Devonshire
Session 2010-090

Application

School

Class

Project

Miscellaneous

Transcript

Connected on 2010-10-14 10:00:00 from Skokie, IL, US

• 8:47 am
• Bugscope TeamGood morning!
• Bugscope Teamwe will start setup in a few minutes
• 8:53 am
• Bugscope Teamsample is in the chamber and pumping down
• 9:04 am

• Bugscope Teamgrappling hook!
• 9:12 am

• 9:18 am

• 9:25 am

• 9:31 am

• 9:37 am

• 9:42 am

• 9:48 am

• Bugscope TeamWe are ready to roll!
• 9:56 am
• Bugscope TeamGood morning!
• Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
• Bugscope Teamyou should have control I think
• Bugscope Teamand please let us know if you have any problems

• 10:03 am

• Bugscope Teamhello Mrs D!
• 10:10 am
• Bugscope TeamHello!
• TeacherGot it!
• TeacherWe'll start at the top.

• Bugscope TeamCool!
• Bugscope TeamThis is the fly haltere
• TeacherWhat is the haltere?
• Bugscope Teamit's deflated; normally the thing in the foreground would be like a ball
• TeacherWhat does it do?

• Bugscope Teamhalteres are what flies (Diptera -- 'two wings') use to balance the motion of the wings in flight
• Bugscope Teamthey beat opposite the beat of the wings and help balance the fly in the air
• Bugscope Teamyou could compare them to the wasp wings, of which there are four
• Bugscope Teamthis is the shaft of the haltere

• Bugscope Teamyou can click with your mouse within the viewing screen and the microscope will move (center itself) to that place
• Bugscope Teamlooks good -- you are taking the mag down, and we can see the fly's abdomen as well as the wing on the right there
• Bugscope Teamand some of the legs to the left
• 10:15 am
• Bugscope Teamthe legs are attached to the thorax, not the abdomen, so we are actually looking at the thorax in the top half of the present view of the fly
• Bugscope Teamso if you wanted to drive to the head, you could click in the upper left of the screen, and the 'scope should recenter itself in that direction
• TeacherAny chance we have the head?
  Bugscope Teamyou bet!

• Bugscope Teamcloser...

• Bugscope Teamthere it is!
• Bugscope Teamyou can see the sort of teardrop shape of the compound eye on the right, there

• Bugscope Teamthere is a spiracle where we would expect the 'shoulder' to be; that is what insects use to breathe
• Bugscope Teamthis is the side of the face, and to the left we see some mouthparts
• TeacherThank you! The children think this is awesome!
  Bugscope Teamtotally cool!

• Bugscope Teamyou can see lots of tiny hairs, which are called 'setae,' pronounced see-tee

• Bugscope Teaminsects and other similar arthropods have exoskeletons, meaning that they have their 'bones' on the outside of the body, kind of like if we were wearing a suit of armor
• 10:21 am

• Bugscope Teamand if you had a suit of armor, your skin would not be able to sense anything touching it

• Bugscope Teamso insects have a kind of suit of armor, and the setae stick through and function like little feelers that give them information about their surroundings
• Bugscope Teamsee the antenna, and the compound eye?
• Bugscope Teamand to the right, we see the mandibles -- the ant's jaws
• Bugscope Teaminsect jaws open left and right, not like ours, and they are often like little gates
• TeacherSammy wants to know how long does it take a queen ant to grow wings?
• Bugscope Teamonce an insect is an adult, if it is going to have wings, it has them at that time, and then it does not grow anymore
• Bugscope Teamalmost all ants are females, and the few males you see have wings

• 10:26 am
• Bugscope Teamhere we can see the eye, with all of its tiny facets, called ommatidia, to the far upper left
• Bugscope Teamants respond to chemical signals, like smells, and those smells give them information about what to do when
• TeacherJonny want to know what happens if the queen ant gets smushed, who takes care of the rest of the ants?
  Bugscope Teamsometimes that is a big problem, really, but usually there is another ant that will become a queen
  Bugscope TeamAll ants share the same genetic code, even though the different types: worker, queen, and soldier can look very different. Which type they become just depends on environmental factors they're subjected to once they're born. I believe that if the ants need a new queen, what they do is simply groom one of the new larva to become a queen
• TeacherTechnical question . . . Befcky wants to know how the microscope makes these pictures bigger and smaller?
  Bugscope Teamit's kind of cool, good question, Becky! what happens to make the images/pictures bigger or smaller is that if the electron beam is focussed on a small place the image that comes back is magnified, and if if is focussed on a large place the image we see is of the large place, and lower magnification
• 10:31 am
• TeacherHow long does it take an ant to hatch and grow into an adult?
  Bugscope Teama few weeks, I think. it varies, of course. ants may grow to be soldiers, very large, or they may be workers, which are generally smaller

• TeacherAriel wants to know what is the fastest bug that crawls? or flies?
  Bugscope TeamI don't know what crawls fastest, but the dragonfly is usually said to be the fastest flying insect

• TeacherAlso, some children want to know what is the oldest bug?
  Bugscope Teamsome insects that live in the Tropics can grow and grow; but think about the 17-year locusts -- they live for a long time as larvae until they pop up out of the ground. so at least 17 years
• Bugscope TeamI read online that a queen ant was known to live for 25 years. Wow, that is a lot of eggs.
• TeacherWhat bug has been on earth the longest?
  Bugscope Teamyou know it might be the dragonfly, I'm not sure
• 10:37 am
• Bugscope Teammayflies and stoneflies are old species as well

• TeacherHow many eggs does a queen ant lay/
  Bugscope Teamthey will lay eggs continuously, so thousands and thousands are possible
• TeacherAmanda wants to know how many legs does a centipede have/
• Bugscope TeamI checked, and it can take 8 to 12 weeks for an ant to go from an egg to its adult form

• Bugscope Teamcentipedes are said to always have an uneven number of pairs of legs, and they can range form 15 pairs to an unbelievable 171 pairs!

• 10:42 am
• TeacherGracie wants to know what is the difference between a wasp, a bee or a hornet?
  Bugscope Teamha that is kind of a tough question to answer quickly. Bees are different from wasps, and I believe hornets and wasps are more closely related. one of the differences is in what they eat, and one is in how they live -- in colonies or solitary, for example
• Bugscope Teamthere are solitary bees, though; it gets complicated...
• TeacherWe can"t seem to get the millipede
• TeacherAlex wants to know how many different kinds of bugs have stingers?
  Bugscope Teamants sometimes have stingers and sometimes not, and wasps, and bees, and scorpions, and sometimes insects have ovipositors, which look like stingers and actually are, but they use them only to deposit eggs

• Bugscope Teamthere it is!
• Bugscope Teamit just took awhile to show up
• 10:48 am
• Bugscope TeamI don't know how many legs it has, but there should be four per body segment

• Bugscope Teammillipedes have two pairs of legs per segment

• Bugscope Teamspider eyes!
• TeacherWhat are we looking at on this slide?
• TeacherAre there four eyes or two eyes on this spider?
• 10:53 am
• Bugscope Teamthere are eight eyes!

• Bugscope Teamand they are 'simple' eyes

• Bugscope Teamyou can see some web here too
• TeacherDo we have any slides that show the spinnerettes?

• Bugscope Teamthere are two spiders on this stub, but we did not see spinnerettes on the abdomen of the one I looked at earlier
• TeacherDo male spiders make webs?
  Bugscope Teamyes they can if they want to
• Bugscope Teamthere are many different types of spiders, and I believe they can all make web, but not all of them use web the same way

• 10:59 am
• TeacherIs this something that the millipede uses to breathe from?
  Bugscope Teamwe believe this is either a 'gill,' like roly polies have (they are crustaceans, like little crabs), or it is a spiracle, like insects breathe through.
• Bugscope Teamit looks much like a spiracle

• Bugscope Teamcentipedes and millipedes also have poison ducts on some of their segments, but we think this is a breathing pore, or spiracle

• TeacherElize wants to know how many different kinds of ladybugs are there in the world?
  Bugscope Teamthere are said to be more than 5000 species of ladybugs in the world, and people are still finding more
• Bugscope Teamhere we see those spiracles, close to the bases of the hind legs, which I am sorry are broken off!

• Bugscope Teamsomeone is waving to you
• Bugscope Teamthis is a lacewing, and I think it's one you sent for today
• Bugscope Teamthey eat aphids and small mites
• TeacherThe children are all waving!
  Bugscope TeamYay!
• 11:04 am
• Bugscope Teamsee the compound eyes, with all of the eye facets -- the ommaitidia?
• Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes like that you would have very good peripheral vision
• Bugscope Teamyou would be able to see in almost every direction at one time
• Bugscope Teamalso, if you had compound eyes, it would be hard to buy sunglasses
• TeacherWhat are lacewings?
  Bugscope Teamlacewings are flying insects with delicate wings
• TeacherOne final question regarding mosquitoes . . .since the female mosquitoes are the ones that drink our blood, what do the male mosquitoes eat?
  Bugscope Teammales live on nectar -- the sweet liquid flowers produce that also attracts ants and other insects, and some male mosquitoes may not eat at all
• TeacherOrrie wants to know how do the spiders make their webs?
  Bugscope Teamweb is made of protein, and it is often also called 'silk.' it is not always sticky, and it comes from the spinnerettes; I believe it starts as a liquid and hardens into a string-like web when it hits the air as it leaves the spinnerettes
  Bugscope TeamIt does start as a liquid, but it's not quite as simple as air-drying, which is why scientists are still trying to figure out how to make it in the lab. They think that there is a complicated physical and chemical interaction at the spinnerettes that actually transforms the liquid into silk
• Bugscope Teamlacewings are helpful in the garden because they eat aphids, which are plant pests
• TeacherThank you all sooo much! The children are thrilled and the teachers are very appreciative. W
• TeacherSee you again next year!
• Bugscope TeamThis was really fun, and Yes we look forward to seeing you next year!
• Bugscope TeamBye!
• 11:10 am
• Bugscope TeamThe lacewing is waving goodbye too, isn't it?
• Bugscope Teamthank you again -- over and out!
• Bugscope TeamWinner are you still there?
• TeacherGetting kids back to classroom. Anything else you need?
• Bugscope TeamNo, you did great. Thanks again
• Bugscope TeamMrs D we are trying to figure out how to send you a link to the members page so you can check it later if you want
• 11:15 am
• Bugscope Teamhttp://http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-090
• Bugscope Teamwhoops, http://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-090
• Bugscope Teamha! thanks, Chas
• Bugscope Teambugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-090
• Bugscope Teamsorry, the url thing is broken at the moment, keeps adding an extra
• Bugscope Teamhttp:// to the beginning
• TeacherFabulous! Last year I printed the session and sent it home with kids. May save a tree this year!
• Bugscope Teamthat last one works
• Bugscope TeamMrs D we are shutting down -- our guest is apparently gone or not answering...
• Bugscope TeamThank You!