Connected on 2011-03-09 08:00:00
from Alderson, WV, US
- 7:04 am
- Bugscope Teamsample is being coated...
- 7:10 am
- Bugscope Teamand sample is now in the microscope, in the vacuum chamber
- Bugscope Teamvacuum is getting better...
- 7:18 am
- Bugscope Teamalmost...
- 7:24 am
- 7:30 am
- 7:36 am
- Bugscope Teamnow making presets
- 7:42 am
- 7:47 am
- Bugscope TeamGood morning!
- Bugscope TeamWelcome to Bugscope!
- 7:52 am
- Bugscope Teamwe are finishing up the presets
- Bugscope Teamplease let us know if you have any questions
- TeacherGood Morning! We are very excited!
- Bugscope Teamyay!
- Bugscope TeamI will be right back and we can get started.
- 7:57 am
- Bugscope Teamyou can start driving the 'scope as soon as you wish
- TeacherThanks, we'll try it!
- Bugscope Teamha cool okay I am back
- Bugscope Teamyou see that you can change mag, you can move the sample if you click within the screen. you can change focus and contrast/brightness...
- Bugscope Teamalso -- you can choose from any of the presets on the screen to the left just by clicking on one
- Bugscope Teamthe 'scope will drive to that place
- Bugscope Teamhere you can see that one antenna is missing, or folded back the other way
- Bugscope Teamsweet!
- Bugscope Team this is the head of the moth
- Bugscope Teamyou can see its compound eye, so round
- Bugscope Teamand you can see its proboscis, which is coiled up when it is not being used to gather nectar from flowers
- Bugscope Teamthey cant really turn their heads so they have big round eyes to help them see around
- Bugscope Teamalso, you can see that the moth is covered with scales
- Bugscope Teamyeah it is like a little no-neck monster
- 8:02 am
- Bugscope Teamand speaking of monsters...
- Bugscope Teamthis is the rolypoly, which is not an insect -- it is a crustacean!
- Bugscope Teamlike a crab
- Bugscope Teamrolypolies are related to shrimps and lobsters and crabs, as Cate said
- Bugscope Teamthey have gills, but we are not sure exactly what they look like
- Bugscope Teamthe gills are said to be adjacent to the last sets of legs
- Bugscope Teamthis is one of the legs
- Bugscope Teamrolypolies are isopods
- Bugscope Teamiso- means 'the same,' like it does in an isosceles triangle
- Bugscope Teamand -pod means 'leg' or 'foot'
- Bugscope Teamso in rolypolies all of the tiny feet are the same
- Bugscope Teamthe gills are located by the base of the legs
- Bugscope Teamplease be sure to let us know when you have questions, and let us know if you have any trouble driving...
- Bugscope Teamgills must be kept moist, which is why you usually find them in moist areas, like under rocks
- 8:08 am
- TeacherWe're wondering why they roll up...
Bugscope Teamthey roll up to protect themselves from predators
- Bugscope Teamthey're kind of like armadillos
- Bugscope Teamthe genus name is Armdillidium
- TeacherWe are really surprised-we would have never connected these bugs to crabs OR armadillos!
- TeacherAnd why do they have pointy things on their legs?
Bugscope Teamthose are their tiny feet, and in the environment in which they live it is a good shape for getting around
- Bugscope TeamI read that sometimes people who keep pet tarantulas also have rolypolies in the same enclosures to help keep the enclosure clean
- TeacherWhat do they like to eat?
Bugscope Teamthey are said to eat the waste of other animals, mold, and leftovers
- Bugscope Teamas Cate said, they like very moist areas, and they like the light to be subdued
- Bugscope Teamthey are the waste management bugs
Bugscope Teamha yeah!
- 8:14 am
- TeacherWhen they leave their homes, how do they know how to get back? (Do they have homes?)
Bugscope TeamI don't think they are very territorial, not like some spiders, for example. And they have what appear to us to be very poor eyes.
- Bugscope Teamants leave chemical trails that help them get back or alert other ants to where the food is
- Bugscope TeamI think they are content to live under rocks and in leaf litter, where they find plenty to eat
- TeacherGreat! We're moving on to another
- Bugscope Teamright now you can see the scale bar reads about the width of a human hair
- Bugscope Teamthis is the compound eye of the cranefly you sent us
- 8:19 am
- TeacherWoah! Amazing!
- Bugscope Teamthe facets of the compound eye are called ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamsome large wasps, for example, may have 5000 ommatidia per compound eye
- Bugscope Teamif you had compound eyes you would see lots of individual images of the same thing, but from slightly different directions
- Bugscope Teamit would be hard for you to buy sunglasses if you had compound eyes
- TeacherHeh heh
- Bugscope Teambut you would be able to see changes in your visual field very quickly, so if someone tried to catch you, you would register that motion immediately
- Bugscope Teamsome insects' compound eyes are very minimal -- for example the rolypoly, whose compound eyes we could not see today, has only perhaps 10 or so ommatidia
- Bugscope Teamants sometimes have very few ommatidia, and some ants do not have eyes at all
- 8:24 am
- Bugscope Teaminsects and comparable athropods (arthropods have jointed body components) do not have bones; instead they have an exoskeleton.
- Teacher"It looks like Texas!" "The ocean!"
- Bugscope Teamit's like their skeleton is on the outside -- like a shell, or like a suit of armor
- Bugscope Teamthis is on the thorax of the cranefly
- Bugscope Teamhaha
- Bugscope Teambecause insects have a shell, or armor, on the outside of the body, they need to have tiny hairs., called 'setae,' to help them sense their enivironment
- Bugscope Teamthey dont have the sensitive skin that we have
- Bugscope Teamso one of the first things we discover about insects, when we get to see them at this level of magnification, is that they are very 'hairy'
- TeacherWhat time of year do insects come out of their homes? Do they hibernante?
- 8:29 am
- Bugscope Teamsome insects do seem to hibernate. for example, here in Illinois the Asian beetles come into our houses to overwinter
- Bugscope Teamsome hibernate. Ladybugs like to hibernate through the winter in my home. The monarch butterfly migrates to stay warm, and a lot of household insects live for years
- Bugscope Teamif it is warm all of the time, insects do not usually hibernate. but they do have a behavior that is similar to sleeping
- Bugscope Teamreally in part it depends on where they live
- Teacherwe have the Asian beetle here too!
- Bugscope TeamMonarchs like to eat milkweed, which is poisonous to most other animals. They are not affected by the toxins in milkweed, but other animals will not eat them because they have the toxin in their bodies.
- Bugscope Teamyou all did a great job sending us such cool insects when it's so cold out
- Bugscope TeamSpiders are said to cut Monarchs out of their webs because they cannot eat them.
- Bugscope Teamand of course Monarchs have those brilliant colors, which are in part an advertisement to potential predators that they are not good to eat.
- 8:34 am
- Bugscope Teamactually ladybugs also do not taste good, and they often have bright colors as well\
- Bugscope Teamthis is a wasp you sent -- it is so cool-looking
- Bugscope Teamyou can see that its mandibles go sideways, compared to ours
- Bugscope Teamthe mandibles, or jaws, open side to side, like a gate
- Bugscope Teambut insects have very complicated mouths, and there are also chewing parts, often, that go up and down
- Bugscope Teamyou can see, also, that the wasp has little 'feelers,' four of them, that come out of the lower portion of its mouth area
- TeacherDo you think bugs dream?
Bugscope TeamI dont think so. When they do sleep their bodies kind of shut out the stimulus and shut down. If there is enough stimulus they can wake right back up again. I could be wrong. Mammals dream, that's for sure
- Bugscope Teamthe feelers are called 'palps.'
- Bugscope Teampalps help the insect taste and also direct its food into its mouth
- 8:40 am
- TeacherDo wasps have a special way of finding their way home?
Bugscope Teamthey respond to chemical signals that the other wasps send out. That is why it is not a good idea to disturb one wasp, because it can send a signal to the others to come and help
- Bugscope Teamthe tiny hairs, or bristles, or setae that we see on the surface of the exoskeleton, are often sensory
- Bugscope Teamalso, wasps have three extra 'simple' eyes called ocelli on the tops of their heads
Bugscope Teamthey are hiding behind the antennae right now
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli sense light but do not focus well
- Bugscope Teamthe ocelli -- the 'simple' eyes -- help the wasp, and also bees and some other flying insects, keep their orientation with respect to the light from the sun
- Bugscope Teamso the wasps can find their way home in part due to their ability to keep track of direction using their ocellli
- Bugscope Teamhere we can see one of the wasp's six sets of claws, one for each leg
- Bugscope Teaminsects have six legs, a head, a thorax, and an abdomen
- Bugscope Teamthe legs are all attached to the thorax, which is kind of like our chest and trunk area combined
- Bugscope Teamthe abdomen is kind of like a stomach
- 8:46 am
- Bugscope Teambetween the claws here is an inflatable feature called an 'arolium' that can inflate/deflate to help the wasp maintain a grip on the surface it lands on
- Bugscope Teamsome claws, like this, can be opened and closed, like tiny hands
- TeacherHow does a wasp sting?
Bugscope Teamusually the stinger/ovipositor will be in the abdomen and when it's needed, the wasp extends it, and the ridges on the stinger will help cut into the skin like a steak knife. It then deposits some venom
- Bugscope Teamwe could go to the wasp's abdomen now, but the stinger is not visible -- I checked earlier
- Bugscope Teamsometimes the stinger seems to be a single needle-like shaft, and sometimes it is super sharp but also divided into halves that slide against each other to cut into your skin
- Teachergrab
- TeacherCan a wasp grap tiny things with its tiny claw?
Bugscope Teamyes it can!
- 8:51 am
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we see that tiny insects have indeed grabbed things with their claws
- Teachercool!
- Bugscope Teamthere is a tendon inside the tarsi (the tarsi are the 'forearm' segments of the limb) called an unguitractor that pulls to close the claw and releases to open the claw
- Bugscope Teamsometimes we can tell if an insect might or might not be able walk on a wall or on the ceiling by looking at the segments of its limbs
- Bugscope Teamthat super tiny crystal is on the earwig's antenna, and after we made the preset this morning, the antenna shifted a bit
- TeacherWe're curious about this one. Is the crystal the pointy thing?
Bugscope Teamyes it kind of looks like a bird
- Bugscope Teamit is very odd; we have never seen one quite like this
- TeacherWhat sort of crystal do you think it might be?
- 8:57 am
- Bugscope Teamsodium chloride (table salt) makes cubic crystals, so we think it is not likely to be that kind of crystal
- Bugscope Teamsugars make more oddly shaped crystals, but still we do not know just what this might be
- Bugscope Teammany insects use chemicals as defenses against predators, which often seem to be ants
- TeacherThat's exciting.Well, unfortunately it's time for us to go. But this has been really fabulous. Thank you so much!
- TeacherWe'll really remeber this!
- Bugscope Teamso the crystal may be an aldehyde or some other chemical that the earwig uses to deter ants
- Bugscope Teamyou're welcome! thanks for using bugscope with us this morning
- Bugscope TeamThese are the cercopods of a female earwig.
- Bugscope Teamhttps://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-094
- Bugscope Teamthat is your member page so you can take a look at this later
- Bugscope Teamhttp://bugscope.beckman.illinois.edu/members/2010-094
- Bugscope Teamthat is the same page without the 's'
- TeacherWonderful! Thanks so much!
- Bugscope TeamThank You for working with us today!
- Bugscope TeamSee you next year!
