Connected on 2010-11-09 11:45:00
from Sharon, MA, US
- 11:00 am
- Bugscope Teampumping down
- 11:17 am
- Bugscope Teamnow we're making presets
- 11:23 am
- 11:28 am
- 11:34 am
- 11:41 am
- TeacherHi- I'm waiting for the class to come.
- Bugscope Teamhello!
- Bugscope Teamyou may drive now if you wish
- TeacherWe are on Heights time here- 3 minutes behind the world
- Bugscope Teamha
- Bugscope Teamfine with us
- TeacherYesterday's session was great. I'm a bee keeper.
- 11:46 am
- Bugscope Teamoh wow
- Bugscope Teamso did you have problems with CCD?
- Bugscope Teamyesterday we had an exceptional bee to look at. this one is kind of normal
- Bugscope Teamnow that they think they've found the cause of CCD
- TeacherThe class is here
- Bugscope Teamhello everyone!
- Guesthi
- Bugscope TeamYay! Welcome to Bugscope!
- Bugscope Teamhi!
- GuestHi
- Guesthello
- Guesthello dude
- Bugscope TeamHello!
- 11:51 am
- GuestHey
- Guesthey
- Bugscope Teamlet us know when you have questions
- Guestkk
- Bugscope Teamabout the samples or the 'scope or what we do when we're not working with Bugscope
- Bugscope Teamthis is a honeybee, head on
- Guesthow are you
Bugscope Teamwe are doing well, quieter today than yesterday; the sun is out but we work 23 feet underground; still it is nice to know
- Guestwho many bees are there in the world
Bugscope Teamsomeone had estimated that there were 60 billion bees in the world
- Guesthow big is a honey bee
Bugscope Teamthey're kind of small and compact, maybe a little more than a centimeter long
- GuestAre those the eyes
Bugscope Teamyes those are compound eyes, with many tiny facets called ommatidia
- GuestHow big are the eyes
Bugscope Teamlooks like about a millimeter in diameter
- Guesthow big is the queen bee?
Bugscope Teamthe queen bee is larger and longer, maybe twice the size
- Guestwhat are the dots on the eyes
Bugscope Teamthe dots are the facets of the eye -- the lenses -- called ommatidia
- 11:56 am
- Guestdo you know the name of the biggest bug in the united states
Bugscope Teamthe elephant stag beetle is the heaviest in the US, weighing around 30-40 grams and get as big as 60mm
- Guestwhat is the x on the eyes
Bugscope Teamthe x is where a couple of setae ('hairs') or bristles are lying on the eye
- Bugscope Teamthe little rounded things we see now are mold spores
- Bugscope Teamwe can see the ommatidia better now
- Guestwhy do they have hair on thier eyes
Bugscope Teamwe think the hair helps the bee sense wind speed and direction when it flies
- Bugscope Teamit is also likely, I think, that the hair on the bee's body 1) helps it collect pollen and 2) helps it regulate its temperature
- Guestwhat are the circles on the eyes
Bugscope Teamthe little balls are mold spores. The hexagons are ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that some of the ommatidia have scratches in them
- 12:02 pm
- Guestwhy are scrapes on the eyes?
Bugscope Teamthose are scratches from either getting into fights or maybe from being on the ground
- Bugscope Teamhaving compound eyes is an advantage because it allows the insect to have better peripheral vision as well as providing very fast updates on what is in the visual field
- Guestwhat color are the eyes
Bugscope TeamI think they are basically black, perhaps dark brown
- Guesthow
Bugscope Teamif you have many eyes, many lenses, and they fit in a dome shape, you can see around you much better without moving your head; and if you have lots and lots of lenses, and each functions like a little receptor, you can more quickly register changes in what is around you. meaning it is hard to swat a bee, or fly, or many insects
- Guestwhat is that above the eye
Bugscope Teamthe tube-like thing is one of the antennae
- Bugscope Teamthe antennae are jointed so they will be flexible -- they can move around
- 12:07 pm
- Guestwhy arent the antennas straight
Bugscope Teamthe segments you see in the antenna allow it to bend around, so they can probably make them straight if they wanted to, but it died with them curling under probably because it was drying out
- Guestwhy are there lines on the antennae
Bugscope Teamthe horizontal lines we see are the edges of the segments; now we also see tiny setae and sensilla
- Guestwhat are the dots on the antennae
- Bugscope Teamnow we see the setae, which are little bristles and may sense touch, or hot/cold; and we see those long slot-like places with smooth surfaces, which are the sensilla
- Guestwhats sensilla
Bugscope Teamthey are chemoreceptors. they sense hormones or smells. chemicals in the air
- Bugscope Teamthe round things, again, are mold spores that probably showed up after the bee died
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the six legs -- all insects have six legs. and many of them have claws much like this.
- 12:13 pm
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that some of the setae on the claw are likely mechanosensory -- they let the bee know when it is touching something, or when something is in its grasp
- Guestcan they pinch
Bugscope Teamyes but they are so little that it wouldn't really hurt. more like tickle
- Guestif they land on you will the claw hurt you
- Guestare the claws sharp
Bugscope Teamyes we can see that they are fairly sharp, but like Cate says they are very small
- Bugscope Teamthe claws are only about 200 micrometers -- a fifth of a millimeter -- long
- Guestwhy dose the claw look like it is tucked in something
Bugscope Teamthe center part of the claw, or between the sharp parts, is a pad that helps the bee stick to surfaces; and the claw is connected to the 'wrist' -- to the tarsus -- on the inside
- Bugscope Teaminside the shaft of the tarsus is a tendon that makes the claw open or close. it is called an 'unguitractor.'
- 12:19 pm
- Guestwhat part are we looking at
Bugscope Teamin the middle of where we are looking now is the edge of the wings, and we see where they attach -- where the hind- and forewing clip together when the bee flies. to the left of that is one of the legs, and to the left and under that is the abdomen.
- Bugscope Teamthose curved things are called 'hamuli,' and they are the clips that hold the wings together in flight
- Bugscope Teambees, wasps, and flying ants (which you don't see often, and are males) have hamuli to clip their four wings into two for flying
- Bugscope TeamA honeybee can fly 24 km in an hour at a speed of 15 mph. Its wings beat 200 times per second or 12,000 beats per minute.
- 12:25 pm
- Guestwhat are the wings mad of
Bugscope Teamthey are made of chitin, which is like what your fingernails are made of, and it is also what the exoskeleton -- the shell of the insect -- is made of
- Bugscope Teamchitin is a tough but flexible protein, like what a shrimp shell is made of
- Guestwhy do they have four wings
Bugscope Teamthat is a good question, and I am not sure of the answer. It may be that millions of years ago it was advantageous to have four wings -- for example, dragonflies have four wings and they are among the fastest flying insects
Bugscope Teamhere's a guess: when the wings are unhooked, the bees can easily fold the wings away, and when they fly they hook them together. Maybe they need nice big wings to hold up their body weight, but the big wings would get in the way in their hive. So that is just the way they evolved over time.
- GuestWhat is that line next to the hamuli
Bugscope Teamto the left was a line of fungal hyphae -- like the branches or roots of the fungus as it grows
- Bugscope TeamI like Cate's answer to the four wing question. And bees certainly do have lot of weight to carry.
- Bugscope Teamthis is a pollen grain, which in this case looks much like a mold spore but is larger
- Guestwhats that circle
- Bugscope Teamit is only 15 or 20 micrometers in diameter, about as wide as 7 to 10 bacteria end to end
- Bugscope Teamthis is resting inside the ridges of a moth antenna
- 12:30 pm
- Bugscope Teama micrometer is also called a micron, and it is one thousandth the length of a millimeter
- Bugscope Teama micron, or micrometer, is one millionth the length of a meter
- Guestwhat are the dots on the pollen
Bugscope Teammaybe they make the pollen sticky so that it can easily be carried on an insect
- Bugscope Teamit's fun to be able to see these tiny things, and we do not always know just what they do
- Bugscope Teamthe dots on the pollen grain are smaller than a micron -- they are in the nanoscale
- GuestThank you i hope you learn more
- Bugscope Teama nanometer is one one thousandth of a micrometer, which is one one thousandth of a millimeter, which is one one thousandth of a meter
- GuestThank you for sharing this wonderful information with us.
- Bugscope Teamso a nanometer is one billionth of a meter
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Guestwe have to go now,thank you
- Bugscope Teamsee you next time!
- GuestThank you for teaching us the different parts of a bee.
- GuestThank you for replying to all of our questionfor so long
- Bugscope Teamcool! brb
- 12:36 pm
- Bugscope Teamgatemouth
- 12:41 pm
- GuestHi! We cant wait to begin!
- Bugscope Teamgood job driving, and focussing!
- Bugscope TeamHi!
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know whenever you have questions!
- Bugscope Teamthis is a good view of the compound eye, and to the far right you can see some of the detail of the antenna
- Guest What are those hexagons on the eyes?
Bugscope Teamthe hexagons are the individual facets of the eye -- the lenses. and they are called ommatidia.
- Guestwhat is the x on the eye
Bugscope Teamthe x is a place where a couple of bristles, or setae, have fallen onto the eye
- Bugscope Teaminsects have lots of setae. the setae are sensory -- they let the insect know if something is touching it, and some of them can sense smells, and some of them can sense hot/cold
- 12:46 pm
- Bugscope Teaminsects have an external skeleton -- an 'exoskeleton -- whereas we have our skeleton on the inside.
- Guestdo bees have hair on their eyes
Bugscope Teamsome bees have a lot of long hair on their eyes. the hair may help them gauge wind speed, or the direction of the wind. it may also help them regulate their temperature
- Bugscope Teamsee how the mandibles -- the jaws -- open from side to side like a gate?
- Guestwhat are those claws under there eyes
- Bugscope Teamthose are the mandibles -- the jaws
- Bugscope Teambelow the mandibles we see a mess of fuzz, which is where the tongue is, but it is covered with mold
- Bugscope Teamthe little jointed things on either side of the mass of mold are the palps, which help manipulate and taste food -- like the nectar bees like to eat
- 12:51 pm
- Bugscope Teamthere are four palps. and we see, to the left and right, larger jointed things. those are the tarsi on the forelegs. tarsi are what the jointed 'forearms' are called, and they have claws at the ends.
- Bugscope Teamhere is one of the claws. in its center is a sticky pad that helps the bee stick to surfaces
- Bugscope Teamyou can see tiny bristles on the claws themselves
- Guestwhat is that nail thing
Bugscope Teamthe curved thing? that is a claw
- Bugscope Teamthis poor bee has a lot of mold on it that formed most likely after it died
- 12:56 pm
- Guestwhat are those things sticking out of the claw
Bugscope Teamsome of the things sticking out of the claw are comparable to 'trigger' hairs'; they help the insect sense when something is within its grasp
- GuestWhat's the fuzz in the middle of the middle
Bugscope Teamthat is kind of dried from when the bee was alive, and shrunken; it is the pad that helps the bee stick to surfaces
- Guestcan the claws hurt us
Bugscope Teamno they are very small to us and would most likely give us a tickling sensation
- Guestwhat are the claws used for
Bugscope Teamthey are used kind of the same way we use our hands -- to grip things, and to help climb
- Bugscope Teamthe bigger wasps' claws like the cicada killer, might hurt us a little more
- Guestwhy is the claw set into something
Bugscope Teamthe claw is at the end of one of the arms, and inside the arm is a tendon called an 'unguitractor' that makes the claw close or open.
- Guestwhat is the magnification on this picture
Bugscope Teamright now we are at 680x
- Guestwhy are there hexagons by the claws
Bugscope Teamthose are the shape of the cuticle, which is more flexible thin chitin; you see that in ants as well
- 1:02 pm
- Guesthow is the claw attached
Bugscope Teamit is attached to the cuticle, to the chitin, and inside where we cannot see it is attached to the unguitractor
- Bugscope Teamthe little round things we see now are mold spores
- Guestare the circles pollen grain
Bugscope Teamthey are similar in appearance to pollen, but they are mold spores
- Guestwhat are we looking at here
Bugscope Teamthis is a spur at the 'elbow' of the forearm, and it has a built-in 'comb' that the bee uses to brush dirt off of its antennae. there is one of these combs on either side. ants have the same thing.
- Guestis there pollen in precsets
- Guest is there pollen in the precects
- 1:07 pm
- Bugscope Teamthere is a kind of sad-looking pollen grain in the ridges of the antenna of a moth
- Bugscope Teamwe did not find pollen on the bee today
- Guestwhat is that circle in the middle
- Bugscope Teamthis is the only pollen grain we could find today sorry
- Bugscope Teamit looks like a fortune cookie
- Bugscope Teammost likely because it dried out
- Bugscope Teamthis is magnified 11,000 times
- Bugscope Teamthe pollen grain is 15 or 20 micrometers wide
- Guestwhy are there bumps
Bugscope Teamthen bumps probably help the pollen grain stick to things, like insects that can carry it to other flowers
- 1:12 pm
- Guesthow long do bees live
Bugscope Teama queen bee lives on average 2 to 5 years; a drone, which is larger than a worker bee, lives 40 to 50 days; and a worker bee lives 1 to 4 months.
- Bugscope Teama queen bee is larger than the other bees but not that much bigger than a drone
- Guestwhat is it
Bugscope Teamthis is where the hind- and forewings connect when the bee flies
- Bugscope Teamthe curved clips we see are called 'hamuli,' and they hook the wings together
- Guestwhen does it hook the wings together and why does it hook the wings together
Bugscope Teamit hooks the wings together when it flies. I think they hook the wings together to make the wingspan bigger to help carry their heavy bodies (especially with bumble bees). When not flying, they can unhook them and fold them in towards their bodies, making them more compact
- 1:18 pm
- Guest what are the wings made out of
Bugscope Teamthe wings are made of chitin, which is a flexible protein like what our fingernails are made of. the exoskeleton is also made of chitin.
- Guestdo bees mosty walk or fly?
Bugscope Teamcertainly they fly further than they walk; I think they fly more
- Guesthow big are the wings
Bugscope TeamI think each wing is about a centimeter long and 4 or 5 mm wide.
- GuestThank you very much for answering our questions!
- GuestI had alot of fun learning this muck about bees!
- Bugscope TeamThank You!
- Guestwe have to go
- Guestthank you for every thing
- GuestWe learned alot thank you very much
- Bugscope TeamBye! Thank you for connecting with us, and see you next year!
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-072
- Bugscope Teambelow is the link to your member page
- Bugscope Teamthat's great! Thanks for joining us!
Bugscope Teamglad you learned a lot today from us
- GuestThanks Scot and Cate I'll see you next week for the last session