolly polly's insect's?
Bugscope Teamnope- they have too many legs
- StudentWhat are the little spiky things on their legs?
- Studenthow long does a rolly polly live?
Bugscope TeamIt depends on the place where they live. Most arthropods live about 3 months-1 year.
- StudentWhat would it do to you if you were a fungus
Bugscope TeamIt would eat your body parts!!!!
- Studentwhat do they eat and what are their predtors?
Bugscope TeamThey eat decomposing vegetation and mold (fungus). Their predators are spiders, predaceous beetles, small mammals like mice, and probably centipedes.
- Studentwhat are the stringy things on the insect
- Studentwhat are those hairy things?
- Studentcan mosquitos here noise
Bugscope Teamyes they can hear noise -- they can hear each other
- Bugscope Teamoops 'technically'
- Studentwhat are the rolly pollies predtors?
- Studentwheres ther face
- Studentwhat are those holes called and what do they do?
- Studentwhy does tht look like a jelly fish but the inside of a jellyfish
Bugscope Teamthat is a good observation! but I'm not sure we can answer it easily
- StudentHow many little hairs grow on the branches?
- Studenthow small is the anntena in real life?
Bugscope Teamjust a few mm long
- StudentWhat is the hair coming out of?
Bugscope Teamit's just that- hair, but on insects they are called setae (pronounced see-tee)
- Studenthow long are the hair's?
- Bugscope Teamwe can see that those hairs (microsetae) are maybe 10 to 15 micrometers long
- Studentwhat does the branch do
- Studenthow many anntena do misqutoes have?
Bugscope TeamTwo antennae
- Studentwhat does the mosquito do with the blood it drinks
Bugscope TeamOnly the female drinks blood. She excretes the liquid part of the blood and uses the cellular components to create her eggs.
- Studenthow thick are the hairs on this bug?
- Bugscope Teama bacterium -- like E coli -- is about 2 micrometers long
- Bugscope Teamthis is cool!
- 2:34 pm
- Studentwhat does it feel like
- Studentit looks like a spine now rite
- StudentWhat is the difference between a antenna and the branch of an antenna
Bugscope Teambranch is only a small part of the main antenna
- Studentwhat are those stringy things?
Bugscope Teamthose are the fronds of the antenna
- Studentwhy are there so many holes?
- Bugscope Teamthe males have fancy -- ornate -- antennae
- Studentis it related to a cenipied
Bugscope TeamVVeeeerrryyy distantly. They are both arthropods, but the similarities end there. They are in the same phylum.
- Bugscope Teamwow looks like there is a fly of some sort to the north
- TeacherCan you please give the controls to megan_chris?
- Studentif the mosquito loses its tip to drink blood what will happen to it
Bugscope TeamIt would probably die; mosquitoes are not very robust insects. If it lost too much of its head, it would also lose its brain. Then it would be completely sunk.
- StudentAre the long things coming out legs?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Student will it die
Bugscope Teameventually -- they do not live very long
- StudentHow many legs do they have?
Bugscope Teamsix legs
- Studentis that a head?
Bugscope Teamyes!
- Studentwhy do they look so weird?
- Studentlooks like its eating somthing because somehting is coimng out of its mouth
- StudentWhy does the mosquito look like it's bending over?
Bugscope Teamthey've got a "hunchback" so they are kind of stuck that way. Not sure why they have a hunchback though
- 2:39 pm
- Studentwhy dot he eyes look like donuts?
Bugscope Teamooh, the donuts are the bases of the antennae--the antennae are missing from this specimen.
- StudentWhat is the mosquito holding in it's mouth?
Bugscope TeamThat IS its mouth!!!
- Studentare those the eyes?
- Studentf the mosquito does not find prey to drink blood for too long what will happen to it
Bugscope TeamThey will eventually die. They also consume nectar from flowers, but without blood the female mosquito cannot lay eggs.
- Studentwhat are we looking at?
Bugscope Teamwe were looking into sort of empty space, briefly
- Studentthe eyes are cool!
Bugscope Teamthey kind of wrap around the head, don't they?
- Studentwhat are those dotty thing's?
Bugscope TeamThose are the individual facets of the compound eye
- Studentare the transparent things the wings?
Bugscope TeamWe cannot see the wings now.
- StudentHow many scales does the mosquito have?
Bugscope TeamWaaay too many to count. They have scales all over their bodies
- Studentwhats this pic of now is it stil a miscito
Bugscope Teamthis is a mosquito that has lost its antennae
- Studentwhat r the little dots
Bugscope Teamthe small dots are the individual ommatidia -- the facets of the compound eye
- Studentit looks like the scales are broken are they?
Bugscope Teammany have fallen off
- StudentAre those scales around the eye?
Bugscope Teamthere are scales around the eye but it is hard to see them now
- Studentif mosquito didnt have those scales what would happen
Bugscope TeamThey can lose almost all of the scale and still be OK. The scales make the mosquito slippery, which makes it slightly more difficult for predators to catch them.
- TeacherCan you please give controls to zaid_jenna?
- Studentwhy do the scails look like a bee hive
Bugscope Teamthose are the eye facets, and that shape is a good for packing round things into a spherical space so you see it a lot in nature
- Studentok
- Studentare the scales on the mosquito's head smooth or rough?
Bugscope TeamIt would feel very smooth
- 2:44 pm
- Studentif the mosquito didnt have any hairs on its body would they have a harder time sticking on surfaces
Bugscope Teamif you had scales like this and you flew into a spider web, accidentally, you might be able to leave the scales stuck to web and get out without the spider biting you
- Studentwhat are those hairs for?
Bugscope TeamThe setae help the insect to sense its environment through its exoskeleton. The hairs connect to nerves, which sends information to the mosquito's brain
- StudentBy the way the scales look they look floppy, Are they floppy or are they hard?
Bugscope Teamthey are stiff, but flexible
- Bugscope Teamthe scales are kind of like feathers
- Studentwhat color are the scales normally
Bugscope Teamthey are grey or brown, sometimes black or even white or yellow
- Studentdoes debris ever fly in between the scales
Bugscope Teamyup, all the time!
- Studenthow many scales do they have
Bugscope TeamToo many to count!
- Studenthow long r the scalls
- Studenthow long are the scales
Bugscope Teamlooks like they are about 50 to 60 micrometers long -- a micrometer is a thousandth of a millimeter
- Studentif the mosquito didnt have wings what would happen
Bugscope TeamIt would definitely die, either from starvation or from bleeding to death or drying out.
- Studentwow does that depend on
- Studentwhat type
- Studentif the scales were REALLY big, would you be able to notice it without having to put it under a microscope?
Bugscope Teamyes we would!
- Studentsorry i ment does it depend on the type
Bugscope TeamDifferent species of mosquitoes have different color scales. There is one species in the US that has metallic blue and purple scales.
- StudentIf something was to get wedged between the scale would the scale be damaged? If so, how long?
- Studentcoooooll tht not tht long
- Studentdoes the debris injure the mosquito
Bugscope Teammost of the debris shows up after the mosquito dies
- Studentwhat are those spiky things?
- StudentWhat are the ridges on the scale for
- 2:49 pm
- Studentthey kind of look like cellaaryy and pringles rite
Bugscope Teamyes they do!
- Studentohhhhh o.k.
- StudentWould the ends of the scale-things prick you if you touched one?
Bugscope Teamyou wouldn't even feel it
- Studentthey look like sharp teeth and fins
- Studentwhy are they curved????
Bugscope Teamthey follow the shape of the body -- of the exoskeleton
- Studentcan the mosquito die from drinking blood from another predotor if it has a disease
Bugscope TeamThat is an excellent question. Sometimes mosquitoes can die from diseases in the blood of their hosts if the viruses or bacteria are able to enter the mosquito's blood through the gut. This is an active area of research--there are lots of smart people trying to figure out what diseases can cross the barrier between the gut and the mosquito's blood.
- StudentAre the thin glossy string looking things spread over the bumps to make the scales?
- TeacherCan you please give mark_emily_katie controls please?
- Studenthow many ridges does each scale have?
Bugscope TeamWAAAY too many to count!
- Studentwhat is this?
Bugscope Teamthis is the mosquito
- Bugscope Teamoh and this is an ant, very tiny
- Studentis tht a ant shell????
Bugscope Teamwe are looking at the exoskeleton
- Bugscope TeamAnnie would look like a giant next to this ant.
- Studentis the head connected or is it broken apart
Bugscope Teamit is at the top and an antenna is curled around the eye
- Bugscope Teamso yes it is the shell
- Studentwhy does it have such a big head?
- Studenthow big is the rock?
Bugscope Teamthe rock is perhaps 200 micrometers in diameter
- Studentohhh thx
- 2:55 pm
- Studentis it squished
Bugscope TeamNope, she looks pretty intact to me.
- Studentohit just looked unconnected\
- Studentwhy is the rock still attached
Bugscope TeamIt make be caught in the tarsi of the ant
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen of an ant is called a 'gaster'
- Studenthow big is the ant creature thing
- StudentWhat part is the rock
- StudentWhat type of ant is this?
Bugscope TeamI am not sure--I am not an expert on ants, sadly.
- Studenthow does the rock still attached to the ant? is it smashed into it?
- Studentwhere did you find it
- StudentWhat is Tarsi?????
Bugscope Teamtarsi are the last several segments of the arm or leg, ending in the claw, usually
- StudentWhat is that white thing on it?
- Studentwhere do the ants take the body to throw it away
Bugscope Teamusually each ant colony has a garbage dump. They would take the dead ant to the garbage dump.
- StudentWhat's Tarsi?????
- TeacherSince our session is about over, do you have time for a few questions about the life of a scientist?
Bugscope Teamsure!
- Bugscope Teamit is kind of hectic sometimes!
- Studenthow is it like to be a scientist?
Bugscope TeamWell, it is all sort of things. It is really exciting, it can be very boring and tedious. It can be frustrating. It is fun and challenging.
- Studentdo you like being a scientist
Bugscope Teamit is really fun because we get to see so many cool and different things
- Bugscope TeamAnnie goes on collecting trips -- outdoors, which I would never do.
- StudentWhat type of scientist are you?
Bugscope TeamI am an entomologist. I study insects
- StudentWhat's your favorite bug to work with, if you even like to work with bugs?
Bugscope TeamI like earwigs because they often have mites, and I like weevils
- Studenthow long does it take to become an official scientist
Bugscope TeamIt depends on what kind of scientist you want to be. There are many scientists that take four years of college. Others, like me, get PhDs after 10 or so years of college and grad school
- 3:00 pm
- Studentis it fun to be a scientist
Bugscope Teamyes
- Studentwhen you get the bugs, are they already dead or do you have to kill them
Bugscope TeamI usually have to kill them. I actually work with live insects most of the time.
- Studentwhy did you become a scinecist?
Bugscope Teambecause it is super interesting to find out how things work
- Student???
- StudentWhere do you get your bugs?
Bugscope TeamI collect them in California and other places that I visit
- Studentwhat do you like working with the best
Bugscope TeamI work with longhorned beetles, beetles that bore into wood.
- Student be a sientest do you have to work with many different poisons and different insects
Bugscope TeamYes, I do work with toxic chemicals, but I only work on one kind of insect.
- Bugscope TeamI am an electron microscopist, and so is Cate
- Studentdo you work with anything other than bugs?
Bugscope TeamNope, I just work with beetles.
- Studentis ur job borring or fun???
Bugscope Teamit is often a lot of fun
- Studentwhich bug do you not like the most?
Bugscope TeamI hate mosquitos and horseflies.
Bugscope Teamroaches and crickets
- Studentthank you for talking to use!
- StudentTHANK YOU!
- Studentthank u for your time!!!!!!!
- StudentTHANK YOU FOR HELPING US TODAY
- StudentThank you Annie, Cate, Scot/Scott for your time!
- StudentThank You for your time!!!!
- Studentbyeee and thx for everything we learned alot bye we need to goo bye again
- Studentthank you for helping us learn about bugs and the microscope!
- Studentby
- Bugscope Teamin the lab where I am we work with cells, and self-healing plastic, and fossils -- lots of stuff
- Studentgoodbye
- Studentthax for your time, annie scot and scott! we had a lot of fun! see you later! bye!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Studentthank-you Annie Scot and Scott for the funtime we learned a lot
- Studentthank you for your time and all the answers you gave us annie scot and scott
- Bugscope TeamGood Bye!
- TeacherThank you so much for such a fun session! See you again next year!
- Studentwe also would like to than catie too!
- Studenti learned alot i mean we leared alot thx byyyye!!
- Studentbye!
- Studentbye need to gooo
- Bugscope TeamBye!
- Studentthank you scot,scott, and annie! bye bye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- Bugscope TeamThank you!!!
- TeacherThanks again!
- Bugscope TeamThank you very much!
